coming up on TV: DOWNHILL RACER

DOWNHILL RACER
DOWNHILL RACER

On September 2, Turner Classic Movies is airing 1970’s Downhill Racer, set in the world of competitive Alpine skiing. Robert Redford plays a handsome and talented, but insolent, ski star with daddy issues and a tendency to self-sabotage. As he strives to make the US team, he clashes with the no-nonsense coach (Gene Hackman). Downhill Racer came at a pivotal point in the careers of Redford, Hackman and the director Michael Ritchie.

As a filmmaker, Ritchie was comfortable telling a story without much dialogue – very spare, Hackman’s character is terse, and Redford’s is a sphinx. Redford’s character, especially, is often quietly observed as he goes about his business, emphasizing his self-isolation. The ski races are classic, with soundtrack adorned only with the swishing of the skis and the crunching of the snow.

Downhill Racer remains at the top of the ski movie genre. The great sound is matched by beautiful mountain visuals and groundbreaking camerawork.

To most Americans, alpine skiing was pretty new and sexy in 1970. We had become familiar with the sport through ABC’s Wild World of Sports and the 1968 Olympics, dominated by the handsome Jean-Claude Killy. The sport’s American stars were not from the among the affluent Americans who took ski vacations, but from workaday kids who grew up in the Rockies – just like Redford’s character.

When they made Downhill Racer, the three principals were each at the cusp of stardom. Ritchie had directed lots of TV, but this was his first theatrical feature. He followed it with his masterpiece The Candidate, still the best film ever about American politics. He followed that with work that included The Bad News Bears, Semi-tough, Fletch, The Scout and The Positively True Adventures of the Cheerleader-Murdering Mom; note that, except for Fletch, those films centered on competition in sports and politics.

Redford became well-known for Barefoot in the Park in 1967 and then a huge star with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). In 1970, he was poised for an amazing run with The Candidate, Jeremiah Johnson, The Way We Were, The Sting, The Great Gatsby, The Great Waldo Pepper, Three Days of the Condor and All the President’s Men – all made in the FIVE years 1972-1976

Gene Hackman had a memorable supporting turn in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde and then starred in The Gypsy Moths (1969). He made Downhill Racer just before his career exploded with I Never Sang for My Father, The French Connection, The Conversation and his two Oscars.

Robert Redford and Gene Hackman in DOWNHILL RACER
Robert Redford and Gene Hackman in DOWNHILL RACER

Movies to See Right Now

ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL
ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL

This is as good as it gets until December – FOUR of my Best Movies of 2015 – So Far are playing in theaters:

Don’t miss Fabrice Luchini in the delightfully dark comedy Gemma Bovery. The Melissa McCarthy spy spoof Spy is a very funny diversion. Far from the Madding Crowd is a satisfying choice for those looking for a period bodice ripper. I also liked the two-in-one Swedish comedy The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, a rich mixture of absurdity and broad physical humor.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is the savagely funny Argentine comedy Wild Tales. It’s now available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu and Xbox Video.

Don’t forget that Turner Classic Movies is filling each June and July Friday with film noir in its Summer of Darkness series, hosted by Film Noir Foundation president Eddie Muller – the Czar of Noir. The series schedule includes several favorites of my Overlooked Noir.

This week Turner Classic Movies is also bringing us some of the very best Westerns. On June 29, we can see the now-overlooked masterpiece The Emigrants (1971), depicting the journey of Swedish emigrants to frontier Minnesota. It is remarkably realistic and faithful to the historical period. The same cast (Max von Sydow, Liv Ullman) continued the story in the sister film The New Land (1972). Both films were directed by Jan Troell and both were nominated for Oscars. It’s a Must See for anyone whose heritage includes 19th century European immigration to the prairie states.

Then on July, TCM shows Sydney Pollack’s under recognized 1972 masterpiece Jeremiah Johnson, which features a brilliantly understated but compelling performance by Robert Redford. If you want to understand why Redford is a movie star, watch this movie. It’s only 108 minutes long, and today’s filmmakers would bloat this epic tale to 40 minutes longer. (The same night, TCM is accompanying Jeremiah Johnson with with two other great Westerns, Little Big Man and The Searchers.)

Max von Sydow and Liv Ullman in THE EMIGRANTS
Max von Sydow and Liv Ullman in THE EMIGRANTS

All Is Lost: resilience meets hopelessness

all is lostJ.C. Chandor’s All Is Lost begins with Robert Redford reading a farewell letter to an unidentified someone.  Then it flashes back to a boating mishap eight days earlier. For the rest of the film there is only one character and there are only three more lines.  Redford plays a solo yachtsman, adrift in the middle of the vast Indian Ocean, who must deal with a disabled (and then shipwrecked) boat, storms and other calamities.  All alone. With his survival at stake.

The protagonist is unusually resourceful but his resilience is tested by each catastrophe and the increasing hopelessness of his situation.  The entire time, we’re watching only Redford, and gauging his thoughts and feelings from his expression and his actions.  It’s a powerful experience.

Chandor showed a lot of promise with last year’s Wall Street thriller Margin Call, and he has another winner with All Is Lost.

TCM’s Korean War Marathon

On June 24 and 25, TCM is showing fourteen straight Korean War movies: The Steel Helmet (1951),  Men In War (1951) , Men Of The Fighting Lady (1954), I Want You (1951), Battle Circus (1953),  Tank Battalion (1958), Mission Over Korea (1953), Battle Taxi (1955), The Bamboo Prison (1955), All the Young Men (1960), Take the High Ground! (1953), Time Limit (1957), The Rack (1956) and  Hell in Korea (1956).

If you’re gonna watch just one, I recommend The Steel Helmet, a gritty classic by the great Sam Fuller, a WWII combat vet who brooked no sentimentality about war.  Fuller and Peckinpah favorite Gene Evans is especially good as the sergeant.

This time, TCM is not showing the three most well-known Korean War movies:   Manchurian Candidate, Pork Chop Hill and M*A*S*H.

Earlier this year, TCM broadcast War Hunt,  a 1962 film about Robert Redford joining a Korean War unit as a new replacement with John Saxon as the platoon’s psycho killer.  Along with Redford, Sidney Pollack and Francis Ford Coppola are in the cast, making War Hunt the only film with three Oscar-winning directors as actors.   Don’t blink, or you’ll miss for Coppola as an uncredited convoy truck driver.