Prefontaine (1997)

Inspirational and entertaining, PREFONTAINE is another acclaimed success from the makers of HOOP DREAMS. It's the true-life story of legendary track star Steve Prefontaine, the exciting and sometimes controversial "James Dean of Track," whose spirit captured the heart of the nation! Cocky, charismatic, and tough, "Pre" was a running rebel who defied rules, pushed limits ... and smashed records ... in an incredible against-all-odds quest for Olympic gold! Now a major motion picture, the triumphs and heartbreaks of this unforgettable champion will have you riveted from beginning to end! Product Description

A Forgotten Comet, While Others Mere Stars

A longtime runner, myself, who'd forgotten about this rising star in the runner's world, can testify to "Prefontaine" being the best athlete bio-pic of recent memory that surprises, informs and inspires in the best sense of the word.You'll lace up the running shoes after this film. The script was generous to all the supporting people who nurture greatness in the form of Steve Prefontaine. Special mention should go to the casting and artistic control of this looking back upon the start of the jogging era. Jared Leto plays Prefontaine like a glove, at first running on brashness to finish on unselfish awareness. Certainly, there are parallels to James Dean here, but when actual Munich footage enters effectively, Leto's portrayal ascends with the laurels Prefontaine earned. Next to "Jim Thorpe--All Merican" in inspiration, "Prefontaine" uplifts with its sad ending, while "Thorpe" falls away despairingly. When you watch this film unfold as much about a gifted athlete as a giving one, and you reflect upon the selfish ones today, you will want to learn more about this comet who blazed once brightly. And that makes this the exceptional film. June 7, 2008

A young man matures but then is lost to us

This is a good film. It entertains totally. Jared Leto does a splendid job of maintaining the center of attention for almost the entire film. This is a sign of a considerable actor to hold our attention for two full hours as the figure almost always on screen.

It is an inspirational film but also a cautionary one. I say this because Prefontaine's ambitions and self assurance seem adolescent at first. Like many young high school seniors, he knows everything and no one can tell him anything. He just happens to be one of the most talented and determined high school seniors in the nation. The film takes Prefontaine through a series of events that begin to teach him his personal limits, his priorities, his commitment to others, and finally that he must adjust to events larger than himself. In a sentence, this film is about an extremely self-motivated and self-centered talented young man who becomes a better person as he adjusts to the hard knocks that come to all of us in life. The major hard knocks for Prefontaine are the terrible events in Munich and his performance which disappointed him. IN many ways this is the best part of the film for we get to see the terror of the events in Munich and we get to see Prefontaine's reactions to those events.

Jared Leto goes a good job playing this young man. I wish he had been able to reap the rewards of maturity.
May 28, 2008

Go Pre!

If you're a runner you know who Pre is. You will like this movie. Jared Leto does a great job. April 21, 2008

I don't know how anyone can like this movie

I've read most of the 5 star reviews and they just baffle me. This movie doesn't even compare to the other movie on Steve Prefontaine, Without Limits. The acting is very poor, the writing is horrible, and the production values are atrocious. It is also much much less factually actuate than Without Limts (for specific reasons why read the the 1 star review, A Customer). People who say that Jared Leto resembles Pre live in a reality that I'll never know. He looks and acts nothing like Pre. Again not even comparable to the job the Billy Crudup did in Without Limits. And there is nothing in this film resembling the relationship between Nike co-founder and legendary running coach Bill Bowerman, portrayed by the brilliant Donald Sutherland, and Pre as there is in Without Limits.

In short this film is a cheesy poorly acted melodrama, and it boggles my mind how anybody could think that this film was better than Without Limits, or even a decent film on it's own. April 15, 2008

Very entertaining

Enjoyed this film very much. I suggest watching Without Limits and Fire on the Track: The Story of America's Greatest Running Legend. February 23, 2008

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