Name: The Redeem Team
Director: Jon Weinbach
Released: 2022-10-07T12:30:00

The Redeem Team is a Netflix documentary film about the 2008 US Men’s Olympic Basketball team that was given that moniker after overcoming disappointment in the previous years to rise to the top. It is now streaming on Netflix.

Story

The United States of America was considered the cream of the crop regarding basketball. They proved it by dominating the Olympic landscape and world championships for many years.

When the association decided to bring NBA players to the fold in 1992, the first “Dream Team” was formed and they were practically untouchable.

However, NBA players came with a reputation for playing for themselves and not having a great sense of loyalty or pride towards their national team. When many of them dropped out of the ’04 Olympic team due to safety concerns, a younger crop of faces took their place and failed to live up to their predecessors.

A change in mindset from the association, bringing in a dedicated coach and building a proper team focused on camaraderie and teamwork were all ingredients in the recipe for success that eventually led the team to glory and gold in the Beijing Olympics of 2008.

Positives

In truth, their entire journey tells a wonderful story of triumph after the initial troubles that they faced but the filmmakers have documented it brilliantly. Giving the viewers proper context and then taking them along for the ride adds quality to the documentary.

The film is edited impeccably with a crisp runtime that never feels like it is dragging at any point. Getting the players’ experiences and meshing that with archival footage from back then makes it thoroughly engrossing.

The background score is phenomenal as it crescendos at the most intense moments and builds anticipation in a story that is already well known. The tone is always set by what’s playing in the background and for this film, the tone is fantastic.

The pure charisma oozing out of the people on that team is what makes this documentary truly entertaining. Watching how they recount their memories of those times adds emotional depth to an already fascinating story.

Negatives

Once the story reached the point where the late Kobe Bryant was brought in, everything revolved around him and everyone else just existed in his orbit. While Bryant was always that kind of person, the story could have avoided telling every second narrative in connection with him.

Verdict

The Redeem Team is a great documentary film that charts the journey of this group of individuals that were initially brought together by circumstance and went through tough times together before sticking by each other’s side and writing their names in the history books.