Downhill Racer (1969)

Directed by

Michael Ritchie

Genre

drama film, sport film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 41m

Rated

PG

Rating

5.9 of 10 from 111 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A talented but arrogant American skier joins the U.S. team competing in Europe. His obsessive drive for winning strains his relationships with teammates and a woman he gets involved with.

bleakintenseunderstatedcolddrivenatmosphericalienatingmethodical

What happens

Downhill Racer is a 1969 American sports drama film starring Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, and Camilla Sparv; it was the directorial debut of Michael Ritchie. Written by James Salter, based on Oakley Hall's 1963 novel The Downhill Racers, the film is about talented American downhill racer David Chappellet, who joins the U.S. Ski Team in Europe to compete in international skiing competitions. Downhill Racer was filmed on location in Kitzbühel and St. Anton, Austria; Wengen, Switzerland; Megève and Grenoble, France; and Boulder and Idaho Springs, Colorado, United States. The film received positive reviews upon its theatrical release; Roger Ebert called it "the best movie ever made about sports—without really being about sports at all". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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