Downhill Racer remains one of my favorite films. For a 13 yr old girl who grew up skiing in icy Vermont it was perfection. It was the beginning of the middle class mania for the sport. Every cool kid I knew wore an Easy Rider helmet and defogged their goggles like Redford. Camilla Sparv was the height of European glamour in her furs and icy aloofness. Of course he wanted off the farm!
The empty victory at the end made total sense for the times. We had all gone to see sunny Warren Miller ski documentaries at school auditoriums promoting the sport. But the Vietnam War said there is no winner.
It wasn’t until I got older that I read every one of James Salter’s books. His spareness, his view on masculine loneliness and the chasm between men and women make me appreciate the movie even more.
I would take it over almost any of the bloated films we have today.
See, now I think I know why I've always found this a difficult movie to love - I won't bore everyone with the details, but my one and only ski trip (I went to a posh school on a bursary) was a stinging reminder of how dirt-poor and desperately uncool I was in comparison, so it never really stuck with me as a sport (much like every other sport, to be fair). Maybe the movie requires more than a passing familiarity with skiing, which I don't have.
I've yet to read much Salter, but what I have read seems right up my alley, so I'll definitely keep on with him. His screenplay feels very European for an American movie - very elliptical, implication more than statement - so I have to admire the fact that it's ahead of the curve re: existential Hollywood cinema. And it'll be one I come back to, I think. Because, yeah, I would 100% take a chilly anti-sports drama over anything Hollywood produces today!
I’ve loved this film from the moment I first saw it in the early 1970s, and long before I started skiing myself. I even went on to work in St Anton, which is a key location in the film, so it seems like Kismet for me…ha-ha!
The great tragedy about Downhill Racer is that it raised a great ‘What if…?’ about Redford, namely why he didn’t play more ‘bad guys’, because he so perfectly played this part of the remote and anti-social win-at-all-costs loner who will always lose in the end. Compare his choice of roles with Paul Newman’s and Redford always chose the, if not easier route, then certainly, the more ‘saintlier’ one. And that’s a great pity, because he clearly had the potential to be a great ‘baddie’. Of course, his looks might have got in the way, but that, to my mind, would have made for a much more interesting paradox of a devil disguised as an angel.
And has Gene Hackman ever been in anything that he didn’t steal scenes from the leading man? Ha-ha! Fabulous actor; simply the best.
PS Had no idea that Robert Evans married Camilla Sparv…how many marriages to beautiful women did he have?! And she was, as you say, perfect for the equally distanced and disconnected from the real world ‘poor little rich and frostbitingly cold princess’.
Excellent point about Redford - I always picture him doing more bad guy roles, or at least morally ambiguous ones, but he really hasn't done that many, did he? But then I find even his good guys tend to have something dark about them. It might just be my suspicion of good-looking people, because I know how we think (stop laughing at the back). Newman was always - and I say this with all the love in the world - an odd duck, and I think he was more of a Capital-A Actor than Redford (thanks to Lee Strasberg), which might explain some of his choices.
As for Hackman - I mean, he's one of those guys I'll watch in anything, mostly for the reason you mention. I'm a big fan of regular-looking people popping up and ruining the star's day, as well as actors who turn around and go, "You know what? I'm done with it. Time to start writing novels in my retirement like a regular Joe." We could use more of 'em.
Per Wikipedia, Evans was married SEVEN times (and to think people gave Elizabeth Taylor grief), and only MacGraw lasted more than three years. I can only assume he was horrifically unhappy the entire time.
Yes, agree about the difference between Newman and Redford, and yes also to the invisible darkness lurking within Redford’s beatific light…ha-ha! Still, the roles he did play that almost always highlighted his virtues rather than his sins were played brilliantly. From All The President’s Men to Three Days of The Condor, it’s hard to see anyone else better those roles.
Seven times?! And each time to yet another raving beauty…so why so unhappy, Mr Evans? Ha-ha!
Downhill Racer remains one of my favorite films. For a 13 yr old girl who grew up skiing in icy Vermont it was perfection. It was the beginning of the middle class mania for the sport. Every cool kid I knew wore an Easy Rider helmet and defogged their goggles like Redford. Camilla Sparv was the height of European glamour in her furs and icy aloofness. Of course he wanted off the farm!
The empty victory at the end made total sense for the times. We had all gone to see sunny Warren Miller ski documentaries at school auditoriums promoting the sport. But the Vietnam War said there is no winner.
It wasn’t until I got older that I read every one of James Salter’s books. His spareness, his view on masculine loneliness and the chasm between men and women make me appreciate the movie even more.
I would take it over almost any of the bloated films we have today.
Thank you for reminding me!
See, now I think I know why I've always found this a difficult movie to love - I won't bore everyone with the details, but my one and only ski trip (I went to a posh school on a bursary) was a stinging reminder of how dirt-poor and desperately uncool I was in comparison, so it never really stuck with me as a sport (much like every other sport, to be fair). Maybe the movie requires more than a passing familiarity with skiing, which I don't have.
I've yet to read much Salter, but what I have read seems right up my alley, so I'll definitely keep on with him. His screenplay feels very European for an American movie - very elliptical, implication more than statement - so I have to admire the fact that it's ahead of the curve re: existential Hollywood cinema. And it'll be one I come back to, I think. Because, yeah, I would 100% take a chilly anti-sports drama over anything Hollywood produces today!
I’ve loved this film from the moment I first saw it in the early 1970s, and long before I started skiing myself. I even went on to work in St Anton, which is a key location in the film, so it seems like Kismet for me…ha-ha!
The great tragedy about Downhill Racer is that it raised a great ‘What if…?’ about Redford, namely why he didn’t play more ‘bad guys’, because he so perfectly played this part of the remote and anti-social win-at-all-costs loner who will always lose in the end. Compare his choice of roles with Paul Newman’s and Redford always chose the, if not easier route, then certainly, the more ‘saintlier’ one. And that’s a great pity, because he clearly had the potential to be a great ‘baddie’. Of course, his looks might have got in the way, but that, to my mind, would have made for a much more interesting paradox of a devil disguised as an angel.
And has Gene Hackman ever been in anything that he didn’t steal scenes from the leading man? Ha-ha! Fabulous actor; simply the best.
PS Had no idea that Robert Evans married Camilla Sparv…how many marriages to beautiful women did he have?! And she was, as you say, perfect for the equally distanced and disconnected from the real world ‘poor little rich and frostbitingly cold princess’.
A brilliant read, Ray…many thanks!
We're bringing in the skiing crowd! FINALLY!
Excellent point about Redford - I always picture him doing more bad guy roles, or at least morally ambiguous ones, but he really hasn't done that many, did he? But then I find even his good guys tend to have something dark about them. It might just be my suspicion of good-looking people, because I know how we think (stop laughing at the back). Newman was always - and I say this with all the love in the world - an odd duck, and I think he was more of a Capital-A Actor than Redford (thanks to Lee Strasberg), which might explain some of his choices.
As for Hackman - I mean, he's one of those guys I'll watch in anything, mostly for the reason you mention. I'm a big fan of regular-looking people popping up and ruining the star's day, as well as actors who turn around and go, "You know what? I'm done with it. Time to start writing novels in my retirement like a regular Joe." We could use more of 'em.
Per Wikipedia, Evans was married SEVEN times (and to think people gave Elizabeth Taylor grief), and only MacGraw lasted more than three years. I can only assume he was horrifically unhappy the entire time.
Yes, agree about the difference between Newman and Redford, and yes also to the invisible darkness lurking within Redford’s beatific light…ha-ha! Still, the roles he did play that almost always highlighted his virtues rather than his sins were played brilliantly. From All The President’s Men to Three Days of The Condor, it’s hard to see anyone else better those roles.
Seven times?! And each time to yet another raving beauty…so why so unhappy, Mr Evans? Ha-ha!