Prefontaine *** (1997, Jared Leto, R Lee Ermey, Ed O’Neill, Amy Locane) – Classic Movie Review 2097

Co-writer/director Steve James’s 1997 sports drama stars the young Jared Leto as the amazingly promising but doomed American athlete Steve Prefontaine in the first out of two simultaneously made biopic films.

Prefontaine ran fast and died young. He was the Oregon long-distance runner who won all the major US titles. But he died in a car crash at 24 before his potential could be fully realised at the Montreal Olympic Games in 1976, where he was tipped to win gold.

The true-life story and sterling performances are better than Steve James and Eugene Corr’s slightly iffily written screenplay deserves. Most especially, Leto and R Lee Ermey as his coach, the legendary Bill Bowerman, are first rate. And so is Ed O’Neill as Bill Dellinger, the assistant coach who was with Pre day-to-day.

Also in the strong cast are Lindsay Crouse (as Pre’s mom Elfriede Prefontaine), Amy Locane (as Nancy Alleman, Pre’s girlfriend at the time of his death), Kurtwood Smith (as Curtis Cunningham), Breckin Meyer (as Pre’s teammate Pat Tyson), Laurel Holloman and Brian McGovern.

The film tells the story from the point of view of Dellinger and Alleman, whereas Without Limits, released in 1998, tells the story from the point of view of Bowerman, who later co-founded Nike, Inc, and Mary Marckx, Prefontaine’s girlfriend while at the University of Oregon.

Prefontaine’s script explores the issues of American athletes’ amateur status and their lack of resources while competing with the world’s top athletes, and the pressure from American fans.

Jared Leto won an Oscar and Golden Globes for Best Supporting Actor for Dallas Buyers Club in 2014.

On 14 February 2013 Amy Locane was sentenced to three years in jail for a 2010 drunk driving accident that killed 60-year-old Helene Seeman and seriously injured her husband Fred. Locane was released on parole on 12 June 2015.

See also Without Limits (1998) with Billy Crudup as Prefontaine.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2097

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