WITHOUT LIMITS (63)

Directed by: Robert Towne

Starring: Billy Crudup, Donald Sutherland, Monica Potter

The Pitch: The story of Steve "Pre" Prefontaine, America's most famous runner in the early 70s.

Theo Sez: Co-winner, with HIGH ART, of this year's ANGELS AND INSECTS Award for Impressive And Original Films That Leave Surprisingly Little Residue. Partly it's a case of quiet virtues, solid rather than spectacular film-making, performances of understated intensity - Crudup especially manages to encompass arrogance, charisma, single-mindedness and an almost violent sense of self-belief without even raising his voice (with his shaggy look and watchful, smouldering air, a sense that he's running away from something, he's a bit like Steve Railsback's escaped convict in THE STUNT MAN). Partly, however, it's also a case of confusion and contradictions - Pre's declaration that racing is "a work of Art" versus his dismissal of any such thing as talent (it's about willpower, being able to endure pain), or his white-hot competitiveness versus his (apparently sincere) philosophy that winning isn't as important as "testing your limits". One gets the feeling Towne was aiming for a portrait of the Artist as ennobled, self-destructive individualist, a popular figure in recent years (SHINE, CRUMB etc.) - the recurring theme is, after all, Pre's insistence on going all-out in every race, refusing to play a strategic (but "chickenshit") waiting game - but couldn't help including his hero's other traits too, the aggressiveness and control-freak behaviour ("When you set the pace, you control the race"). The result is a strange film, a story of failure with an inspirational air, treating an "absurd pastime" with po-faced devotion : it feels half-formed, wholly effective from scene to scene but only really cohering in the races themselves, especially the remarkable, brilliantly-paced reconstruction of the 1972 Olympic final. That at least is something you remember.