Without Limits
USA 1998
Reviewed by Edward Lawrenson
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine accepts a scholarship from the University of Oregon, out of admiration for its running coach Bill Bowerman. Bowerman criticises Prefontaine's habit of setting the pace of each race and advises him to run more tactically. An outstanding performance in his first three-mile race at Oregon makes Prefontaine a popular campus figure. But he's frustrated in his attempts to woo fellow student Mary Marckx who's wary of his womanising reputation.
At the 1970 NCAA competition, Prefontaine takes a personal best, despite a painful cut to his foot. He starts dating Mary, but their relationship remains chaste. A trip to Scandinavia brings Prefontaine into conflict with his ruling body AAU over the rights of amateur athletes; Bowerman warns him that this could jeopardise his place in the 1972 Munich Olympics. He qualifies for the games, but is beaten to fourth place in the 5000-metre final, which is won by Finn Lasse Virén. Disappointed, he returns home and takes a job in a bar. Bowerman persuades him to train for the upcoming Montreal Olympics. At his comeback three-mile race in Oregon, he takes turns setting the pace with runner Frank Shorter and thrills the crowd with a time of under 13 minutes. Driving home from a party after the race, Prefontaine has a fatal car accident.
Review
A biopic of US long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine, Robert Towne's Without Limits is a strange kind of sports movie. Overlong, full of visual clichés (Towne seems unable to film any race sequence without using slow motion), and saddled with a strident soundtrack, the film feels at times like an over-earnest made-for-television feature - only Hoop Dreams' director Steve James got there first with Prefontaine. Worse still, Without Limits struggles to justify why Prefontaine should warrant a biopic in the first place. Sure, he was an outstanding athlete - Towne's film features meticulous recreations of some of his record-breaking races. Prefontaine's winning charisma was unusual in the otherwise uniform world of athletics. Engagingly played by Billy Crudup, he emerges from the film as something of a sporting firebrand, the kind of cocky maverick that sports giant Nike likes to associate itself with. (Prefontaine was one of the first athletes to endorse Nike's products.) As an icon of our accelerated age, there was even something sadly fitting about his early death in a car crash aged 24.
But this premature death meant that, despite breaking a clutch of college track records, his Olympic ambitions went unrealised. The film opens with the hype surrounding Prefontaine's chances for the 5000 metres at the Munich Olympics. In the film he finishes fourth in that race, and his failure to make the winning podium severely undermines his confidence. It's also a result which affects the dramatic form of the movie. Just as Prefontaine tended to flag in the final lap of his races, Without Limits denies us the triumphalist pay-off any other self-respecting sports movie would reward us with as a matter of course - the big race, the winning moment.
By taking Prefontaine's failure at Munich as its biographical starting point, Towne's film bucks the convention of the genre. The film is as much about losing (and coping with defeat) as winning, about unrealised potential as well as sporting achievement. Despite the slightly Nietzschean ring to the title and the will-to-win credo of the young Prefontaine (echoing the competitive individualism of sports-gear commercials), this is at heart a rather gentle and affectionate portrait.
Towne's film is at its most thoughtful in exploring the dynamic between Prefontaine and his softly-spoken coach. In a beautifully nuanced performance, Donald Sutherland plays Bowerman like an ageing hippie, a far more genial figure than Scott Glenn's Machiavellian coach in Towne's 1982 athletics movie Personal Best. In contrast with Prefontaine's self-motivating exhortations, Bowerman is positively Zen in his trackside encouragement ("Running is a way to find meaning in life"). Such comments are admittedly a little gnomic, a far cry from the crisp elegance of Towne's 70s classic Chinatown. But given the increasingly aggressive tenor of sports' advertising campaigns (Nike's and Adidas' goods appear here like sly product placements) and the critique of the pressures facing young athletes by Hoop Dreams, Bowerman's belief in sport for sport's sake simply adds to Without Limit's unassuming charm. After all, it's difficult not to like a movie dedicated to celebrating an all-American track star who is beaten in the biggest race of his career by a Finn.
Credits
- Producers
- Tom Cruise
- Paula Wagner
- Screenplay
- Robert Towne
- Kenny Moore
- Director of Photography
- Conrad L. Hall
- Editors
- Claire Simpson
- Robert K. Lambert
- Charles Ireland
- Production Designer
- William Creber
- Music/Music Conductor
- Randy Miller
- ©Warner Bros.
- Production Companies
- Warner Bros. presents
- a Cruise/Wagner production
- Executive Producers
- Jonathan Sanger
- Kenny Moore
- Cruise/Wagner Production Executive
- Darren Miller
- Production Associate
- Todd Lewis
- Unit Production Manager
- Lester Berman
- Location Managers
- Sara Burton
- Eric Persons
- Post-production Supervisor
- Debbi Bossi
- Olympics Research
- Avi Haas
- 2nd Unit Director
- Jonathan Sanger
- Assistant Directors
- Benjamin Rosenberg
- Alex Kramarchuk
- Daniel Burns
- Eric Hays
- Script Supervisors
- Joanie Blum
- Allan Greedy
- Casting
- Rick Pagano
- Athletes:
- Kari Peyton
- Additional Photography
- Charles Cohen
- 2nd Unit Director of Photography
- Conrad W. Hall
- Camera Operators
- Conrad W. Hall
- David Crone
- 2nd Unit:
- Conrad W. Hall
- Steadicam Operator
- David Crone
- Visual Effects Supervisor
- Peter Donen
- Digital Compositing
- The Computer Film Company
- Digital Effects Supervisor:
- Janek Sirrs
- Digital Artists:
- Eric Weinschenk
- Chris Howard
- Special Effects
- Co-ordinator:
- Bobby Riggs
- Technician:
- Thomas Knott
- Art Director
- William Durrell
- Set Decorator
- Cloudia
- Illustrator
- Nikita Knatz
- Scenic Artist
- Sharleen Bright
- Costume Designer
- Grania Preston
- Costume Supervisors
- Shawn Barry
- Sharon Rosenberg
- Make-up
- Key Artist:
- Gary Liddiard
- Artists:
- Joni Powell
- Dennis Liddiard
- Hair
- Key Stylists:
- Bridget Cook
- Kim Santantonio
- Stylists:
- Eithne Sotheran
- Jo Jo Myers Proud
- Faith Vecchio
- Titles Designer
- Kyle Cooper
- Main Titles
- Imaginary Forces
- Titles/Opticals
- Pacific Title
- Music Supervision
- Danny Bramson
- Music Editor
- Carlton Kaller
- Soundtrack
- "Summon the Heroes" by John Williams, performed by The Boston Pops Orchestra, conducted by John Williams; "County Fair" by/performed by Joe Walsh; "Tamalpais High" by/performed by David Crosby; "Walk on the Wild Side" by/performed by Lou Reed; "Do You Know What I Mean" by/performed by Lee Michaels; "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" by/performed by Barry White; "Comin' Back to Me" by Marty Balin, performed by Jefferson Airplane; "Bugler's Dream" by Leo Arnaud; "Yitgadal Veyitkadash" adapted by Edward Birnbaum, performed by 'Rinat' Israel National Choir, conducted by Stanley Sperber; "Can't Find My Way Home" by Stevie Winwood, performed by Blind Faith; "I Feel Free" by Jack Bruce, Peter Brown, performed by Cream; "John, I'm Only Dancing" by/performed by David Bowie; "Badge" by George Harrison, Eric Clapton, performed by Cream; "Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to be a Long Long Time)" by Elton John, Bernie Taupin, performed by Elton John; "The Recruiting Run", "Montage Number 2", "Olympic Trials" by Scott Grusin, Seth Grusin
- Production Mixer
- Bruce Bisenz
- Re-recording Engineers
- Robert J. Litt
- Elliot Tyson
- Michael Herbick
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Scott A. Hecker
- Dialogue Editors
- Gary Lewis
- Benjamin Beardwood
- Ralph Osborn
- Sound Effects Editors
- Myron Nettinga
- Bruce Tanis
- Joe Earle
- ADR
- Supervising Editor:
- Joe Dorn
- Editor:
- Darrell Hanzalik
- Foley
- Artists:
- Gary Hecker
- Jeffrey Wilhoit
- Kevin Bartnof
- Robert Friedman
- Editors:
- Patrick Bietz
- Bob O'Brien
- John Benson
- Track & Field Trainer/Technical Adviser
- Patrice Donnelly
- Track Consultants
- Frank Shorter
- John Gillespie
- Steve Bence
- Special Consultants
- Bill Bowerman
- Barbara Bowerman
- Jim Jaqua
- Mary Marckx
- Dave Frohnmayer
- Project Consultant
- Anna Waterhouse
- Athletic Trainer
- Jorgen De Mey
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Billy D. Lucas
- Cast
- Billy Crudup
- Steve Prefontaine
- Donald Sutherland
- Bill Bowerman
- Monica Potter
- Mary Marckx
- Jeremy Sisto
- Frank Shorter
- Matthew Lillard
- Roscoe Devine
- Billy Burke
- Kenny Moore
- Dean Norris
- Bill Dellinger
- Gabriel Olds
- Don Kardong
- Judith Ivey
- Barbara Bowerman
- William Mapother
- Bob Peters
- Adam Setliff
- Mac Wilkins
- Nicholas Oleson
- Russ Francis
- Amy Jo Johnson
- Iowa's finest
- Lisa Banes
- Elfriede Prefontaine
- Frank Shorter
- Fred Long
- Charlie Jones
- himself
- William Friedkin
- TV director
- David Coleman
- BBC commentator
- Jamie Schwering
- Steve Prefontaine, aged 6
- Gareth Granholm
- George Young
- Karen Elliott
- Molly Cox
- Greg Foote
- Walt McClure
- Ryan S. Warren
- Finnish official
- Ken Merckx
- Eugene Register reporter
- Katharine Towne
- Cassandra A. Coogan
- Amy Erenberger
- co-eds
- Edwin L. Coleman II
- turn judge
- Jay Thorson
- pole vaulter
- John Roemer
- German guard
- Wendy Ray
- Hayward field announcer
- Wade Bell
- starter
- Coleman Dow
- bully
- Kim Nickel
- flight attendant
- Jeffrey Atkinson
- Steve Bence
- James Howarth
- Arne Kvalhiem
- Avi Haas
- technical director
- Dawn Aotani
- Jim Sevin
- control room assistants
- Olympic Athletes
- Pat Porter
- Lasse Virén
- Steve Ave
- Mohamed Gammoudi
- Jonathan Pritchard
- Dave Bedford
- Tom Ansberry
- Emiel Puttemans
- Sol Alexis Sallos
- Harald Norpoth
- Thomas Debacker
- Juha Vaatainen
- Ashley Johnson
- Ian Stewart
- Brad Hudson
- Javier Alvarez
- Todd D. Lewis
- Frank Eisenberg
- Tove Christensen
- Per Halle
- Chris Caldwell
- Nikolay Sviridov
- Paul Vincent
- Ian McCafferty
- Certificate
- 12
- Distributor
- Warner Bros Distributors (UK)
- 10,622 feet
- 118 minutes 1 second
- Dolby digital/Digital DTS sound/SDDS
- Colour by
- Technicolor