- This directorial debut of Chinatown Oscar winner Robert Towne is a bracing celebration of athletes who live the way they play: with total passion. Mariel Hemingway plays a promising hurdler who finds needed emotional and athletic seasoning with a caring mentor (Patrice Donnelly). After the two fall in love, their relationship is threatened as both vie for a spot on the U. S. Olympic team.Personal
Two female runners fall in love while training for the 1980 Olympics.It takes a lot to win. This movie is usually considered a classic of lesbian cinema, and that’s too bad: its true sensuality lies in powerful erotic associations with running and the sheer pain of competition. The film opens with a memorable close-up of sweat dripping on tarmac, an early glimpse of a visual style which evolves throughout the picture into almost pornographic slow-motion sequences of high jumps, shot puts, and running legs.
The story follows a young runner (Mariel Hemingway) from a clueless start in the 1976 Olympic trials through a vexed affair with her mentor-competitor (Olympic runner Patrice Donnelly) to a final, triumphant qualifying race for the boycotted 1980 Moscow games. The human elements are told in an almost documentary style, giving an honest, complicated look at the blossoming of friendship into love against the near-military backdrop of world-class competitive sports. Hemingway and Donnelly can act, and their drive to win is compelling, both on the field and in their personal lives. But what really makes the film worth watching are the races–stunning images, beautiful editing, and the timeless drama of athletic endeavor. –Grant Balfour
Buy “Personal Best” For Only $12.19
May 17, 2008
#1
I look at this movie from two prospectives. First, I was an extra in the movie. (I was one of the runners warming up during the track scenes and was also in the crowd) and even though I appreciated the good pay, knew it would suck just from watching it being filmed. Later at the “premier” I had to stifle my groans from all the bad acting. If you want to make a point about it being about lesbians that was ahead of the curve, fine, I just wish Hollywood would have picked a different subject matter and not have filmed it in Eugene. Save your money.
May 17, 2008
#2
I’m sorry I cannot agree with the majority about this movie. Maybe it’s one of those ‘you gotta be there to get it’ things (it might have been breathtaking in the 80′s) but I found this film dated and sexist. The relationship between the two girl is unconvincing and titilating. The coach/athlete thing undevelopped, inexplicable. The only good thing going for it is that it is an ok sports movie, with some nice scenes depicting training. These however were inevitable intersperced with slow motion takes of the female athletes’ crotches taken from various angles, fitting for a movie heavy on the sexploitation angle. I realise that this may have been a ‘breakthrough’ movie, maybe depicting for the first time a pretty actress taking a leak while babbling some juvenile dribble, or helping her boyfriend hold his d…… while he takes a leak as a sign of their intimacy, but frankly, that I can do without. Perhaps the movie could have been cut down and saved but I think even then all you would be left with is a cool ‘eighties’ soundtrack and two girls running around a track. All I can say is at least ‘Charlies Angels’ wasn’t pretentious!
May 17, 2008
#3
DVD was not as desribed , it has many small scrathes and sound quality is poor ( fuzzy ) not in origanl DVD case .
NOT HAPPY !!!!!
May 17, 2008
#4
This is far and away the sexiest movie I have ever seen. But all you folks who enjoy seeing great big breasts, forget it. Also, if the sight of muscular, slender, not fat, women does not turn you on, forget it. Ms Hemingway and Ms donnelly are both gorgeous ladies; Ms Donnelly has the most beautiful face I have ever seen. Forget the story; there may never have been a story; it is about female pentathletes training for the 1980 Olympics, with the conflicts among the two ladies, their coach and the father of one of the ladies. The movie has a happy ending–I think. I won’t worry about it. The dialogue, a lot of the time, is as if the actors are making it up as they go along. Sometimes it works. By far the greatest fault is the mushmouth delivery of the players. If the director had wanted desperately to guarantee that the audience not understand what the characters are saying, he could not have succeeded any better than he did. Would the director recognize a consonant if he could have heard one in this movie? The photography is magnificent: a lot of slow motion, long telephoto shots of the ladies in action on the field. Also, some composite (Maybe that’s what they could be called.) shots of one particular activity, in slow motion, switching from one athlete to the next to the next to the next … as the activity proceeds. Absolutely beautiful! My rating, above, is not for me, necessarily; it is my estimate of what more nearly normal folks would rate it. As for me, I will probably watch it another dozen times. I may leave the sound off, but …; oh well, maybe two dozen times more!
May 17, 2008
#5
I WAS A LITTLE SKEPTICAL ON BUYING ON LINE BUT IT WAS EASY FRIENDLY AND MOST OF ALL SECURE IT WAS A PLEASURABLE EXPERIENCE AND IM LOOKING FORWARD IN DOING IT AGAIN.AS FAR AS THE PRODUCT I BOUGHT IT WAS IN EXELLENT CONDITION AND SO WAS THE PACKAGING I RECIEVED IT A LOT FASTER THAN ADVERTISED AND HASSLE FREE.EXELLENT PEOPLE TO DEAL WITH. I WORK IN THE SERVICE AND WARRANTY FIELD AND KNOW HOW IMPORTANT PRESENTATION IS,THIS IS ALWAYS SOMETHING I LOOK FOR AND NOTICE ABOUT ANY ITEMS I BUY.GREAT JOB
GUYS AND KEEP UP THE HONESTY AND INTEGRETY WORK.THIS WORKS FOR YOU AND ALL OTHERS ONLINE SHOULD EXERCISE YOU POLICIES AND PROCEDURES THANKS
DANNY PINEAU