Roger Ebert once named “the best movie ever made about sports”
Widely regarded as one of the most influential film critics of all time, Roger Ebert made invaluable contributions to cinema throughout his incredible career. Ebert was among the first notable champions of the New Hollywood movement, praising the innovative approaches of masterpieces like Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde, as well as emerging auteurs such as Martin Scorsese. Even after all these years, fans continue to flock to his website to revisit his insightful musings on their favourite movies.
Over the years, Ebert championed many genres – ranging from horror gems like William Friedkin’s The Exorcist to timeless comedies including Ernst Lubitsch’s Trouble in Paradise. Among the thousands of movies he reviewed, his thoughts about sports flicks often get lost in that vast ocean. However, there’s one particular sports project that Ebert liked so much that he went so far as to call it “the best movie ever made about sports”.
Titled Downhill Racer, Michael Ritchie’s debut feature stars Robert Redford as a motivated skier named David Chappellet who dreams of reaching a zenith that nobody had ever crossed before. Unfortunately, his journey to the top is complicated by personal crises that distract him from his goal of becoming the very best. According to Ebert, this 1969 sports drama is the best that the genre has to offer, even though it’s not about sports.
In his review, Ebert wrote: “Some of the best moments in Downhill Racer are moments during which nothing special seems to be happening. They’re moments devoted to capturing the angle of a glance, the curve of a smile, an embarrassed silence. Together they form a portrait of a man that is so complete, and so tragic, that Downhill Racer becomes the best movie ever made about sports — without really being about sports at all.”
The late American critic added: “Downhill racing is an intensely individual sport, and we feel that through some remarkable colour photography. More often than not, races are shot from the racer’s point of view, and there are long takes that nearly produce vertigo as we hurtle down a mountain. Without bothering to explain much of the technical aspect of skiing, Downhill Racer tells us more about the sport than we imagined a movie could.”
Filmed on location, Downhill Racer is definitely interesting from a technical perspective because it weaves the action into the fabric of an athlete’s tumultuous internal drama. In fact, it was this narrative duality that interested Ebert the most, as he pointed out how well Ritchie manages to create a unique balance between the glamour of the field and the more uncomfortable, personal domains.
Watch the trailer below.
