Ah, the pageantry of Super Sunday, which is on full display here for the highlight film that chronicles what remains the most frigid Super Bowl to date, proving once again that it does get cold down South (a concept of which I was reminded in Mobile last week).

Here in the Super Bowl VI film, we see Ella Fitzgerald. Lots of southern belles. Carol Channing — twice. And one dancer whose skirt gets tossed up by her gyrations and thus shows her underwear-covered derriere to the camera in perfect time with the music.

With the game decidedly lacking — the defeated Dolphins became the first and only team to not pierce the end zone in a Super Bowl contest — presenting the context of the game is the path of the filmmakers, and it works well, especially in explaining what the game would mean to the Dallas Cowboys, who bore “somber resolve” as the game began thanks to five straight postseason appearances that fell short of a world championship which they would finally snare at Miami’s expense.

The decision to isolate a camera on Cowboys wideout Lance “Bambi” Alworth also paid handsome dividends, especially in his frantic hand gestures for the football amidst an acreage of open PolyTurf.

BEST NARRATION: “They (the Cowboys) were labeled loser, a team with a Roman appetite for victory without the Spartan will to sacrifice for it.”

RATING: 

The opening two musical pieces are classics of NFL Films, and the accompanying on-field video demonstrates the best of what can be achieved from the pregame, where credentialed photojournalists are given much more latitude than in the actual game.

Tags: NFL Films, Super Bowl Highlights

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