Without Limits 
by Harvey S. Karten
 
Steve Prefontaine may not have been able to catch a football as well as Air Bud, the other great athlete photographed this year, nor could he sink baskets like that strapping canine. But take the two out for eight laps around the track and he'd probably give the retriever a run for the gold. Steve Prefontaine, considered the greatest American track athlete of his time, was a charismatic chap who could be counted on the ignite the crowds from Eugene to Munich, a young man who proved that you don't have to be a football hero to get along with all the pretty girls. Robert Towne directs this story in a fairly straightforward way: it is, at base, a conventional biopic. Nonetheless--perhaps even because of its orthodoxy--it is as inspirational as Hugh Hudson's 1981 "Chariot of Fire" albeit without that director's probing insight. Towne tends to throw in one too many close-ups of feet as he did in his 1982 study of a lesbian relatioship during the 1980 Olympics, "Personal Best." While Towne does not spend too much time rummaging about Prefontaine's compulsion to win, he knows how to excite his audience using Conrad Hall's slo- mo photography with discretion and a booming sound track pulsating with Randy Miller's original music.

         Towne introduces the young Pre, as he became affectionately known, a grade-schooler frequently
     chased by the town bullies presumably because of his German background and accent. Cut to his final year of
     high school where the athlete is juggling several offers of full track scholarships. He has decided to choose his
     home state's U. of Oregon if only its famed coach would personally invite him to attend. The principal conflict
     set up by Towne and Kenny Moore's script is between Pre (Billy Crudup) and coach Bill Bowerman (Donald
     Sutherland), the man who eventually designed the Nike running shoe. Pre stubbornly insists on leading the race
     from start to finish, holding that "it's chickenshit to win any other way." Bowerman warns that when
     world-class competition arrived in the coming Olympics, his protege would have to pace himself and save his
     energy for the final laps. Morever, said the coach, the lead runner would cut the wind from the second-place
     competitor, making the latter's job all too easy. Why the drive to be first at all times? Towne implies that the
     pressure came from Pre's frequently having to outrun bullies a decade earlier. But in the less sympathetic film
     by Steve James, "Prefontaine" (starring Jared Leto), the athlete was seen as a boastful, somewhat
     unsympathetic young man who once refused even to allow a nine-year-old to beat him for fun.

         Pre and Coach Bill exchange philosophies time and again, with the runner holding that his ability to win
     came from his willingness to endure pain more than the next guy. Bowerman countered with what is probably
     the truer interpretation: talent is the key. "Your heart pumps more blood and the bones in your feet are made
     for the tough asphalt." Philosophy, of course, is not what we came to this film for, and Towne gives us plenty
     of action, mostly on the field, a little in the boudoir. In the University of Oregon's celebrated field, in Finland,
     and in Munich, Pre is the crowd favorite, with thousands of fans stomping their feet and shouting "Pre" as
     though the runner were the highest-paid basketball player in his country. In fact he remained an amateur
     throughout his life, forced to fly tourist class and given a pittance to live on while traveling. He dated many
     women but his favorite was the religious and celibate Mary Marckx (performed by the terminally adorable
     Monica Potter), a young woman who played hard-to-get at first as she was put off by his popularity with the
     fair sex. Ms. Potter, however, does little more than look great and mug from time to time for the camera.

         "Without Limits" is a sturdy, hero-worshipping picture that underplays the boasting which made Pre less
     sympathetic in last year's version by Hollywood Pictures. It features solid acting by Billy Crudup who
     obviously trained hard for the role and Donald Sutherland who wears his characteristic grin for the major part
     of the picture. The crowd scenes look authentic and each time Crudup lets the asphalt fly, any feeling person in
     the audience must feel his heart skip about as much as would a runner who is at least jogging the 5,000 meters.
     For the record, Steve Prefontaine was killed at the age of 24 by a hit-and-run driver, having just turned down
     an offer of $200,000 to go professional. He was intent on competing in the Montreal Olympics, an event
     off-limits to those who make a living from the sport.