| Paramount Pictures | Release Date: November 7, 1969 | CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
14
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
Some of the best moments in Downhill Racer are moments during which nothing special seems to be happening. They're moments devoted to capturing the angle of a glance, the curve of a smile, an embarrassed silence. Together they form a portrait of a man that is so complete, and so tragic, that "Downhill Racer" becomes the best movie ever made about sports -- without really being about sports at all.
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Is it possible that the great American sports film is not about football, baseball, or boxing, but instead about downhill ski racing? Likely not, but Downhill Racer makes a strong case for the possibility, filled to the brim with heart-pounding slides down snow-covered ravines, the quiet contemplation of an athlete competing against himself, and a realistic scorn for coming in second.
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Robert Redford makes a convincing member of the U.S. Olympic Ski Team in this exciting and thoughtful Michael Ritchie film about the sacrifices and compromises made -- or not made -- for a chance at a moment's glory. [26 Feb 1999]
The understated performances and reluctance to emphasise plot result in convincing characterisations, to such an extent that the often narcissistic Redford actually allows himself to come across as a dislikeably selfish, arrogant and icy man. And the location skiing sequences, revealing Ritchie's background and interest in documentary styles, are simply astounding, even for those with little interest in the sport.
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The best fictional movie about skiing. [27 Nov 2009, p.13D]
The film is intelligently realistic about all the interlocking hypocrisies of the amateur code, and there is nothing fakey-humanistic about the sexual encounters with a ski-manufacturer's secretary (Camilla Sparv) and the unbilled but unforgettable girl back home always ready, willing, and able to hope in the back seat for auld lang syne.
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