A sports drama usually leans on a character study of its lead, and honestly, that’s often the part I find most interesting. There’s always this rough edge to them, a kind of built-in cynicism that makes them not immediately likable. David Chappellet fits right into that mold. He’s arrogant, standoffish, and carries a handful of unresolved issues, both with his team and with himself. The film paints him as a somewhat narcissistic, shallow, self-centered guy from a quiet rural background, chasing fame and glory by trying to make it to the Olympics as a downhill racer.

Even then, I think the real root of his problems is this persistent detachment, this inability to make genuine connections with people. Most of…

“I’ll be famous. I’ll be a champion.”
“World’s full of ‘em.”

Is this the most under seen movie starring both Gene Hackman and Robert Redford? It’s a niche subject, downhill ski racing, but the themes aren’t: the grueling demands of elite sport, the struggle to fit in, a strange man in strange land, the pain and thrill of competition. Some great ski photography, which, in the age of GoPro, is easy to dismiss. There’s a refreshing realism to the often prosaic nature of Olympic-level sport. The long bus rides, the fundraising, the sponsorships, the months spent training and waiting.

For most of the film Hackman is doing that classic Hackman thing where he's smiling through his clenched teeth. The scenes…

This one’s going out for Charles Robert Redford, Jr., born August 18, 1936.

Downhill Racer is my favorite 1969 film, my favorite sports film, my favorite Redford performance, and my third-favorite Redford film after Three Days of the Condor and All the President’s Men.

“You finished fourth in one race. Don’t expect to be given the world.”
“I don’t expect to be given anything.”

James Salter’s screenplay, loosely based on Oakley Hall’s 1963 novel, The Downhill Racers, was originally to be directed by Paramount honcho Bob Evans’s pal Roman Polanski. When RoPo dropped out, he was replaced by first-time director Michael Ritchie, who had directed several TV episodes. Ritchie brings a documentary approach to the subject of international downhill skiing…

I spent most of this film trying to think up a really good pun one-liner to start this review off, but I just couldn't think of the perfect one and that piste me off.

Downhill Racer is a quite significant journey out of my comfort zone because, as I've mentioned once or twice, I hate sports movies. I love sports but I hate sports movies. The vast majority of films of this kind I have ever seen have exactly the same tedious outcome of triumph over adversity, the same predictable procession of events almost every single sodding time.

Essentially, they take so much of what I love about sport, that being the unpredictability and the unknown, flush it away and…