Eddie the Eagle

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details of classification and consumer advice lines for Eddie the Eagle
• a review of Eddie the Eagle completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 26 April 2016.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare or disturb children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie’s message

A synopsis of the story

The film opens in 1973 when 10-year-old Eddie Edwards (Tom Costello Jr.) has a dream that one day he will compete in the Olympics. Unfortunately Eddie is not the athletic type - he hobbles around on a full leg brace, wears thick glasses, is skinny and uncoordinated, and is never picked for a place in sports teams. Regardless of the obstacles placed in front of him, Eddie never lets go of his Olympic dream. Eddie’s mum (Jo Hartley) thinks Eddie is determined while Eddie’s father (Keith Allen) views him as obsessive. 

One decade later, Eddie (Taron Egerton) is still chasing his dream. He has now lost his leg brace but, despite having worked hard to gain a place on the British Winter Olympic ski team, still hasn’t made it. Eddie is about to give up his dream when he suddenly realises that, due to a loophole in the rules, all he needs to do to be able to compete in the Winter Olympics is successfully complete one qualifying ski jump in a competition. 

Eddie heads off to Germany to begin his training at a ski resort. There he  is befriended by Petra (Iris Berben) a cafe owner, and Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman) a former US ski-jumping champion who, rather than letting Eddie kill himself on the ski-jump, reluctantly agrees to train him.

Olympic competition; social class and prejudice; alcoholism

There is some violence in the film, including:

• A man raises his fists and challenges another man to a fight. Without warning the challenged man punches the challenger in the face. He falls back unconscious.
• Several scenes depict verbal arguments between a skier and officials, and a skier and his coach.
• In several scenes Eddie is made to feel excluded and discriminated against because of his socio-economic background. 

Material that may scare or disturb children

Children in this age group may be upset by the scenes of skiing accidents and resulting injuries. Examples include:

• Archival film footage of an Olympic ski-jumper shows the jumper crashing and tumbling down the slope (we hear the sounds of bones breaking) when he comes to a rest his legs are sticking out at odd angle and we hear that the skier suffered severe injuries.     
• In one scene Eddie sits on the ready bar of a 70 meter ski jump and asks the attendant to give him a push. He plummets down the sky-jump ramp and flies through the air but lands very badly. We hear him groaning and see paramedics rush out with a stretcher and carry him away. Later we see him lying in a hospital bed wearing a neck brace with bruising and cuts on his face. He crashes at least ten times and receives other injuries.

 Children may also be disturbed by scenes of ski jumping taken from the skier’s point of view.

In addition to the above-mentioned scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

• In several scenes young Eddie is depicted wearing a full length leg brace and we hear that as a young boy he had bad knees.

Younger children in this group may be worried by some of the above-mentioned scenes.

Nothing of concern

Product placement

Brand named ski equipment

Sexual references

The film contains some mild sexual references and innuendo. Examples include:

• After sleeping in a ski cafe’s storeroom, a man is woken by the cafe’s owner who tells him “Back in the past I would have been in here with you”. After offering him a job and a place to sleep at night she says to him, “And maybe sometimes I will visit you”.
• A woman makes reference to a man being kicked off an Olympic ski team as a result of drunkenness and fornication.
• A man tells another man that he shouldn’t be crashing into mountains - he should be crashing into the ladies.
• While explaining how to perform a ski-jump, a coach tells Eddie to approach the jump as though he were making love. The coach referring downhill slopes as foreplay and the jump as opening a gate for peaceful release. When Eddie doesn’t appear to understand the coach acts out an orgasm with facial gestures and moaning and a final shout at the end.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and in this movie, including:

• One scene depicts several nude men in a sauna with their genitals obscured by wooden buckets and seating. A man wearing shorts walks in and exclaims “Oh God, nude”. One of the nude men, in a suggestive manner, puts his hand on the shoulder of the man wearing shorts who backs away and leaves the sauna in a hurry.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

• Throughout the film Bronson is referred to as a drunk. He repeatedly drinks from a hip flask, from when he first wakes in the morning, throughout the day and into the night. In one scene he is depicted talking a swig from his hip flask and lighting up a cigarette before speeding down a 90 meter ski-jump. In another scene he drinks from a near full bottle of bourbon.
• Adults smoke throughout the film
• Social drinking is seen at a café.
• A cafe owner makes reference to German beer being stronger than English beer, saying that the English get drunk easily on German beer.  
• A man maliciously tricks Eddie into drinking five shot glasses of strong alcohol although he protests that he doesn’t drink. When we next see him he is lying unconscious in a laundry trolley.  

Coarse language

The film contains some coarse language and name calling. Examples include:

•  “bloody” ; “Oh God”; “piss” ; “ buggered”
• “stupid Englishman”; “lunatic”; crazy; “thieving little git”; “ drunken coward”

In a nutshell

Eddie the Eagle is a feel-good comedy, based on a true story, about an underdog who refuses to give up his dream of competing in the Olympics. It is full of positive messages related to believing in yourself, following your dreams and never giving up. Due to sexual references, alcohol use and smoking, and some possibly disturbing scenes, the film is not recommended for children under 11 and parental guidance is recommended for 11 to 13 year olds.

Parents may wish to discuss how people take advantage of Eddie’s seeming innocence and how he triumphs in the end. They may also wish to discuss Bronson’s dependence on alcohol and Eddie’s role in Bronson stopping drinking.