I Have Got To Talk About “I, Tonya”

December 12, 2017

Giant, giant spoiler (skip past the words within the lines to skip this part):

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Oh my, oh my, this scene hurts so badly. When she’s getting her sentencing, the judge bans her from skating competitively. (I am literally typing through tears.) (This is like potentially even sadder than that scene from Little Miss Sunshine.)

Anyway… he bans her, and she starts begging, “just let me do the jail time. This is like giving me a life sentence! Please! They only got 18 months. I can do 18 months.” And she’s just begging and pleading.

And she’d dropped out of high school to skate – didn’t even have a GED. Skating was her whole life – the only thing she knew. And between her incredibly abusive mom and husband, skating was the only place she ever felt love. And the judge was taking that away from her – her whole life. For conspiring to hinder the prosecution.

She was privy to information on Nancy Kerrigan after it happened, and then started getting involved in trying to help her husband cover it up (to what extent, I’m not completely sure). And while I do understand
a) being afraid of your abusive husband,
b) being scared that you’re gonna be implicated in something you didn’t do, since your own husband was part of it
c) not thinking clearly in the midst of one of the most pressure-filled moments of your life (Olympics! Conspiracy! Media Circus!… It can’t get much more pressure-y than all that!), I also am not going to make an argument as to why we should excuse her behavior, or that she shouldn’t have gotten some punishment. But it’s still devastating to have your whole life taken away from being dragged into your husband’s mistake after it happened.

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Anyway, I’m drained now re-thinking about this movie.

After I got home from the movie, I watched videos of Tonya Harding skate, then interviews with Nancy Kerrigan and/or Tonya Harding, then a documentary on Tonya Harding, and then one on the Olympics in general. (I’ve fallen into a real Olympics-hole, learning about the Magnificent 7, and Becky Hammon playing for Russia, and who even knows what else.)

Anyway, my heart is broken for Tonya Harding and I applaud everything in this fantastic movie. I hope it makes a ton of money and wins a bunch of awards.

2 thoughts on “I Have Got To Talk About “I, Tonya””

  1. Interesting; I should watch that movie.

    Having been there in the 1990s, I recall that attack fairly prominent news at the time. Paid fairly little attention, and my impression at the time was “Idiot overzealous ex (whom she was sort of still involved with) of TH attacks her fellow athlete. I didn’t think she knew, but as I recall she didn’t come all that close to a medal so it was like that attack was all for nothing anyway. A few jokes about the whole thing from various comedians, then OJ went and killed two people and TH was quickly forgotten. Hadn’t realized all the sad details. 🙁

    1. Huh. I didn’t realize coverage at the time said she might not have known. I was under the impression people blamed her. I also would imagine potentially that part of the reason she was so far from a medal was because of all of the stress in her life at that moment. She was one of the best skaters in the world! I’m glad they made the movie and that we get to know more of her story.

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