Author: Billy Crudup

Format: Anamorphic

Release Date: 16-02-1999

Details: Amazon.ca Since audiences are inclined to F/X spectacle, it was easy to understand the 1998 box-office battle between Armageddon and Deep Impact, which shared almost exactly the same premise. But two films about the now-obscure long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine? Without Limits and Prefontaine were in production at the same time, with the cheaper Prefontaine rushed into theaters in 1997 while Without Limits was held back until the fall of '98. As it turned out, neither movie scored a deep impact at the box office, but Without Limits is much more satisfying as a competent, heartfelt slice of sports history. Billy Crudup (a rising star who strongly resembles the film's producer, Tom Cruise, in both looks and intensity) plays Prefontaine, or "Pre," the mustachioed runner who blazed out of Coos Bay, Oregon, in the late 1960s. The movie grazes across the major events of Pre's career at the University of Oregon, where he blew away the competition and positioned himself as the leading American runner (and a charismatic hunk) going into the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich--that star-crossed competition at which Arab terrorists kidnapped and killed members of the Israeli team. Though the film suffers from some of the built-in problems of the true-life biopic, director Robert Towne (who earlier made a remarkable track-and-field picture, Personal Best) captures the texture of the athletes' world. Acting honors go to Donald Sutherland, turning in an emotional performance as coach Bill Bowerman; while tutoring Pre, Bowerman was tinkering with some waffle-soled running shoes, a hobby that later became a little company called Nike. --Robert Horton From the Contributor With "What It Takes", we have attempted to do a couple things: first, to tell a story of athletic drama, following four elite competitors chasing a world championship, but second and more importantly, to put human faces on the story, and to show that these "Ironmen" are people with complex mixes of motivations, fears, and dreams, just like the rest of us. Triathlon and endurance sports generally have achieved a kind of mythical status with many people - witness the millions of admirers who've been drawn to Lance Armstrong and his seven Tour de France wins - but few understand the specific challenges and joys of competition at the highest levels. How are the people who take on such challenges similar to normal people? How are they different? What can we learn from them? "What It Takes" aims to fill these gaps.

UPC: 085391490524

EAN: 9780790739298

Languages: English

Binding: DVD

Item Condition: UsedVeryGood