Popular reviews

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  Review by eely ★★½ 9

  i would have turned this off within the first ten minutes if it were not for robert redford’s extraordinary ability to wear a pair of pants. he looks good in pretty much any kind of pant you can imagine. the ones exemplified in this movie include but are not limited to:

  1. khaki pants 
  1a. long johns under his khaki pants 
  2. skin tight ski pants (!!)
  3. white linen pants 
  4. blue jeans 
  4a. blue jeans tucked into cowboy boots (!!)
  5. black slacks

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  Review by Patrick Willems ★★★½

  This movie is not as good as its poster but to be fair almost nothing is as good as the Downhill Racer poster

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  Review by 🇵🇱 Steve G 🇵🇸 ★★★½ 5

  I spent most of this film trying to think up a really good pun one-liner to start this review off, but I just couldn't think of the perfect one and that piste me off.

  Downhill Racer is a quite significant journey out of my comfort zone because, as I've mentioned once or twice, I hate sports movies. I love sports but I hate sports movies. The vast majority of films of this kind I have ever seen have exactly the same tedious outcome of triumph over adversity, the same predictable procession of events almost every single sodding time.

  Essentially, they take so much of what I love about sport, that being the unpredictability and the unknown, flush it away and…

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  Review by Ian Curran ★★★

  Pretty good pre 1970’s sports movie. The snowy mountain settings and go-pro-esque skiing scenes are beautiful.

  The story however lacks a strong central tension. A lot of pre-Rocky sports movies suffered from a similar problem. As clichéd as the underdog narrative of Rocky is, it’s a fantastic support beam for a sports movie.

  P.S. Robert Redford out here throwing more heat than stupid sexy Flanders! 🔥 ⛷ 🏔

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  Review by ~findlay ★★★★★ 3

  FFO: Leather walkie-talkie cases, 60s airports, lodge fireside wallpapers, ski team travelwear, tactile sports broadcasting equipment, snowdrift plains, ski-shoe buckles, pre-race leg rubs, those tiny european cars designed to cut through snow, single-pane mountainside cafes, turtlenecks, sports jackets, goggle-steam, high altitude fog lakes.

  the sheer beauty of this film could feel like the filmmaking is being done by lifting a pinky finger but this is so esoteric, existential, lost in its desire for something it doesnt want that it accidentally sculpts itself into the most truly honest to god cold-hearted Emo Sportsboy film ever.
  an opulent preservative of the time in itself.
  perfection, man

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  Review by talisencrw (William Wood) ★★★★ 1

  If ANY film I have ever seen comes the closest to taking a sophisticated look at what most of the world would consider to be the spoiled-rotten, prima donna, mega-talented amateur athlete (I would add 'American', but I believe they would be like Redford's characterization even if they weren't), Michael Ritchie nails it. Way underrated. And it makes you wonder, especially with the poster pictured here, if the title's a double entendre (and not just slickly-marketed sex-advertising), not merely for various OTHER curves Redford's character wants to/succeeds in navigating, but also the possible crash-and-burn Chappellet may have, if he continues his wild, burn-the-candle-at-both-ends lifestyle while participating in quite a dangerous sport. Sonny Bono-jokes aside, this kind of thing happens.

  Simply…

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  Review by Sonny_Jim ★★½ 4

  I liked the premise but too tepid to really hold my interest much, beyond the scene where Redford goes home to visit his non-supportive dad (it does make Redford's character at least a little sympathetic, considering most of the time he's a horse's ass).

  I will acknowledge that the skiing scenes are phenomenal. They're beautifully photographed and really communicate the speed and danger of the sport.

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  Review by noir1946 ★★★★★ 2

  This one’s going out for Charles Robert Redford, Jr., born August 18, 1936.

  Downhill Racer is my favorite 1969 film, my favorite sports film, my favorite Redford performance, and my third-favorite Redford film after Three Days of the Condor and All the President’s Men.

  “You finished fourth in one race. Don’t expect to be given the world.”
  “I don’t expect to be given anything.”

  James Salter’s screenplay, loosely based on Oakley Hall’s 1963 novel, The Downhill Racers, was originally to be directed by Paramount honcho Bob Evans’s pal Roman Polanski. When RoPo dropped out, he was replaced by first-time director Michael Ritchie, who had directed several TV episodes. Ritchie brings a documentary approach to the subject of international downhill skiing…

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  Review by Gentry ★★★½ 1

  “I’ll be famous. I’ll be a champion.”
  “World’s full of ‘em.”

  Is this the most under seen movie starring both Gene Hackman and Robert Redford? It’s a niche subject, downhill ski racing, but the themes aren’t: the grueling demands of elite sport, the struggle to fit in, a strange man in strange land, the pain and thrill of competition. Some great ski photography, which, in the age of GoPro, is easy to dismiss. There’s a refreshing realism to the often prosaic nature of Olympic-level sport. The long bus rides, the fundraising, the sponsorships, the months spent training and waiting.

  For most of the film Hackman is doing that classic Hackman thing where he's smiling through his clenched teeth. The scenes…

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  Review by chavel ★★★½

  Before he completely solidified himself as a matinee idol with seductive gentlemanly charms, Robert Redford still early in his career took a chance to play a narcissistic athlete who only cares about winning and bedding babes. He has no empathetic feelings. He likes to see his peers lose, he wants women only to have eyes for him.

  Redford is ski slopes competitor David Chappellet whose colossal ego clashes with coach Gene Hackman, and with the general politics of the sport. If you are worried that the cinematography might we weaker compared to what can be done now, that would be, incorrect. If you’re looking for ski photography, this is the film to study – and it has a non-glossy naturalism and high speed-shutter quickening that’s missing from sports broadcasting today. The directorial debut of Michael Ritchie, and I think it is an even better film of his than "The Candidate" or "The Bad News Bears."

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  Review by ctspectator ★★★★½

  Incredible picture. The technique and editing is so brilliant, and it’s such a great character study. Redford marvels, and Hackman is great too, but used sparingly as the coach. This film is so minimalist, with barely any exposition, and many ellipses, and it all worked so magically for me. It’s intense, and exhilarating. It makes me want to hit the slopes! Damn fine film! 4.5/5

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  Review by Jordan Horowitz ★★★★

  An absolute rough cut gem, this one