Prefontaine (1997)

Great Film overall

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Watched this many years ago and revisited as for some reason it stuck in my head. The acting is very good and the writing is .. not great .. but all holds together very well and a very un-taxing film for a date night in. It covers a lot of important people in sport , not just the main protagonist , which makes things even more interesting.It led us to watch the excellent documentary one day in September and Munich .. all relating to the same period and issues of the day....looking forward to the drama detailing how Nike started.Definitely recommended.

I had never heard of Steve Prefontaine before I learned that they were making a movie about him, even though he was from Oregon. When I finally saw the movie, I figured that I would just have to accept what the movie showed. "Prefontaine" mostly does a good job, although it goes a little overboard in focusing on how the assassinations at the 1972 Olympics affected him personally. Also, I would have liked to have learned maybe a little more about his childhood.So, although we may not be certain about how accurate the movie is, it's an interesting look at the athletic world in the early '70s. Also starring Ed O'Neill and R. Lee Ermey.

Prefontaine provides a deeply inaccurate portrayal of the life and skill of American track star Steve Prefontaine. The film creates a girlfriend whom he never had, and shows him as uneasy and unconfident about his ability. It makes claims of him having a poor kick to finish races, and yet this is not as large of an issue in actuality, while the issue of his body type not being that of a runners is true. The film is poorly scripted as well, doing a terrible job of capturing Bill Bowerman's personality. Bowerman was certainly eccentric, yet the film shows him in more of a lunatic or crazy form. Especially with the introduction of him by the mailbox scene. Another film created based on Prefontaine's life, Without Limits, truly and best finds the truth. The script and production were overlooked by Kenny Moore (writer), whom was a close personal friend of Prefontaine, and Mary Marx, Prefontaine's girlfriend, in the film Without Limits. The misinformation provided in Prefontaine extremely frustrates me because the least a biographical film can do is stick to the facts.

Steve Prefontaine was America's best long distance runner ever. This movie shows how you can achieve your dreams and that anything is possible. Prefontaine is filled with great action, that is if you actually enjoy watching someone run on the TV. After watching this movie you will feel like going outside and running a five kilometer. This is one of the best movies ever made in my opinion.