{"id":17100,"date":"2015-12-01T14:07:03","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T18:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=17100"},"modified":"2015-12-06T14:35:09","modified_gmt":"2015-12-06T18:35:09","slug":"michael-ritchie-downhill-racer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2015\/12\/01\/michael-ritchie-downhill-racer\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Ritchie: Downhill Racer<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"
Review of The Criterion Collection\u00a0Blu-ray edition.\r\n\r\nDownhill Racer\r\n<\/em><\/strong>d.\u00a0Michael Ritchie\u00a0(1969)\r\nSpine: #494\r\nBlu-ray Release Date: December 1, 2015\r\n\r\nScreen captures below are taken from The Criterion Collection Blu-ray disc, but resolution has been reduced from 1920x1080 to 900x506 and slightly compressed. You may click on them to view the 900x506 image.<\/pre>\n
Had I known that James Salter penned the script for Michael Ritchie’s Downhill Racer<\/em>, I would have picked up the Criterion Collection DVD a long time ago.\u00a0Luckily for me, The Criterion Collection is releasing the film as a Blu-ray upgrade today, and I fortuned upon Salter’s work unknowingly — and it was fantastic. When I first started reading Salter in 2008, shortly after I started this blog, I was taken in by his abrupt, short sentences and his lack of transitions, which give the narratives a punchy structure rather than a conventional flow. I was thrilled to see this style translate wonderfully to the big screen in one of Salter’s few scripts, based on a 1962 Oakley Hall novel (that Salter probably never read).<\/p>\n
\"Downhill<\/p>\n
Robert Redford is the man responsible for getting James Salter and first-time director Michael Ritchie on the Downhill Racer<\/em> team. In his interview for the Criterion edition, Redford said he was planning to make a trilogy about winning, and he wanted to focus on a sport that doesn’t often feature in a sports film: downhill skiing. He also talks about Salter’s style and relates a metaphor Salter shared with him: if you hold a leaf up to the sun, you see the veins; in his writing he likes to remove all of the extra filler and focus only on the veins.\u00a0We\u00a0work through\u00a0a plot, then,\u00a0without a smooth escort from A to B; rather, we jump from A to B, and A and B may not even seem very important on the surface, just a glance between a couple of characters and then on to some more interaction. These are accentuated by Ritchie’s visceral body cam downhill racing scenes. Consequently, we get a film that is all about the veins and the blood pumping through them.<\/p>\n
Redford, in his early thirties, would of course be the star, playing the talented but arrogant downhill skier David Chappellet, who is on a quest to join the U.S. Olympic team and win a gold medal.\u00a0And what an interesting performance! Redford, who is often so charming and charismatic, works magic in Salter’s script, which not only gives\u00a0Redford’s downhill skiing champion\u00a0little to say but also makes\u00a0his character\u00a0essentially unable to connect and communicate with\u00a0those around him.<\/p>\n
\"Downhill<\/p>\n
Redford’s inability to connect is a problem for his coach, Eugene Claire, played by the rock solid Gene Hackman. However, while the coach recognizes that Chapellet is a potential liability to the team — no one really likes him — he also recognizes that Chappellet may be the only way to the gold medal he is also seeking. And, as assistant coach Mayo (Dabney Coleman) says to a teammate who is complaining that Chappellet is not a team player: “Well, it’s not exactly a team sport, is it?”<\/p>\n
\"Downhill<\/p>\n
The principals are all willing to sacrifice a lot in order to get that elusive gold medal. But, again, this is played out not in big scenes that underline the cost of winning but in small scenes, where one character looks away rather than toward the other.<\/p>\n
\"Downhill<\/p>\n
Downhill Racer<\/em> was a fantastic discovery for me; I’m already looking forward to another viewing to further mine its riches that lie primarily under the surface.<\/p>\n
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The Criterion Disc:<\/strong> Back in 2009 when the original DVD was released (the film’s 40th anniversary), Criterion’s edition was nominated for a Satellite Award for Best DVD Extras. We get those same extras here, and they are indeed strong.<\/p>\n