How telling is it that the most personal story about an athlete to come out in the past two decades was about an aging professional wrestler? Where every other sports film seems to either involve a rag tag group of underdogs fighting their way towards a championship, or telling a period piece in order to deal with racial inequality, The Wrestler managed to make us care about Randy “The Ram” Robbinson in ways we haven’t seen since Fast Eddie in The Hustler and Jake La Motta in Raging Bull.
While Downhill Racer doesn’t quite match those movies, it shares the same fascination with what drives someone to be a champion. It questions the idea of all competitors being likable and role models. Trying to understand the types of emotional baggage comes with those who spends year after year always trying to do better. The concept of what one is willing to give up for the possibility of glory.
After the U.S. Ski Team suffers the loss of one of their members due to a terrible wipeout during a run, young Dave Chappellet (Robert Redford) is called up to help fill the open slot. With ambitious goals and a tendency to not filter the words that escape his mouth, it isn’t long before some of the team and even the coach (Gene Hackman) start to turn on him. However, the kid is fast – really fast – and what he lacks in social graces he makes up for in his time trials.
Despite the film’s attempts at portraying Chappellet as a self-centered loose cannon, we’re never given much to buy into that belief. Instead, Redford seems to portray him as a guy who views himself as being exceptionally talented in one thing and not much else – including most social situations. Having that one thing which could actually make a name for himself drives him, and he’s got blinders on when it comes to how others around him view that image he’s putting out.
Which is why toward the second act, when the patented “Robert Redford Love Interest” is introduced, things take an interesting turn. As his character begins a relationship with a ski manufacturer’s beautiful assistant, we begin to see Chapellet trying to create a glamorized life for himself based on those of athletes shown within the pages of Sports Illustrated. Only his placement in the sports world doesn’t change the way he personally handles relationships, leaving his attempt at a shallow perception of happiness and an idealized life unchanged.
In his feature directorial debut, Michael Ritchie makes quite a splash with his vérité camera work. Chapellet is a character who’s performance relies heavily on body language, and the tandem of Ritchie’s impeccable eye and Redford’s reserved performance make for some wonderfully captured moments. Most of the filming techniques that he goes for in both Downhill Racer and The Candidate serve as a very sound foundation for his later work. Where he would refine his style and become more comfortable with long form storytelling.
Some of the biggest issues I found with the movie rest on the editing choices. On first viewing, the movie can feel disjointed; there’s a bare minimum of context or grounding with what is happening, and it only gets worse when there’s hardly any bridging between scenes. Before you know it, the movie is jumping from one moment to the next without helping the audience keep track. Scenes that feel like they’re just finding their pace will abruptly cut away. It isn’t until a second viewing that the movie finds its form and becomes something special, rewarding repeat viewings.
Sports movies typically follow the same theme of winning and losing. Hardly any of them ask the questions of why the trophy is so important or why the athletes are driven to be champions. Almost none of them are set in the world of competitive downhill racing. One film dares to address all three. Despite being a little rough around the edges, Downhill Racer at the very least attempts to say something within the genre that goes against the grain.
This newly released DVD from Criterion is put out on a single disc, with the feature broken up into 13 chapters. The transfer retains a fine level of film grain with some of the shots showing signs of staining, but they are few and far between. In fact outside of some 16mm footage that was used for most of the crowd reactions and minor establishing shots, which come across as slightly soft and contain some scratches along with the aforementioned stains, this is a beautiful presentation. The detail is crisp and contrast remains solid, with colors appearing natural.
On the audio side of things, the feature is accompanied by its original mono track. Apart from the film’s score, which can at times feel over the top, dialogue comes through with no noticeable problems.
Redford and Salter (33:46) – In the first of two newly recorded interviews, Robert Redford and screenwriter James Salter are on hand to discuss and look back on their experiences while working on Downhill Racer. The two go into great detail on the pre-production aspects, like how Roman Polanski was at one time very much interested in helming the project. Having a number of meeting with Redford and Salter on developing the story, he seemed set in making this his next film, but Paramount was very persistent in getting him to direct Rosemary’s Baby. The studio got its way in the end. After enough convincing on Redford’s part, going so far as to put together a reel of shots he paid for out of pocket, he managed to convince the head of the studio to sign off on a $2 million budget. Later on in the piece, they talk about how Spider Sabich and Billy Kidd were used as influential sources to discover their main character. Redford is open about the limitations that were put upon the movie and how his experience on getting this made, along with the studio’s poor treatment of it’s theatrical release, was a large influence on him starting Sundance.
Coblenz, Harris, and Jalbert (29:49) – The second interview features editor Richard Harris, production manager Walter Coblenz, and technical advisor Joe Jay Jalbert. They cover in pretty detailed fashion the trials of shooting the downhill scenes, about how toboggans were ineffective for capturing the images they desired. Ultimately it was Jalbert who, despite having little knowledge on filming, offered up his services to hold the camera and go down the slopes on skis alongside the racers. Jalbert is the most animated of the bunch, giving a very lively recount of his experience during the whole thing. Harris and Coblenz go into further detail on Ritchie’s filming style at the time and how he preferred to shoot fast, off the cuff and loose – much to the crew’s chagrin. Harris talks about how the vérité style would cause him and Ritchie to sometimes take the bits and pieces they had and would play with the footage until it worked.
Michael Ritchie at AFI (8 Parts, 1:01:19 total) – The topper of the special features on the disc is this hour-long (audio only) Q&A with director Michael Ritchie at an AFI seminar in 1977. In it he talks very candidly about his approach to filmmaking. The chat starts off with a rocky question about who’s vision a film serves: writer or director? He handles it with grace and goes on about his relationship with the writers on past projects and remarks on how lucky he feels to have worked with them. We learn about his initial intentions of becoming a teacher, his work behind the camera before his television career, the kinds of restrictions placed upon directors in television at the time, opinions on some of his peers, genres that he would like to try his hand at, and artists who’s work he admires. There are a number of moments that are ostensibly Bad News Bears related (which was released only a year prior to the recording) but his answers give a very clear view into some of his process. From start to finish he comes across as a very smart, soft spoken guy who’s very open to sharing his stories.
How Fast? (12:25) – Rounding out the disc is a rather bland and anti-climactic behind the scenes featurette put out around the time of the film’s release, narrated by Redford; showing some on-set footage while inter-cutting with video from the feature that might interest some, but goes on for too long.
Trailer (2:39)
Downhill Racer as a film is absolutely worth checking out, although you may want to consider it a rental before purchase. As is the case with most of Criterion’s releases, the DVD boasts extras with considerable depth and quality, and the audio/video presentation is top notch.
The Criterion Collection and Paramount Pictures present Downhill Racer. Directed by: Michael Ritchie. Starring: Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, Camilla Sparv. Written by: James Salter. Running time: 101 minutes. Rating: PG. Released on DVD: November 17, 2009. Available at Amazon.com
John Cavanagh has an award winning blog that never gets updated. You can find him discussing his latest victories on Twitter, or send him a letter of congratulations for winning this year’s Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence via electronic mail.
