User Reviews

The 30 for 30 has an unusual set up on UK Disney Plus at the moment. Instead of appearing as a series, episodes are appearing in the documentary movies section under their subtitles. For background, I watch American Football every so often, and I actually went to see Raiders in L. A during a holiday many years ago, and I knew that they'd moved from Oakland, then back and now that they are in Vegas. I couldn't have told you who Al Davis was though - or anything about the story of the move.

Young, abrasive coach Al Davis joins AFL team the Oakland Raiders in 1963. He becomes AFL Commissioner in 1966 which sees him come to odds with NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle for the first time. The AFL and NFL merged, and Davis returned to the Raiders. In 1980, disillusioned with the support of the Oakland legislative, Davis decides to move the team to Los Angeles. Rozelle, and the NFL oppose the move though and their internal rules require a successful vote from the owners ahead of relocation, which Davis does not have. Instead he takes the NFL to court, and (eventually) argues successfully that their rules break antitrust laws.

I found this documentary really interesting, and it told its story in a mostly compelling way. I can't speak to any biases that anyone else might have felt was present as, again, this is literally the only version of this story I know. But it's a crazy one, with some aspects, such as the collapse of the first trial being truly bizarre.

The only bit that lets the documentary down is the CGI element. Some people have used the term "deep fakes" but honestly, that is to give them too much credit. The are Playstation 3 era "Call of Duty" looking characters, without any genuine life to them. I am supposed to be thinking that Rozelle and Davis are back, and I'm hearing directly from them, but instead I'm thinking "Press X to pay my respects".

It's a shame, as these bits don't really add anything but leave a sour taste in the mouth of what is otherwise an interesting story, told in clear manner.

Within this Deep Fake is a lot of good video on Al Davis vs Pete Rozelle and the NFL but the Deep Fake technology was an overwhelmingly bad idea. I shouldn't have to say this but Al or Rozelle cannot tell their own story. Please don't give me someone doing their voices with their computer generated faces. This would have been much better with the same videos and a true narrator (Brent Musberger?).

Even if the deep fake effects were good and convincing (they were not); I do not think there will be a viable market for it (just as 3d tv will never take off). This show not only put shoddy visualizations on screen - it put words in the mouths of Rozell and Davis that came from copywriters - not Rozell and Davis. Even at their best; deep fakes are not a proper vehicle for storytelling. The effort poses some interesting moral questions though and this failed effort hopefully helps answer them. Outside of the deep fake material - the documentary did teach me some things I didn't know.

The al Davis deep fake hologram that espn used really ruined the entire story. Should only use real content and not assume what someone would say. I was looking forward to this but overall this long episode was a big let down.

When people spoke of the moral problem of deep fakes, this "doc" is exactly what they were hoping to prevent. There's no way Al Davis would be adopting current PC language, "I spoke truth to power. " AWFUL.