I formidabili

A much overlooked film concerning Olympic marathon running. Loosely based on real events of the 1960 Rome Olympics. Follows the travails of four runners; American, Aussie, Check, and English all with different running styles and motivations. The ending is a bit predictable but quite interesting to see it get there. This film needs to put out on video!!

bringing stories together in a movie is an art form and this is an excellent painting, micheal winner where did it all go wrong? crawford, baker and o neal are never better and charles aznavour? i have not seen this film for 20 years but long for the day to see it again does anyone know how?

A more apt title might have been "The Marathon" since really this film deals more with that than the actual Olympic Games. In it, four runners, with disparate backgrounds, train and train in preparation for the big day when they will run 26 miles in just over two hours. Crawford plays a gawky and gangly milkman who, even in dress shoes, can outrun members of a local track team. Eventually, he is given a chance to improve himself under the direction of surly, obsessive coach Baker while girlfriend Taylor mopes. O'Neal is a cocky American who often doesn't push himself as far as he is capable of going and who drinks and cavorts regularly, activities which usually are an athlete's no-no. Compton is a simple Aborigine whose talents are being exploited for gambling profit by the thoughtless Kemp. Finally, Aznavour plays the world record holder - The Iron Man - who comes back into the fray to retain his title. To say that the editing is brisk on this film is an understatement. It's positively MTV-ish for the time it was made, though it occasionally verges on the choppy. The acting, for the most part, is fine. Crawford takes a while to seem realistic rather than comic, but eventually gets there. Baker digs deeply into his part and turns in a memorable performance. O'Neal was well cast for his role (and his then-wife Leigh Taylor-Young even pops up unbilled as a girl he wins in a drinking contest!) Compton is no actor, but manages to get by on an innate charm. Kemp has one of his most showy and prominent roles and enjoys himself fully. Aznavour has little to do (and is about the last thing one would expect to see as an Iron Man!), but he does all right. His child in the film has GOT to go down in history as one of the least attractive screen children EVER! There's a lot of great globe-trotting scenery, a nice trip into the world of 1970 and a cast that's peppered with decent British actors (not to mention an early appearance by handsome, baritone-voiced Elliott.) This isn't a spellbinding film, but it's a nice slice-of-life look at the backgrounds of these men and a glimpse into what it takes to attempt a marathon run. Until the big race, the stories rotate constantly, which helps with the pacing (though O'Neal is offscreen for a shockingly long time near the beginning.) Other interesting factors in the film include the politics of the Games and the depiction of racial relations in Australia. Widescreen viewing is recommended.

In 1970, between working with Oliver Reed in Swinging Sixties flicks and Charles Bronson in exploitation crime, a mainstream Michael Winner directed THE GAMES, centering on a group of worldwide runners training for the Rome Olympics... but the trainers are the most intriguing characters...

In particular Stanley Baker, at this point a British veteran actor (who always looked older than he actually was), as a former running champion with a limp so serious he never lets the viewer forget...

Which takes the kind of energy that's completely lacking in the extremely miscast Michael Crawford as a milkman turned record-breaking sprinter (randomly romancing ingenue Elaine Taylor), whose lightweight acting chops seems more befitting the quirky comedies he was used to...

Although his scenes with Baker are pretty good because the tough coach makes every scene count... As does the Australian Aborigine's own trainer, more of a promoter, in get-rich-quick-schemer (and kangaroo poacher) Jeremy Kemp, as offbeat-crooked as Baker is headstrong-intense...

Meanwhile Ryan O'Neal's American runner hardly has a coach at all... A pill-popping womanizer with a breezy (albeit also miscast) sex symbol appeal, he seems like part of another movie altogether....

In fact every participant's individual story from THE GAMES (including an aged Frenchman seeking a comeback) feels underdeveloped since director Winner, using a barrage of that era's zoom shots and choppy edits, has to stuff them all inside a single 100-minute sports programmer that passes the time decently...

But could have been better if Stanley Baker only had another runner/actor to train, and more time to do so.

Tedious, occasionally absorbing drama chronicling the stories of four male runners from different parts of the globe preparing themselves for the Rome Olympics. Michael Crawford, as the British dairy-deliverer who is found to have an uncanny track time, is the central focus of the film and his early scenes wowing all the hardened experts are fresh and well done; Ryan O'Neal, as the American jock with the (uh oh!) heart condition, is engaging simply because he's so young and eager (he would re-team with screenwriter Erich Segal the same year for "Love Story"). British-made film from erratic director Michael Winner supposedly travels around the world, yet the various locations are not captured to any particular advantage (the look of the picture is stuck in a British rut). The relationship between Crawford and his demanding coach is the most intriguing part of the movie--yet the closer we get to the Olympics finale, the faster interest tends to wane in these characters. ** from ****