Ron Bellamy: It's location that counts

By RON BELLAMY
Columnist, The Register-Guard

THE MEETING, AT the home of University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer, lasted into the wee hours of the morning, as Kenny Moore and Robert Towne passionately described their vision of a movie about the late Oregon distance runner, Steve Prefontaine.

It was, for all concerned, a vital session in June 1995, because Moore, who would write the screenplay, and Towne, who would co-write and direct, dearly wanted the movie to be filmed at Oregon's Hayward Field, and at the time a rival movie was winning that race.

At one point, Towne recalled Friday night, at the exhilarating Eugene premiere of "Without Limits," he told Frohnmayer that "this is not a movie looking for a location. This is a movie about the location."

How accurate that vision turned out to be.

Because "Without Limits," a wonderful movie, is more than the story of a talented, determined runner who died young, although that runner happens to be one of the most charismatic athletes in the history of his sport. And "Without Limits" concerns more than the dynamic between that runner and his coach, Bill Bowerman, although that dramatic relationship, between two compelling, complex, larger-than-life Oregonians, is central to the film. And "Without Limits" is much more than a sports movie, although the competitive sequences, painstakingly crafted, are riveting.

Certainly, those elements, and how they are perceived by moviegoers across the country, will determine whether the commercial success of the movie, filmed here in 1996, matches its artistic success.

And maybe only viewers with roots in this community will appreciate the subtle layer that helps make the movie so special: That, in the end, Towne kept his word. This is a movie about the location: About Hayward Field, and the University of Oregon, and Eugene, and the McKenzie River, and Coos Bay, and the Oregon Coast. And it is a movie about Oregonians, and a time in our history when track was a passion, and when Pre became the central figure in a community drama, performing on a stage that Bowerman had built.

"I hope you feel well-served," Towne said at the premiere. As a community we are, because Towne has directed his cameras at some of our best people, taking part in one of our best stories, in one of our best eras. He has captured our good side.

Because if the movie says something about Pre's personality - his drive, his honesty, his cocky self-confidence, his willingness to give absolutely all he had in a race - then that says something, too, about the community that embraced him. As Moore said at the premiere: "Eugene, you understood Pre the first time you laid eyes on him."

BEFORE THIS MOVIE, the University of Oregon's unfortunate film image was John Belushi in "National Lampoon's Animal House" - the horse in the dean's office, the food-fight in the EMU, the lovers on the Duck emblem in Autzen Stadium. Farewell, Bluto; let the nation instead meet Pre and Bowerman, whose flinty character, iron integrity and tremendous intellect are captured in Donald Sutherland's portrayal.

That's an image of which the UO can be proud - as Frohnmayer put it, "a very special showcase for the University of Oregon, and all that it stands for" - and what an opportunity this movie presents to Martin Smith, the university's new men's track and field coach. Because as Smith tries to describe the mystique of Oregon track to potential recruits who have only read about Pre, as he attempts to rekindle a flame that once burned brightly, he can say, and will say: See this movie. See how it was. Come here, and let's ignite that again.

You can, of course, quibble about some of the details in this movie - about scenes that never happened, about runners who never seem to sweat, about a fatal car wreck that might have happened exactly that way and probably did, in all but the official version.

But watching "Without Limits," I was reminded of the prologue to "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," which said: "Not that it matters, but most of what you are about to see is true."

There is, in "Without Limits," a larger truth that transcends all the details. Not that it matters, because this is a very good story, to be appreciated whether you were in the East Grandstand for some of Pre's most memorable races, or whether you simply want to see a richly textured film.

And in fact, the movie was so real that afterward, watching slides of the actual Bowerman and the actual Pre at a post-premiere reception, I found myself looking twice; they might have been Sutherland and Billy Crudup. And when I saw the re-creation of the 5,000 meters in the 1972 Olympics in Munich, I found myself hoping that this time Pre would win.

Prefontaine never won that race, or an Olympic medal, but he won the hearts of a community, and this movie reflects that. It is as Towne promised: A movie about the location.

September 11, 1998 

Ron Bellamy: Prefontaine's second shot  

By RON BELLAMY  
Columnist, The Register-Guard  
 

THE FINISH LINE is finally in sight for "Without Limits," the second of two movies filmed in 1996 about late Oregon distance runner Steve Prefontaine. 

After considerable delays, the Warner Bros.-distributed film opens today in New York City and in Los Angeles, and it will be screened Saturday in the Toronto International Film Festival for an audience that is expected to include megastar Tom Cruise, whose company financed the Robert Towne-directed movie and who was instrumental in delaying the movie's release from earlier this year to get it better exposure. 

However, with the exception of a special University of Oregon-hosted screening scheduled for Friday evening, Sept. 25, at the McDonald Theatre, "Without Limits" apparently won't reach Eugene until next month. 

A publicist representing Warner Bros. said Thursday that after the New York and Los Angeles openings, Warner Bros. plans to open the movie in some other major markets - such as Chicago and San Francisco - on Sept. 25, with other opening waves scheduled for Oct. 2 and Oct. 9, when the movie reaches Portland. 

"Eugene specifically has no opening date," said publicist Robin Buxton. "My guess is that they'll put Eugene with Portland" for an Oct. 9 opening. 

The good news, it seems, is that the movie, filmed in part at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field and other Eugene-area locations, will be well worth the wait. 

Indeed, veteran movie reviewer Richard Schickel absolutely gushes over it in the Sept. 7 issue of Time Magazine. As the headline summarizes: "Robert Towne's `Without Limits' isn't your average movie about sports. It's a real winner." Wrote Schickel: 

"The hero doesn't win the big race. Instead, he dies young and absurdly in an auto accident, leaving his highest promise unfulfilled. No wonder Warner Bros. has been dithering over the release of `Without Limits' for something like a year and a half. In that story line, it's kind of hard to find the thing all sports movies implicitly promise - a triumph of the human spirit. 

  "... `Without Limits,' which is a very good movie, will require a stroke of marketing genius to succeed. Or an unusual effort at understanding - a willingness by the audience to set aside generic expectations and engage the movie on its own terms." 

Schickel didn't simply engage the movie, he embraces it, and is struck profoundly by the personalities and the personal relationships, such as Prefontaine and his coach, Bill Bowerman, portrayed by Donald Sutherland. But Schickel also writes that Towne, who reportedly spent $1 million filming the 5,000-meter final in the 1972 Olympics, also "conveys the exhilaration and exhaustion of high-level competition with unprecedented realism and intimacy." 

Concludes Schickel: "One hopes that `Without Limits,' seemingly boxed in at the start, breaks free and scores an upset that is, yes, `purifying and thrilling,' for the uncompromising spirit it sweetly celebrates." 

THE MOVIE ALSO got raves in The New Yorker and from Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly, who graded it A-minus. That such reviewers think "Without Limits" has the right stuff is encouraging, because the first Prefontaine movie to be released - "Prefontaine" in January 1997 - was sincere and respectful but ultimately short of the home run that you'd hoped for. 

Certainly, "Prefontaine" labored under some disadvantages - a far smaller budget and the fact that Towne and co-writer Kenny Moore secured the exclusive rights to filming at Hayward Field - but the result, unfortunately, was a made-for-TV feel, and the movie, in Schickel's words, "flopped miserably." 

Steve Bence, a former teammate of Prefontaine's who assisted both movie companies before finally siding with Towne and Moore, said he is pleased with "Without Limits." Bence and his wife attended an LA premiere Tuesday with Mary Marckx, whose intense relationship with Prefontaine is a key element of the movie. 

"When you're really close to the story and the person, there are a lot of things you don't like about it, but it's more details than anything," Bence said. "We both agree that even though we can dislike some of the details in the movie, if you step back and say `Did it capture Pre's spirit and his rebelliousness, and try to tell you what it was about him that so many of us respect, and were inspired by?' the movie captures that really well." 

That's good news, because Prefontaine still connects, 23 years after his death, as Bence learned when he put together a Prefontaine website on the Internet. Check the e-mail, and you find messages from runners everywhere. 

"You just want to make sure that the movie explains why even kid runners today are so moved by him, and so affected by him," Bence said. "I think the movie does a great job." 

Steve Bence's Prefontaine website is found at http://home.att.net/~bence/index.htm; the official "Without Limits" website is http://www.without-limits.com/