The Other Dream Team (2012)

Too much of everything

The Worst Film Ever

i must have seen a different film!!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

This is an extremely heart-felt and powerful documentary not only on basketball and the country of Lithuania, but also about freedom, national pride, and the human spirit. I had no idea, before viewing this movie, that basketball is the #1 sport in Lithuania, and has been so for many decades. However, when the nation fell under the yoke of the Soviet Union's Iron Curtain, in 1940, Lithuania basketball players were forced to compete as Russians on the world stage.At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the United States had been 84-1 in Olympic competition, but the Soviet team defeated them. Four of the starting five players on that team were from Lithuania, including Arvydas Sabonis and Sarunus Marciulionis, who are featured mainly in the film, and who went on eventually to play in the NBA.One highlight of the documentary was film footage of the Lithuanian Declaration of Independence, in January 1991, after the Berlin Wall had come down and after Mikhail Gorbachev's announcement of "perestroika". However, Gorbachev would not accept their independence and sent in tanks and troops leading to bloodshed. When Lithuanians came out en masse to protest and resist, and pressure was applied from the West, Russia backed down and withdrew leading to Lithuania becoming independent after all.This lead to their appearance, in 1992 at the Barcelona Olympics, as a basketball team that could compete under their own country's banner. Since the nation was essentially bankrupt a most unusual funding relationship developed between the musical band "The Grateful Dead" and the Lithuanian basketball team, which included wild and colorful tie-dye T-shirts.This helped the team to compete at the Olympics, but it was also the year of U.S. Dream Team, the greatest assemblage of basketball players ever, including such notables as Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley etc. etc. The Lithuanians and the Americans were in the same bracket, with both teams sweeping through their preliminary games, to meet in the semi-finals where the U.S. just overwhelmed the Lithuanians (and went on to win the Gold Medal over Croatia). The story doesn't end there though, as the Lithuanians would now play their bitter rivals the Russians (as the Unified Team) for the bronze medal. The Lithuanians defeated the Russians in a game with enormous political as well as sports implications. This set off a tremendous wave of national pride throughout Lithuania, that they could compete and win under their own flag finally.All in all, this heart-felt documentary had me engrossed from start to finish and I felt it was extremely well presented, by producer and director Marius Markevicius. It's one of the best documentaries I've seen in recent years.

"The Other Dream Team" is about Lithuanian basketball from the mid-1980s to today--with a particular emphasis on how this all relates to Lithuanian independence from the old Soviet Union. It seems that this tiny nation was the backbone of the 1988 gold medal basketball team. But what would happen when the USSR fell apart? And, how would this new team help to unify the nation? The film consists of tons of interviews, film clips and photos. Together they tell an inspiring story. In many ways, this is highly reminiscent of another film---one about Lithuania's neighbor, Latvia. In "The Singing Revolution", it talks about this same time period--when these people in a tiny nation stood firm against their Soviet overlords. However, instead of basketball unifying the country, it was their heritage of music. Both are simply terrific films--the sort of well-crafted documentaries that leave you choked up. Great films about freedom and the human spirit.

As a casual basketball fan I only some what excited to see this documentary. But The Other Dream Team surpassed all of my expectations. It is a great story of an underdog team that has just want to make their country proud. The film had a lot of work to do to set up the long and complicated history of The Soviet Union and the smaller Eastern European countries, like Lithuania. I really enjoyed hearing the personal accounts of what it was like to grow up during the cold war and what it was like to be on the very strict Soviet Union national basketball team. It is also fun seeing an Olympic experience through the eyes of a country that is not the United States. Many people know the narrative of the 1992 US Basketball 'Dream' Team and this story of the Lithuanian National team only makes that years events more important. There are some amazing photos of the team over the years that were so fun. Especially all of the photos the team in the tye-dye shirts. So fun. I laughed, I cried. It was great.

Everyone who likes basketball knows Lithuania and its fans. This small (Lithuania has population as little as 3 mln.) yet basketball mad country since Barcelona won 3 Olympic medals in a row which is really incredible. This movie is not about basketball it's about FREEDOM, about fight with repressors in one of strangest of ways - basketball game. , The Other Dream Team' movie shows everything: passion, devotion, freedom from repression and power of will. It's about ordinary Lithuanian people who were extraordinary in basketball court and near it. Each victory of Lithuanian basketball was victory of whole nation in pacific yet most effective war against Russia (SSRS). This game is not about money - it's about freedom.