Freedom's Fury

Freedom’s Fury

            For my minor quest I chose to watch the documentary Freedom’s Fury and from the description on IMDB, I expected to witness a typical sports documentary about an underdog team that overcomes obstacles to go the distance. However, what I learned instead was a history lesson that often gets little exposure in textbooks and a realization that more often than not, society often uses the guise of sports/games in order to reflect the deeper feelings of a timely conflict. As I watched the film, I quickly realized there were two undercurrents of how I could analyze the natures of power and play. One game unfolding was the preparation leading up to and Hungary’s eventual participation in the Olympic Games of 1956. The second and more critical game unfolding was the Soviet Union’s aim to dominate their satellite states at the expense of suppressing the freedom of a whole nation.

            When the Soviet’s finally liberated Hungary from the Nazis, little did Hungary know that they were merely trading one evil for another. In becoming a Soviet satellite state, they were subjected to a puppet government, forced to give up a number of their freedoms, and saw atrocity after atrocity committed to their country and citizens. As one Hungarian acknowledged, their life was akin to a dog’s life with a muzzle. In essence, they were living the game of life with a set of unfair rules in comparison to that of the rest of the Western world. As a human race, there is only so long one can go without basic human rights and after a certain period there are only two outcomes to this metaphoric game – lay down in resignation, or stand up and fight. This is a basic human characteristic that can be witnessed in any circumstance. For example, Triangles in the game of Starpower will either become apathetic or devise a way to revolt or cheat because they despise their status in the game.  

This very repression is also similar to what Phil Deloria talked about in his presentation about the Native American people and their own struggle in hanging on to their identity in the midst of a government aiming to dispose of their rights. In both scenarios, language was a key tool of repression whether it was through limiting free speech in the case of the Hungarians or creating documents containing rules of ambiguous interpretations in the case of the Native Americans. By taking away the role of truth, it caused both people and tribes to turn against each other for the sake of preservation. As the Hungarian Revolution unfolded and proceedings became violent, the two countries began playing another strategic game akin to the Cuban Missile Crises as a battle of wits began to brew between Khrushchev and Malater. While Hungary was fighting for the universal right of freedom, Khrushchev was thinking about the broader backdrop of the Cold War and wanted to make an example of the freedom fighters of Hungary. Whereas Hungary could go for broke, the Soviet Union had much more to lose.

Moving on to the other parallel game unfolding on screen is that of the Hungarian water polo team. In a water-culture oriented nation filled with a rich past of aquatic achievement, water polo was one of the few ways people could gain a rare taste of freedom. In this sense water polo was a game outside the realm of the reality of politics and communism. In fact, athletes were given freedoms regular citizens were denied and weren’t required to join the Communist Party. However, with the backdrop of the Hungarian Revolution, water polo suddenly become more than just a game as the magic circle was taken away. The Hungarian team began to play the part of the “little guys” against the “big bully” Russia. In fact, just as Hungary lost to Russia politically, their water polo team suffered a defeat against the Russians in a pre-qualifying match. And just as the Soviets used brute force to quell the rebels, the Hungarians believed an unfair Russian referee was the cause of their loss. Such parallelism was not lost on people and soon elevated the title of a simple game to a whole new meaning. In the 1956 semifinal match, the Hungarians were playing for their country fighting for their freedom while the Soviets were merely looking to play another game. And this was the difference that gave Hungary the edge and took a mere match to a symbolic level.

In life, games have always been used to mimic real world circumstances in a safer space and sports are no exception to this. It is the reason why we feel so intrinsically linked to our favorite sport teams and players and use them as a backdrop and symbol for life’s greater issues to play out. Hungary’s water polo team did just this in a time when their country was in great turmoil and pulled a country together by facing down their rivals –both on and of the playing field – in true heroic fashion.