Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this page
The 50 greatest sports movies: part six
We have a winner! In pole position, it's Robert Redford's icy, Aryan turn as a heartless ski champ in Michael Ritchie's monumental anti-sporting epic 'Downhill Racer'
Explore the list: 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-2 |1. Downhill Racer (1969)
Dir: Michael Ritchie
Do you go as fast as you can all the time?
It’s fair to say that Michael Ritchie's emotionally and narratively spare Olympic skiing drama ‘Downhill Racer’ has little in common with the majority of sports movies that make up this list. Robert Redford plays David Chappellet, a haughty young hotshot from Idaho Springs, Colorado (read: Anytown, USA) drafted into the US Olympic ski squad as they tour Europe in preparation for the 1968 Winter Olympics. Immediately at odds with his straight-arrow coach (Gene Hackman) and on frosty terms with his teammates, Chappellet nevertheless starts to win races and soon becomes a ski sensation.
So far, so familiar, but this is no fuzzy, heartwarming sports parable about teamwork, fair play and love of the game, but a sour, impersonal, emotionally aloof study of a protagonist who exhibits all the warmth and empathy of black ice. Ritchie’s glassy study of the price of success and the ends of empty ambition may loosely conform to the tried-and-tested template of the underdog story in which a plucky outsider scraps his way to gold medal glory, but in this instance, the underdog is an unconscionable shit whose eventual triumph is entirely meaningless to him and mildly galling for the audience. Its message – that there is no justice in sport – is wholly un-Olympian. In this game there are no should’ves or could’ves: success requires nothing less than a vacuum of self-absorption and a lunatic will to win. We may want to see nice guys come first, but it’s usually the likes of Chappellet who take the gold. Let them, Ritchie seems to say. Leave them to their spoils.
Redford cashes in on his corn-fed jock looks to play Chappellet – described by scriptwriter James Salter as ‘golden, unimpressable’ and who carries immaturity even in his name – as a crass, swinish child who has never needed to work to succeed on the slopes and feels no reason why he should expend any more effort in his dealings with others. Despite this, he is constantly in need of attention, be it from women, adoring fans, mirrors, shop-fronts or camera lenses. It's fitting, then, that Redford’s preternaturally fine, all-American features mean that it’s hard to take your eyes off him, even while his performance is ruthlessly enigmatic and distancing.
Director Ritchie later became known for spunky, offbeat sports movie like ‘The Bad News Bears’ (1976), ‘Semi-Tough’ (1977) and ‘Wildcats’ (1986), but there’s barely a flicker of his trademark amiability in ‘Downhill Racer’. Humour would crack the ice, and Ritchie doesn’t want to give us any purchase as we hurtle toward a finale that allows Chappellet only a hollow, fleeting moment of triumph. It’s a grueling, rigorous film that refuses us any relief or relaxation. As the film contends, there is no room for sentiment, cordiality, glory or joking around in competitive sport, then why should we insist on them in our sports movies?
Refusing to pander to any such expectations, ‘Downhill Racer’ is instead a pure, diamond-eyed meditation on the meaning of sport and the hefty price tag attached to gold. But it’s also the most riveting, revealing and thrillingly shot sports movie of them all. The ski scenes themselves are positively gut-clenching, with immediate, never-bettered point-of-view shots of the athletes tearing down the mountains, some especially gnarly wipe-outs and an ever-changing palette of spectacular Alpine vistas. If you’re looking for easy-going larks and bottom-of-the-ninth heroics, then maybe ‘Downhill Racer’ isn’t for you. But if you want to be challenged and electrified, then buckle up – it’s going to be a bumpy ride. ALD
Watch the trailer to 'Downhill Racer'
Read the original Time Out review
Explore the list: 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-2 |
Return to home page
Author: Adam Lee Davies
User comments on this story
-
- kafkasmonkey said...
- not too sure about downhill racer as 1st however it's so good to see john sayles 'eight men out' has been recognized for its excellence (just a shame his movies tends to so frequently get overlooked) Posted on May 08 2010 19:27
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Rob said...
- The list is far from complete. How do you have a top fifty and Rudy does not show up?? Posted on May 01 2010 18:37
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Ed Smith said...
- Where the hell is The Color of Money? The Hustler may be a better film, a better character study, but it's not a better sports movie. Posted on Apr 29 2010 13:15
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Dunk said...
- Where was "Tha Last Indian"? Truly superb film about racing. Posted on Apr 28 2010 11:51
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Nick Telfer said...
- Who picks these films and ranks them? What about NO LIMIT about the TT races in the Isle of Man - classic. Also re. a baseball film - RHUBARB -look it up with the cat inheriting a baseball team and leading them to the world series the gangsters are trying to kill it and as well as those left out the will. Its no so sickly as a Disney film. And the cat got an animal oscar. Posted on Apr 23 2010 18:12
- Report as inappropriate
-
- El Duderino said...
- Good list, but I leave you with one notable omission: "There's no crying in baseball!" Posted on Apr 06 2010 23:20
- Report as inappropriate
-
- guy said...
- Spetters at 5 and Seabiscuit not in the top 50???? Posted on Mar 25 2010 17:58
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Tim said...
- I'm no great fan of Chariots of Fire, but you leave it out on the basis that it's dull and yet include When Saturday Comes? Chariots should be in the list. So should Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, and so should White Men Can't Jump. Posted on Mar 24 2010 17:08
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Rob said...
- No Escape to Victory? You guys are crazy! You were right to ignore Million Dollar Baby, which is an awful film, one of the most overrated of all time. Posted on Mar 22 2010 00:12
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Jenks said...
- icfecex, are you by any chance Burt Reynolds? Posted on Mar 21 2010 16:06
- Report as inappropriate
-
- icfecex said...
-
The last message. Here is Time Out's review of "The Longest Yard"
The Longest Yard (1974)
Director: Robert Aldrich
From Time Out Film Guide
A fiercely anti-authoritarian parable mixing broad, black comedy and fast action, this portrays the conflict between prison inmate Reynolds and head warden Albert when a football game is organised between prisoners and guards; the inmates see it as their chance to take revenge for all the brutality they've suffered, while the guards are pressurised by Albert into playing dirty and humiliating their opponents. The themes are dignity and compromise, freedom and betrayal; if it all gets bogged down occasionally in its macho-violence trip, it's nevertheless very exciting, very witty, and elevated above its action-movie status by Aldrich's deliberate references to Nixon in Albert's characterisation of the warden.
Author: GA
There you go! Thank you for the attention. Posted on Mar 21 2010 15:59 - Report as inappropriate
-
- icfecex said...
- Of course, I meant "remakes", not "sequels". Posted on Mar 21 2010 11:33
- Report as inappropriate
-
- icfecex said...
-
Hi Tom,
Thank you for the comment! Fair opinion on the SI list. However, you list has 2 baseball movies in the top 3 and 2 of those 3 have Robert Redford, so - at least on the top - you are as American-centric as SI. And, IMHO, while you have it right with "8 men out", "Bull Durham" is one that has shown more legs then "The Natural".
Since you have shown some clues on how your list came up as it did, I look at your football (American) movies. "The Freshman" and "North Dallas Forty" deserve to be there, "The Best Of Times" I have not seen and "Any Given Sunday" is guilty to the utmost degree of conventionalism. Therefore, I ask you again: Why "The Longest Yard" is not here, since all the elements that are praised in the comments to the movies are present on it? Is this Robert Aldrich masterpiece being punished because of the horrible sequels (the one with Adam Sandler and the soccer adaptation with Vinnie Jones and Jason Statham)? If so, please reconsider. Posted on Mar 20 2010 21:01 - Report as inappropriate
-
- s ford said...
- No "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" or 'This Sporting Life"? Posted on Mar 20 2010 15:04
- Report as inappropriate
-
- tom huddleston said...
-
Hi, icfecex.
There are some decent movies on that SI list, but it's a list of mainstream American movies (except, ironically, 'Chariots of Fire', which we left out because, well, it's a bit dull), focusing almost exclusively on the big American sports: baseball, American 'football' and boxing. We tried to be a little more global with our choice of movies and a little more interesting in our choice of sports (moto-cross, bobsled, rollerball).
But then, I very much doubt if the writers of Sports Illustrated have actually seen 'Tokyo Olympiad', 'Spetters' or even 'Downhill Racer', so its perhaps not surprising their list is so uninspiring. Posted on Mar 20 2010 10:38 - Report as inappropriate
Top Stories
Ridley Scott interview
Director Ridley Scott tells Cath Clarke why he's making a science fiction comeback
Cannes Film Festival 2012: half-time report
Dave Calhoun reports on the hits, misses and a shocking new masterpiece from Michael Haneke
What do you think?
Post your comment now