With the much anticipated 2010 Winter Olympics in British Colombia, Canada just a few weeks away. The eternal question pops up again but with a twist in last month's DVD release of docu-drama classic Downhill Racer. The film asks those of us with some talent and ability - "How fast must a man go to get from where he's at?"
The 1969 sports classic movie "Downhill Racer" starting a very young Robert Redford tries to answer this pondering question that all of us with a crumb of talent and ability ask ourselves everyday. How much ambition to you have in you to take your talent and ability to the next level? Can you take it to the highest level in your chosen field or career? At what cost?
What if you get to the top and you find out you never really left from where you started?
What gets me about this classic sports/love movie is that Gene Hackman has hair!!!
According to Hollywood critics, Downhill Racer is the best sports movie ever produced with some of the most spectacular ski scenes ever filmed. It is not really a sports movie par se (Olympic downhill ski racing is just the setting), but more of a romantic drama told in documentary style in exotic ski locations like the Lauberhorn at Wengen, Switzerland and the Hahnenkamm at Kitzbuhel, Austria. Also included were Megeve, France and St. Anton, Austria.
25 year old former Swedish glamour beauty and actress of the 60's Camilla Sparv in 1965.
Here is what Image Entertainment wrote about the movie:
"Astonishing Alpine location photography and a young Robert Redford in one of his earliest starring roles are just two of the visual splendors of Michael Ritchie's visceral debut feature, DOWNHILL RACER. In a beautifully understated performance, Redford is David Chappellet, a ruthlessly ambitious skier competing with an underdog American team in Europe for Olympic gold, and Gene Hackman provides tough support as the coach who tries to temper the upstart's narcissistic drive for glory. With a subtle screenplay by acclaimed novelist James Salter, DOWNHILL RACER is a vivid character portrait buoyed by breathtakingly fast and furious imagery that brings the viewer directly into the mind of the competitor."
Very Short List wrote last month of the new DVD release of Downhill Racer:
"Just weeks after Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid made Robert Redford into a megastar in 1969, the actor turned up in a very different kind of picture—a documentary-style movie about a fearless skier with an all-consuming desire for Olympic gold. Downhill Racer (available from Criterion 11/17) shows Redford at his early best: outrageously charming, naturally physical and unrelentingly sexy.
Much of Downhill Racer—which was directed by Michael Ritchie, who reteamed with Redford in 1972 for The Candidate—is
a sort of thrill ride: Cameras mounted to actual skiers provided
bird’s-eye footage of what it’s like to careen down slopes at what
looks like a million miles an hour. Sure, there’s a love interest, and
a rival or two, but the film focuses mostly on the development of one
great undisciplined athlete into a bona fide star. Plus, Redford’s
coach is played by a young Gene Hackman, who gives us a peek at the guy
we love so much in Hoosiers."
32 year old Robert Redford on location in the Swiss Alps for Downhill Racer in 1969.
A young 40 year old Gene Hackman with hair - Un joven de 40 años Gene Hackman con pelo!
