Product Description

The film follows the life of famous 1970s runner Steve Prefontaine from his youth days in Oregon to Oregon University where he worked with the legendary coach Bill Bowerman, later to Olympics in Munich and his early death at 24 in a car crash.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3033 in DVD
• Brand: Team Marketing
• Released on: 1999-02-16
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .0" h x .0" w x .0" l, 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 118 minutes

Features

• Classic DVD
• Exclusive interviews, highlights, and behind the scenes coverage
• DVD's main menu allow you to jump directly to the action
• Presented in full-screen digital video

Amazon.com
Since audiences are inclined to F/X spectacle, it was easy to understand the 1998 box-office battle between Armageddon and Deep Impact, which shared almost exactly the same premise. But two films about the now-obscure long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine? Without Limits and Prefontaine were in production at the same time, with the cheaper Prefontaine rushed into theaters in 1997 while Without Limits was held back until the fall of '98. As it turned out, neither movie scored a deep impact at the box office, but Without Limits is much more satisfying as a competent, heartfelt slice of sports history. Billy Crudup (a rising star who strongly resembles the film's producer, Tom Cruise, in both looks and intensity) plays Prefontaine, or "Pre," the mustachioed runner who blazed out of Coos Bay, Oregon, in the late 1960s. The movie grazes across the major events of Pre's career at the University of Oregon, where he blew away the competition and positioned himself as the leading American runner (and a charismatic hunk) going into the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich--that star-crossed competition at which Arab terrorists kidnapped and killed members of the Israeli team. Though the film suffers from some of the built-in problems of the true-life biopic, director Robert Towne (who earlier made a remarkable track-and-field picture, Personal Best) captures the texture of the athletes' world. Acting honors go to Donald Sutherland, turning in an emotional performance as coach Bill Bowerman; while tutoring Pre, Bowerman was tinkering with some waffle-soled running shoes, a hobby that later became a little company called Nike. --Robert Horton

From the Director
With "What It Takes", we have attempted to do a couple things: first, to tell a story of athletic drama, following four elite competitors chasing a world championship, but second and more importantly, to put human faces on the story, and to show that these "Ironmen" are people with complex mixes of motivations, fears, and dreams, just like the rest of us. Triathlon and endurance sports generally have achieved a kind of mythical status with many people - witness the millions of admirers who've been drawn to Lance Armstrong and his seven Tour de France wins - but few understand the specific challenges and joys of competition at the highest levels. How are the people who take on such challenges similar to normal people? How are they different? What can we learn from them? "What It Takes" aims to fill these gaps.

About the Actor
The leading character of "What It Takes" is Peter Reid, the most accomplished male triathlete of the modern era - a complex, brooding, sometimes magnificent figure who has won the Ironman world championship three times. Peter and one of the other characters, Lori Bowden, were once married, but are now divorced. Their feelings towards each other evolve during their year, and the relationship takes an unexpected turn just as Peter enters the most severe phase of his training.

Offset against Peter and Lori is Heather Fuhr, the second-winningest Ironman triathlete of all time. Heather personifies the American dream, having moved to the States nearly two decades ago from a rural town in Canada and then building up a new life with her stalwart husband, Roch Frey. Heather appears to be the solid, steady, proverbial "girl next door", but experiences an interesting twist herself at the world championship race.

And finally, the movie includes Luke Bell, a refreshingly different character who hails from Melbourne, Australia, and who typifies that country's fun-loving, athletic culture. His easy-going drawl and movie-star looks aside, Luke confronts his own difficulties living and training in the States, far from his devoted fiancée and a tight-knit family. His loneliness as he attempts to scale his sport's biggest mountain becomes a drama within itself.

The director of "What It Takes" is Peter Han, a Harvard graduate who has worked in a variety of settings as a journalist and entrepreneur. He has written stories for AP, the New York Times, and the Houston Post, and is author of a 2005 book from Penguin's Portfolio imprint, "Nobodies to Somebodies: How 100 Great Careers Got Started." Peter is Group Product Manager in Microsoft's Worldwide Licensing and Pricing division.

The movie's Director of Photography and Editor is Andrew Ernst, who works at the intersection of digital media and computer technologies. Andrew started his video career at a television station in Nova Scotia, Canada, and most recently contributed as a member of the Seattle Times New Media department. Andrew also expresses his creative talents as a freelance photographer in Seattle.

Customer Reviews

It's not a movie about running nor is it a sports movie
as I have read others reviewers comments. This is a movie about life and the challenges we all face as family members, individuals, students, teachers, and members of society. It's about sacrifice and going the distance. It's about following your own heart in the face of opposition. And perhaps most importantly it's about philosophy. Or more accurately it's about the contrasting philosophies of the films two principals. Bill Bowerman (Donald Sutherland) and Steve Prefontaine (Billy Crudup). Each wants to win and each is a master at their own particular craft. But the conflict arises out of each one's definition about what winning really is. And there lies the essence of the story.

The film is just flat out entertaining. Particularly the olympic race in Munich is perfectly directed with both staged and actual footing in addtion to being paced so well that I as other reviewers have commented watch the race each time on the edge of my seat hoping for an outcome that I know isn't coming. Not to mention the numerous funny one liners in the film.

Crudup and Sutherland are outstanding as opposite sides of the same coin.

Outstanding!

Without Limits vs Prefontaine
It's been a few years since I first saw 'Prefontaine'. I'd seen it several times and I finally saw 'Without Limits' tonight.

Prefontaine:

Acting
I thought the acting in this movie could have been much better. The principle actors were decent, but it was a long drop off to the secondaries as far as acting talent. I felt Leto was more brash, cocky and arrogant. In comparison to Crudup, it made me feel Pre was this way on many occasions more out of fear or a need to be arrogant, as opposed to true belief in himself. More like a prima donna.

Facts
Given that these are movies and not documentaries, I really don't care about the small ones such as how close a race was, etc. But would like to get the truth on the the bigger issues such as personal relationships, how he hurt his foot (there either were witnesses, or there were not), and how directly he was involved in the fight against the AAU. I liked the added details in Munich and his life after Munich, showing his continued successes. These details were great from an informational perspective, but it certainly made the direction seem choppy. Without input from Pre himself, so many aspects of his friendship and love life are skewed by the perspective of the person that is recounting it, and can be questioned in both movies. To observe it is to change it, as they say. I would certainly say if you asked for the story of my uneventful life from 2 different ex-girlfriends, you would probably get 2 completely different stories.

Racing
This movie seemed a little shallow in this area. It seemed like all it did to teach the audience about strategy and Pre's abilities was to say, "You are too slow to sprint, so you have to push the pace faster to make the kickers tired". Maybe that is as much detail as the common viewer wants, but I would have liked to have seen more. I thought the race sequences in both films were good.

The interviews mixed with tradional story telling might have worked better if the casting had been better. Production quality was not as good as WL.

Without Limits -

Acting
By FAR the superior movie. Crudup and Sutherland's relationship just felt so much more real. And a million times more mature. You have to question authenticity of course, but their philosophical conflicts truly drive this movie and make the overall product much more mature.

Facts
This is not meant to be a documentary, and I can understand having to summarize 3-4 events into 1 event to make an accurate point - whether you are talking about Pre's love life or his races - for the sake of drama or time. I still would have liked to seen at least a few minutes talking about Pre's races after Munich instead of leaving the new viewer to thinking that he only ran 1 meet after Munich, and he died later that night. To me this was a weakness in the film. It left a lot of places where you have to fill in the blanks - such as Bowerman's appointment as Olympic coach, the Pre graduated and was no longer a student, etc. Now that I've seen both films and have a stronger grip on the true facts, skipping these details aren't as big of a deal as they are merely background to what is happening to Pre - as long as you are already aware of them.

Racing
In addition to focusing on Pre's relationships, it spent more time on race strategy, introducing other athletes than just Viren, and seemed to engage the sport at a deeper level. As a former competitor, this interested me quite a bit. Prefontaince had more race sequences, but I thought the sound effects in WL were great to create the feel of the race. The tension felt of running in the pack was expertly done, and the acting of Crudup in these sequences was good. I would have liked to see a little more pain on their faces and a little less closed-mouth running. WL did a better job at showing exactly how fast a 63 second quarter is.

This movie went out of its way to focus on Pre, Mary, and Bowerman's relationships. This just felt more authentic and mature. I think it is a shame they had to sum up so many of Pre's races - before and after the Olympics - but this was a conscious decision made to embrace Pre's story by showing fewer of his races - which can be felt as redundant in this medium, and humanizing him more. Prefontaine did a great job showing Pre's drive and heart, but I thought WL was more rewarding by showing his struggles with himself and those close to him - which surely must have existed.

While both movies showed some sides of Pre that aren't always listed as 'good' characteristics, only in WL did it truly feel like reality. The dialogue in Prefontaine certainly felt more like a Disney movie and combined with delivery, it was all a little contrived.

Once again, I felt that Without Limits was more the thinking-man's version of the movie, while Prefontaine did an excellent job with the facts of Pre's racing career and had an emotionally high value throughout the movie. Both raw emotion and embracing a new philosophy can inspire someone, and they both succeed at this. I would probably choose Prefontaine to show to people that do not know Pre's story, but for my own viewing, I would probably watch Without Limits repeatedly to get to the heart of the human story and struggles with philosophy, passion, and desire.

One of the Best Sports Films
Hollywood has never done sports well. Their movies are usually either cloying, cliched kid flicks or sappy melodramas. "Without Limits" is neither of these. It's a fascinating, exhilarating look at a running legend.

Billy Crudup was superb as "Pre". Cool, cocky, with a running style that sent shivers through me. Donald Sutherland gives another first-rate performance as coach Bowerman. Compared to R. Lee Ermey's portrayal in the lesser movie "Prefontaine", watching Sutherland work was like eating filet mignon after beef jerky.

The highlight of the film for me was the '72 Munich race. Pure sustained tension. I've seen the film 4 times, I know the outcome, but I nevertheless hop out of my chair every time I see Pre/Crudup break from the pack. Excellent, too, how they deftly spliced in the actual footage.

Only two criticisms: the romance was hokey, and there was too much unnecessary fiction woven in (Pre gashed his foot running around a swimming pool, not while having sex upside down, for crying out loud).

But because of this movie, I learned that Pre wasn't just a flashy jock who died young. He was a true working class hero in a sport where there weren't many. He had his own running code, which he also applied in life: run all-out, ahead of the pack, all the time.

As a runner, "Without Limits" actually inspired me to actually chop seconds off my running times, which is not a bad testament. But I don't think one has to be a runner to like this movie.