Interesting movie. As a distance runner and amateur Olympic and running historian I had never heard of the movie. Lucky for me I happened to be home and DVR'ed it.
Leaving aside the historical errors in the movie such as the fact that the marathon at the Rome Olympics were run at night and under reasonable summer conditions--72 degrees F. One thing that was true was the death of the Swedish cyclist although it was not heatstroke but probably from a performance enhancing drug.
The characters have to be considered as similar to real people (the Czech had to have been inspired by Emil Zatopek); the barefoot running by the Aussie aborigine was a tribute to Bikila, the Ethiopian, who ran barefoot and won. Even the name of the Brit (Hayes) brings to mind Johnny Hayes.
However, the British coach is a bit of a caricature. There is no way a coach would tell an athlete to try to break a record by over 15 minutes especially under those conditions. It was really silly and I doubt that the Brit would have broken an hour for the half marathon since that just recently occurred. Erich Segal should have known better.
The American is a little ludicrous as well since he appears to be a 400m runner who transforms himself into a marathoner. Again, what was Segal thinking? I liked the Czech character. Running in the army boots and being in the army is definitely a tribute to Zatopek.
The racial stuff with Sunny was done well although I wonder if he flew to Rome with no one sitting beside him. Of course his winning and being barefoot and being black has absolutely got to be a tribute to Bikili.
The drug issue is interesting about how it is offered and justified as "everyone does it" by Sam Elliott's character and by the Czech official.
Not all that well filmed to me, but a nice little diversion.
Leaving aside the historical errors in the movie such as the fact that the marathon at the Rome Olympics were run at night and under reasonable summer conditions--72 degrees F. One thing that was true was the death of the Swedish cyclist although it was not heatstroke but probably from a performance enhancing drug.
The characters have to be considered as similar to real people (the Czech had to have been inspired by Emil Zatopek); the barefoot running by the Aussie aborigine was a tribute to Bikila, the Ethiopian, who ran barefoot and won. Even the name of the Brit (Hayes) brings to mind Johnny Hayes.
However, the British coach is a bit of a caricature. There is no way a coach would tell an athlete to try to break a record by over 15 minutes especially under those conditions. It was really silly and I doubt that the Brit would have broken an hour for the half marathon since that just recently occurred. Erich Segal should have known better.
The American is a little ludicrous as well since he appears to be a 400m runner who transforms himself into a marathoner. Again, what was Segal thinking? I liked the Czech character. Running in the army boots and being in the army is definitely a tribute to Zatopek.
The racial stuff with Sunny was done well although I wonder if he flew to Rome with no one sitting beside him. Of course his winning and being barefoot and being black has absolutely got to be a tribute to Bikili.
The drug issue is interesting about how it is offered and justified as "everyone does it" by Sam Elliott's character and by the Czech official.
Not all that well filmed to me, but a nice little diversion.