The Idea Of Ambition in The Film Eddie The Eagle

In the film, Eddie The Eagle (directed by Dexter Fletcher), the main character Eddie builds his career as an athlete. On his journey to the Olympics, Eddie is displayed as a hard working, unusual athlete with lots of ambition. This is displayed by the ideas throughout the film, with the main ideas being ambition, perseverance and non-conformity. The idea of ambition is displayed at the start of the movie with a montage of Eddie trying different sports and the idea of perseverance is displayed through another montage, this time about Eddie and his attempts at ski jumping.

Eddies unusualness and non-conformity is displayed through his behavior, and clothing throughout the movie.

At the start of the movie, Eddie the Eagle, Eddie sets a goal to become an Olympian. This is because he is inspired by the official Olympic album that he had viewed. He was very ambitious to go to the Olympics, but his father had the opposite opinion, disapproving of Eddies ambition.

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One of the first times that the idea of ambition is displayed is in the montage in the introduction of the movie. In this montage Eddie tries lots of different sports from poll vaulting to hammer throw and finally ski jumping. This shows that he is a very ambitious person because even after he had tried a few sports, he didn't stop because his ambition drove him to search for a sport that could take him to the Olympics. Ambition is one of the most important ideas in the film because even with his dad trying to drown his dreams, ambition leads Eddie down the path of an athlete, letting him achieve his goal of becoming an Olympian.

Another idea that helped him down his path of an athlete is perseverance.

The idea of perseverance is displayed by Eddie when his father communicates his disapproval of Eddies dream to become an Olympian. Even with this obstacle, Eddie persevered and was stubborn not letting his father’s disapproval distract him from his goal. Another obstacle that Eddie faced was when the British Olympics Association didn't select him for skiing because he wasn't Olympic material. Instead of stopping Eddie was inspired by a short clip he saw about ski jumping, so he decided to go to Germany to have access to a ski jumping slope to start becoming a ski jumper. The first problem that he faced when he got to Germany was his inability to ski jump. His perseverance helped him to try again and again, to improve his skills as a ski jumper but what he really needed was a coach. After meeting the owner of the ski-slope (Peary Bronson), he was informed that Peary used to be a world-class ski-jumper so he went to Peary and asked for some coaching. He was told, you have more of a chance of being a ballerina than a jumper and was given the advice, give up. Instead of giving up like the advice he was given, he persisted and kept coming back until Peary finally agreed to help him.

In the process of becoming a ski jumper, Eddie is displayed as an unusual jumper, not approaching ski jumping in the same way other jumpers had.

An important part of Eddie’s character that highlights the idea of nonconformity is when he chooses ski jumping as a career over what his father wants. His dad told him on many occasions that ski-jumping wasn't something that could be considered a job or something that could bring in an income, saying that Eddie should become a plasterer. There hadn't been an Olympic ski-jumper in Britain for over 50 years and Instead of following the norm and getting a job, Eddie choose ski-jumping and went to the Olympics. This shows that Eddie is a non-conformist because society didn't want him ski-jumping but he persevered and continued to be a ski-jumper. Another aspect that shows that Eddie isn't the usual athlete is what he wore on the ski slope. Eddie wore a skiing jacket and skiing pants, his gear was old and tattered, while most of the other jumpers wore new more modern, one piece jumping suits. Another oddity of Eddie's was when he started ski-jumping, According to Peary and another coach, ... the time to be starting jumping is when you are six years old compared to Eddie who started jumping when he was twenty two and was trying the 40m with one day experience.