Film

The Price of Gold

Name: The Price of Gold
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2014
Cast: Tonya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan, Darin De Paul, Ann Dewig, Richard Tatum

A 2014 documentary reassessing the 1994 attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan and the scandal that engulfed rival Tonya Harding. It combines archival footage, interviews, and hindsight to ask what Harding knew and when—unpicking a tabloid saga that obsessed America and asking whether we ever really listened to her side.

TMDb rating

3.4

If you liked this

The Two Escobars2010

Like The Price of Gold, it examines how crime, ambition, and national identity collide in sport, using interviews and archives to complicate what seemed like a simple story. Equally gripping and equally focused on the person we thought we knew.

But It requires patience with a slow first half, and the subject matter involves real violence and tragedy—this isn't entertainment, it's examination.

O.J.: Made in America2016

A masterclass in how media frenzy warps our understanding of guilt and innocence. It shares The Price of Gold's interest in whether the accused got a fair hearing, and in the role of class and gender in how we judge.

But It's five and a half hours, and that's just the beginning—the scope is immense and occasionally self-indulgent.

Tickled2016

A documentary that begins with a bizarre internet rabbit hole and becomes an investigation into obsession, humiliation, and hidden cruelty. Like The Price of Gold, it keeps peeling back layers on something that seemed simple.

But The subject matter gets genuinely disturbing and invasive—not everyone will want to follow this one to the end.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Price of Gold

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Pumping Iron1977

Both are sports documentaries that use the spectacle of competition to examine how we project our anxieties onto athletes, and both find unexpected depth in the people we thought we knew.

A 1977 documentary about bodybuilding that's structured almost exactly like The Price of Gold: two rivals, media obsession, a scandal of masculinity and ambition. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno are the Harding and Kerrigan of muscle. It's funny, strange, and deeply humanizing.

But The film is cheerfully dated and sometimes uncomfortably obsessed with bodies—if you're not interested in bodybuilding as a window into American culture, it might feel niche.

I, Tonya2017

A narrative film that dramatizes the same story, with Margot Robbie as Harding. It offers a different angle—more intimate, more sympathetic—to the documentary's inquiry.

But Some find it glossy or manipulative; it's also a fictional interpretation of real trauma, which won't satisfy everyone.

The Dawn Wall2017

A climbing documentary that shares The Price of Gold's interest in obsession, ambition, and whether the media and public truly understand what they're watching. Slower-paced, but equally hypnotic.

But If climbing doesn't interest you, the technical detail might feel excessive. It's patient with its subjects in ways that can feel slow.

Free Solo2018

Another climbing doc, this one about a man who scales rock faces without ropes. It asks hard questions about why we watch other people risk everything, and whether spectacle corrupts the thing we're watching.

But Some viewers find it morally uneasy—the filmmakers film a man who might die, and we're complicit in watching. That discomfort is the point, but it's not comfortable.

Hoop Dreams1994

Both examine how the media apparatus fails to see the humanity in people we're obsessed with, and both suggest that what we remember about events often has nothing to do with what actually happened.

A three-hour documentary released the same year as the Kerrigan attack. It follows two Black basketball players from childhood and asks how race, class, and media shape what we think we're watching. It's patient, humane, and devastating.

But It's three hours, and it's slow—some find it ponderous rather than gripping. You have to want to sit with these people.

The Battered Bastards of Baseball2014

Both use archival footage and interviews to tell the story of people the system wanted to forget, and both suggest that the official narrative was only ever part of the truth.

A 2014 doc about a family baseball team that did it their own way. It's joyful where The Price of Gold is painful, but it asks the same question: what happens to people when the system rejects them? It's funny, warm, and genuinely moving.

But If you don't care about baseball or family stories, this will feel slight. It's also very earnest in ways that can tip into sentimentality.