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American Morning

Interview of Bud Greenspan, Olympic Filmmaker

Aired December 04, 2001 - 09:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN FINANCIAL ANCHOR: Welcome back. In February of next year, the world converges on Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. This morning, the Olympic torch relay passing through Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. Of course, the great Mohammed Ali. The park is right outside CNN Headquarters. The torch will eventually make a 46-state excursion of the entire country on it's way to Salt Lake. It will be helped later today through Athens, Georgia by Paula Zahn, who is flying out of New York to go down there and take the torch on a portion of its journey, eventually winding up in Salt Lake City.

Perhaps no one is more familiar with the Olympic Games and the Olympic spirit, film maker Bud Greenspan has been filming the Olympics for 30 plus years, and he joins us this morning from Atlanta. Bud, it's nice to see you. Thanks for being with us.

BUD GREENSPAN, OLYMPIC FILMMAKER: Thanks for having me, Jack. I'm glad to be here.

(CROSSTALK)

CAFFERTY: Yeah, really. You were -- that's right, you were there when that explosion, the bomb went off during the Summer Games in Atlanta a few years back.

GREENSPAN: Yeah, and I -- I was there then. I was there in 1972 at the Munich massacre when the terrorists moved into the Israeli compound and killed two of them and then took the seven other hostages. So, there have been some aberrations in connection with the recent years of the Olympic Games. But the thrilling thing about it today was that everybody was so for the Olympic movement, and the Olympic philosophy, and even the terrible things that are happening in the world today were overlooked, at least for that hour and a half this morning, and I think during the two weeks of competition in February.

CAFFERTY: You know, the expectations for the Olympic Games this winter in Salt Lake City were not that great. The -- the Games had been tinged by scandal. There was expectation there would be not that much interest in them. Have your expectations, and perhaps the world's expectations, been changed by the events of September 11th, and subsequent events in the last two or three months?

GREENSPAN: Well, certainly the United States opinion towards the games has improved greatly since the patriotic aspects of September the 11th have come over all of us. I think we're all looking for a respite of two weeks of -- away from the real world, and getting into the world of fluff, and that's what the Olympics do. I've been to every Game since 1948, and I've never seen a greater spirit that has taken place in this country than is taking place right now. Everybody is looking forward to February, and I think it's going to be two weeks of marvelous competitions.

CAFFERTY: Yeah, I remember, particularly, during the Cold War, the media would tend to portray the Olympics, winter and summer, as nationalistic competitions. It would be the number of medals that the United States won, or the number of medals that Russia or East Germany won. Do you expect that that sense of patriotism, even though the Cold War is over now, that sense of patriotism to -- to kind of reemerge in light of what's happened?

GREENSPAN: One thing the American audience has always given is the -- due to the other athletes of the world. They always come out with the chants of USA, USA, USA, of course, but when somebody else from another country comes out with the great performances, they cheer him just as well as they cheer for Americans.

There was this contradiction, though, in 1936 when Adolph Hitler was professing an Aryan racial supremacy theory of a master race, that the Germans could have -- be better in competition than the Americans, but a black athlete, an Afro-American by the name of Jessie Owens, upset the philosophy for all time. Since then, I think, it has been an individual performance as opposed to country performance, and I think the audiences of the world have become more sophisticated, that their country does not only have to compete, but the individuals are competing against individuals, as opposed to against countries.

CAFFERTY: How would you expect this heightened fear of terrorism to manifest itself at these Winter Games out in Salt Lake City?

GREENSPAN: Well, you can work against 95% of the terrorism aspect of it, with the security that's taking place. But let's face it, let's be in the real world. If someone's going to do something, they're going do it regardless of what security is taking place. But -- Mitt Romney and his group in Salt Lake have done a magnificent job, ever since the scandal took over some year and a half ago. And the Games are going to be, I think, as good as they were in Lillehammer, which, for me, were the best Winter Olympic Games ever.

CAFFERTY: Well, I look forward to talking to you, perhaps, during the games. Maybe we'll be able to hook up with you out in Salt Lake City and get your read as the Games unfolding. I appreciate you being with us this morning.

GREENSPAN: Thanks, Jack, very much, and good luck.

CAFFERTY: All right, sir, you too. Bud Greenspan, Olympic filmmaker for the last 30 years. A man who has quite a perspective on the good, and the bad and the history of the games.

ZAHN: And I have to agree with him, the Lillehammer Games were among the best, certainly, that I ever covered, basically due to the generosity of the Norwegian people.

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