Cast: Billy Crudup, Donald Sutherland, Monica Potter, Jeremy Sisto, Billy Burke, Dean Norris
Director: Robert Towne
Producers: Tom Cruise, Paula Wagner
Screenplay: Robert Towne, Kenny Moore
Cinematography: Conrad L. Hall
Music: Randy Miller
U.S. Distributor: Warner Brothers
During the late '60s and early '70s, Steve Prefontaine singlehandedly revitalized the sport of track, transforming it from a second-tier college activity to a major national interest. Prefontaine became something of a hero, the James Dean of running. His competitive spirit was so fierce that he could not accept being anything worst than first, and he refused to pace himself to allow a victory with anything less than a full effort. At one point, when asked how he could win against men who arguably possessed more pure talent, Prefontaine's response was, "I can endure more pain than anyone you've ever met." For him, each race was a work of art, which made his poor placing in the 1972 Olympic Games galling.
Munich was the culmination of his amateur track career. After setting countless American and collegiate records, Pre (as he was commonly known) was ready for the world stage. There, although the off-field murder of the Israeli athletes overshadowed any on-field activity, the race was held, with Prefontaine coming in a disappointing fourth. Following the loss, Pre went into an extended tailspin. He eventually recovered, and was preparing for the 1976 Olympics, when, at the age of 24 in 1975, he was killed in a single-car accident.
As astute movie-goers are aware, Without Limits is not the only recent feature account of Prefontaine's story, but it is the better one. Last year, Hoop Dreams' film makers Steve James and Peter Gilbert released Prefontaine, a pseudo-documentary that sought to explain the phenomenon of the title character as well as to chronicle his exploits on and off the track. Creatively, it was uneven, and the box-office take was dismal. As a result of Prefontaine's somnambulant financial performance, writer/director Robert Towne made two decisions concerning his version of the same story. The first was to delay the release by a full year. The second was to change the name from Pre to Without Limits. Whether either alteration (or the involvement of Tom Cruise as producer) will result in a greater number of tickets sold is unclear, but there's little doubt that Without Limits presents a more compelling narrative than its predecessor.
Two things make this movie a better piece of drama. In the first place, it presents the story linearly, without the frequent "interview" breaks that mar Prefontaine. Secondly, Without Limits explores the stormy relationship between Pre (played by Billy Crudup) and his coach, Bill Bowerman (Donald Sutherland). In the other movie, Bowerman is a secondary player. In Without Limits, he's a vital force – the man who is on hand to constantly motivate his star player. In fact, it's Bowerman's words that express one of the film's key themes: "Running, one might say, is an absurd pastime upon which to be exhausting ourselves. But if you can find meaning in the kind of running required of you to stay on this team, perhaps you'll find meaning in another absurd pastime: life."
It's fruitless to compare Billy Crudup's portrayal of Pre with that of Jared Leto, who played the athlete in Prefontaine. Both are excellent. Crudup does a top-notch job of bringing out Pre's obsessive need to win. We understand what he means when he states, "Is there anything worse than being second best?" Opposite Crudup, Donald Sutherland gives his best performance in nearly a decade (since A Dry White Season) as Bowerman. Sutherland, who has spent most of the '90s slumming in unchallenging roles, rises to the occasion here, making Bowerman an intractable figure whose hard exterior conceals a wellspring of compassion. As Pre's girlfriend Mary Marckx, Monica Potter is on hand to provide a little romance.
Robert Towne is a much-respected Hollywood veteran. As a writer, he is best known for scripting Chinatown. He also wrote The Last Detail, Shampoo, and Mission: Impossible (with David Koepp). As a director, his credits include Personal Best and Tequila Sunrise. Without Limits shares a trait with many of Towne's other features: a strong dramatic narrative. The director also makes effective use of period music. Instead of taking up space on the soundtrack with the sole purpose of selling CDs, songs like Blind Faith's mournful "Can't Find My Way Home" accentuate the atmosphere.
Some might ask whether we need two Prefontaine films, and the answer is probably "no." But enough time has elapsed since the release of the first that the second doesn't seem as redundant as it might have 12 months ago. As far as true sports movies go, Prefontaine's story has all of the elements necessary for an engaging motion picture (except a happy ending), and Towne does the best he can with the material at his disposal. Consequently, Without Limits makes for an engrossing examination of the will to win, the importance of icons in American sports, and the interference of money in amateur athletics. Above all, however, this film is an effective character study of a figure who has attained an almost-mythical status among track-and-field followers.
© 1998 James Berardinelli