Without Limits

1997-98 gave us two movies about the tragically brief life of Olympic runner Steve Prefontaine, both of which went belly-up at the box-office. Prefontaine, directed by Hoop Dreams' Steve James, took a fairly traditional biopic approach; Hollywood legend Robert Towne (writer of Chinatown), in this somewhat more satisfying version, conceives the story as a battle of wills between the idealistic athlete (Billy Crudup) and his pragmatic coach, Bill Bowerman (Donald Sutherland, superlative in a rare turn as a mensch). The crux of the drama is Pre's stubborn integrity, and what it costs him: determined to sprint at full speed from the moment the starter's pistol sounds ("running any other way is just plain chickenshit," he insists), he invariably begins to flag during the crucial final lap. The scenes in which the two men grapple with their respective ideologies are first-rate drama; unfortunately, Towne squanders much of the film's running time on various tedious subplots, notably Pre's tepid romance with a cute coed (newcomer Monica Potter). Still, if you only see one movie about Steve Prefontaine, this is the one to see. Optional. (M. D'Angelo)