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Battered but triumphant
Big River Man (part of More 4’s ‘True Stories’, Tuesday) was one of the most gripping and brilliant, infuriating and disappointing documentaries I’ve ever seen.
It’s only now I look back on the documentary, 24 hours later, that I feel a slight sense of deflation and disappointment — as you do when you’re a kid (or more recently, if you’re as gullible as me) and some stranger spins you an amazing yarn and it’s only when you relate it to someone else that you realise you’ve probably been had.
I mean, of course, Martin Strel made his journey, that much is clear. (Though am I being picky when I quibble about his occasional use of flippers? On a Channel swim it would disqualify you, wouldn’t it?) But as to his mental and physical state when he did it, how close he came to failure, how much alcohol he consumed, how mad he and his crew really were, and so forth: for this you were almost entirely reliant on the exquisitely shot, carefully paced, scripted and choreographed, and quite outrageously manipulative work of director John Maringouin. And I’m not sure I trust the guy one inch.
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