james_lane-1 There were some curious choices made when this movie was put together. There seems no reason why the film couldn't have been much more successful if it had wanted to be. It has some fine actors, the skiing is great and the plot is basically the same as "Top Gun".Robert Redford is one of the most charming and charismatic leading men of the modern era, but here he plays an unlikeable loner. In fact, almost everyone in the film is more likable than Redford, and you really wish someone would beat some sense into him. So we don't really care that much if he wins or loses.The film isn't helped much by the jazz score, which would work for some noir detective flick, but hardly for the high adrenaline sport of downhill racing. Pity.

crazy talk I just watched this again last night on DVD for about the 20th time in my life. That being said, I love this movie. The scenes with Hackman and Redford sparring one-on-one are epic. Hackman reprises this role in every other film he has ever starred in. The only thing that changes is the sparring partner, whether Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, et al.Obviously, the ski technology and film technology are dated, but the attitudes and behavior of the characters are not. Technology changes, people don't. Who cares if Redford wasn't standing in front of a blue screen? I think this is a great story, well told about a self-centered, not-so-nice immature kid from nowhere having to grow up quickly in the public eye, falling on his face (literally and figuratively) using people and being used by people. It all still rings true to me. Oh, and the skiing is well done. BTW, I remember the 1968 Winter Olympics and ABC's Wide World of Sports. This movie holds a mirror up to those times.

buorkey For the record, the race involved is not the Super G, it's the Downhill. At the time of the movie, there was no Super G; the Alpine Skiing events were the slalom, giant slalom and the downhill. The Super G was added as a World Cup event in '82 or 83, and included in the Olympics for the first time in '88.The Super G is not as long or as fast as the Downhill. The skiers in the movie were the fastest of the fast.In the 1968 Olympics, Jean-Claude Killy of France won all three Alpine skiing disciplines, an amazing display or all around skiing prowess.The changes in equipment and technology since the movie was made are significant, but the courage and ego required to do this successfully are amazing. Although a different breed of cat, I've always likened Downhillers to Big Wave surfers. The natural forces involved are awesome, the consequences (for inattention) possibly fatal.The movie captured the quirky nature of the gunslinger type that is drawn to this sport.

moonspinner55 Old-fashioned sports drama given very modern look and feel, mixing 16mm footage with 35mm for an exhilarating visual effect. Robert Redford is quite good portraying an extremely self-assured skier from Idaho Springs, Colorado who is picked as a substitute member on an American team competing in Europe; after a humiliating wipe-out fails to derail his ego, he returns to the States for training with the Winter Olympics just two years away. "Downhill Racer", directed by the debuting Michael Ritchie, is a low-keyed character study masquerading as a sports film--and yet the skiing action is what most viewers end up remembering. The two halves are blended together thanks to punchy editing and the handsome presentation (and by the personalities brought forth by Redford and Gene Hackman as the team's coach), though the macho-subdued screenplay is rather verbose. Once we understand that Redford's David is a self-centered bastard, there's nothing much else to him except his good looks, and the women characters on the scene (there are no female athletes) are sex-objects or uninformed targets for ridicule. A few terrific moments, though the opening credits sequence is really cheesy and Kenyon Hopkins' score is occasionally overwrought. ** from ****