The Sword of the Lord
1976 · 57m · Canada
Directed by Giles Walker
Genres: biography, documentary, sports
Tones: contemplative, tense
This documentary follows Canadian ski racer Jungle Jim Hunter through punishing training, pre-race pressure, and competition, driven by ambition and deep religious faith to become the world's best.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A 1976 sports doc that takes itself deadly seriously — faith-as-fuel narratives are a dime a dozen, but Walker resists the redemption arc entirely, leaving us watching a man chase excellence with no catharsis in sight; that refusal to sentimentalize is genuinely strange.
Walker's formal restraint here is exemplary — the pacing mirrors athletic endurance itself, the sound design separates interior devotion from external competition with surgical precision, and the film knows exactly where it sits in the lineage of Canadian cinéma-vérité observation without genuflecting to it.
The decision to hold on Jungle Jim's face during pre-race silence — no music, no commentary, just breath and prayer — does more work than a dozen montages; that single commitment to listening rather than cutting away makes the entire religious dimension credible instead of illustrative.