InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

bkoganbing This film is great if you like skiing or like to watch skiers. But I can get the same from watching the Kirk Douglas World War II era film Heroes Of Telemark.I could make another comparison to Steve McQueen's racing film Le Mans which basically dispensed with a plot. The rudiments of a plot are present in Downhill Racer, but just barely.Downhill Racer casts Robert Redford as a would be American skiing champion who has a royal high opinion of himself and has to be brought down to earth by his coach Gene Hackman. Both want to bring some skiing gold to the USA and away from those snowy European countries that dominate.Of the two Hackman has a far more interesting character. Redford is strangely bland to me in this part. It makes Downhill Racer not one of his better films.But the skiing footage is fabulous.

Lechuguilla A story about the ups and downs of a young American skier named David Chappellet (Robert Redford), as he competes in various pre-Olympic trials, in Europe, "Downhill Racer" is a film I liked not at all. The story is emotionally cold and very impersonal. And David is smug, arrogant, self-centered, egotistical, and shallow.The plot is incredibly perfunctory. Lots of minor, inconsequential routine consumes the film. Characters spend an inordinate amount of time waiting for something to happen, which drains away any intended tension or suspense. Further, there are dozens of downhill racing scenes, all similar, and largely interchangeable, which, among other things, renders an unnecessarily repetitive plot. The story doesn't really build, but stays more or less static, until the unsatisfying ending. And the script injects way too much press coverage into the plot, which adds to the impersonal tone.However much Redford struts, postures, and prances around, he's not at all convincing, because he looks about twenty years too old for the role. To a limited extent this is offset by the presence of lovely Camilla Sparv, in a support role.With wide-angle lens, the camera stays way back from the action, in many scenes, acting as spectator, instead of getting up close and personal with the characters. Colors are bright, vivid, almost garish. One thing I did like was the placement of a camera on a skier in a couple of scenes, to give viewers a feel for what it's like to ski 80 m.p.h. down a mountainside.Watching "Downhill Racer" is not unlike watching a routine ski race on television, impersonal and voyeuristic. The film accentuates the competition, the spectacle, with a main character that is not likable, and a story that is impersonal and lacks thematic depth. Redford doesn't help matters. My impression is that the film was basically his cinematic play-toy, a vanity project, given his personal interest in skiing.

st-shot Director Michael Ritchie's minimalist cinema verite approach to this story about an Olympic hopeful that's a heel is an interesting an mostly successful attempt to capture the sport in the Wide World of Sports documentary style. Robert Redford's (David Cappellett) cocksure good looks and self absorbed mannerisms are deftly utilized in reaction shots to what's going on around him enabling him to convey much of his character with a minimum of dialog. It is the same documentary style that also hinders the film since the camera never remains steady long enough for characters to enunciate at length their feelings and relationships are explored at a distance. Gene Hackman is his no nonsense coach trying to instill some team values in him while capricious jet setter girlfriend Camilla Sparv shows Chappellet that she can be every bit as shallow as he is. The best exchanges in the film come from his uncomfortable relationship with his father (Dabney Coleman).The ski scenes are filled with well edited montages to give the film a healthy pace and adding suspense to the film's final minute as Chappellet success hangs in the balance. It may not medal but Ritchie's novel style and Redford's golden boy arrogance make Downhill Racer more than competitive.

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.