Le vainqueur

This was not a great movie but I enjoyed it. There are lots of running scenes. It is about a guy who has been a failure at everything all his life, including running, and who decides to do what he really wants to do, despite what everyone thinks. So he devotes himself to making the marathon team for the USA in the Olympics. It is uplifting. I found the ending kind of hoaky but all in all it was enjoyable.

I taped it

I saw this movie with my Dad in 1979. In 1994 I ran my first marathon with my Dad and I think that was the first time I recalled seeing this movie. I have run four other marathons with him since and have been in an on and off again search of this movie for over 9 years. It is nastalgic to me know and I am hoping someone is out there who can help me locate a copy. Any assistance would be appreciated.

An agreeable story about having the courage to be what you are. A film that bring you back everything , dealing with an American marathoner, Michael Andronopolis : Michael Douglas who effortly runs Marathons : 42 kilometers, a man whose main hobbie is running, the only real thing that make him happy, and he is subsequently appointed as US runner in the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games. Previously, his marriage to Susan Anspach goes wrong . They have two children who shame their father who is contantly running across the city. He won't be discouraged, he won't be used, he won't be stopped from winning back everything he lost and loved.

An interesting film about hope, effort, determination and a strong fighting for getting his purports, in which a stubborn jobless runner gets the greatest success. Michael Douglas gives a nice acting as the runner whose marriage has fallen apart,and his two daughters have not due respect for him, but he gets redemption thanks to his partipation at the Marathons as Boston and especially the Montreal Olympic Games. As stock footage of this Game was used including stadium images and Marathon race throughout the Montreal streets. However, the real winner was a German athlete and nor a Canadian athlete as it shows up at the movie. To prepare his character Michael Douglas had to train, and he had to get fit, as well as he lost weight and gave up smoking approx two packets of tobacco a day . He is well accompanied by a good support cast in brief appearances from Chuck Shamata, Eugene Levy, Lawrence Dane, and look at TV secondary stars as Giancarlo Exposito, Tony Rosato and Gordon Clapp.

It contains an evocative and atmosphetic cinematography by Lazslo George, shot on location in New York , the known Boston Marathon and Montreal, where runner Michael Douglas trains, he runs and he eventually competing. As well as an anticlimatic and unappropriate musical score composed by means of synthesizer. The motion picture was competently directed by Steven H Stern. He was a good craftsman who directed a lot of fims as TV as cinema, such as : Harrard summer, Young love first love, Anatomy of a seduction, A small killing, Miracle on ice, Draw, The devil and Max Devlin, Mazes and monsters, Forbidden love, Obssessive love, The ambush murders, Getting physical , Undergrads, Murder in space, Rolling vengeance, Not quite human, Weekend war, Final notice, Personals, Love and murder, Morning glory, Black Fox , Breaking the surface. Being his most successful movie : This park is mine with Tommy Lee Jones. Rating 6/10. Decent film that will appeal to Michael Douglas fans.

I went to this movie because I am a runner. I think I was the only one in the whole theater."As Mike Douglas so aptly put it "No one came" as in "some came running...get it...well...The movie was a big disappointment. First of all, the lead men in the Boston Marathon scene could never have built like football players. to be honest, Michael was the only one who looked like a legitimate runner. It started off with him getting up in the wee hours, guzzling down orange juice, and running fully clothed for his job to work. I believe he would have had a good case of heartburn by the time he got there!And the end when he is heroically crawling to the finish line after everyone else has gone...too much . The only realistic aspect was his relationship with his wife, who couldn't handle this business of her husband running, not working and taking care of the family. It seems he couldn't do both.

My memory of this film is probably not congruent with the reality, but for an eight year old kid I was deeply impressed. The story is of about a talented but grandiose marathoner runner who's fear of failing keeps him form fully engaging in commitments. He is under-employed, separated/divorced and estranged from his children. He pins all his hopes and identity on becoming an Olympic champion but intentionally slacks off during the close finish of the Olympic trials coming in fourth. His self-esteem being incapable of surviving an honest defeat. But after an injury to one of the other runners he is selected for the team anyway. During the actual race it seems that he plans to make good on his talents and takes a commanding lead until he slips and falls on the wet pavement dislocating his arm. At this point my memory is a little vague but for some reason he finally gets it: his self worth can't be determined by the alloy of his medal but by the test of character that is the highest symbolism of all athletic competition, and so he decides to finish the race for himself. The man who couldn't bear to ever be second only shot, now, is last, and he is alone running against himself. In his defeat he wins the victory of redemption and walks away with a prize far more valuable then an Olympic Gold Medal. I would very much like to risk the disappointment of seeing this film again as it was probably, outside of Black Beauty, the biggest cinematic impact on me before I turning ten.