Friday, February 13, 2009

Toni Reavis’ top five running movies

1) The Sting, 1973. Robert Redford does some of the best on-screen running several times in this entertaining period piece. Put him on the 4 X 400 meter Tinsel Town Dream Team.

2) Running, 1979. Starrring Michael Douglas, this pic portrays running in such high camp, i.e. Douglas wearing his necktie as a headband (huh?), that it bends all the way past bad back into good (in a masochistic sort of way).

3) Marathon Man, 1976. Dustin Hoffman was a real distance runner, and portrayed the act and the mentality honestly in this George Roy Hill directed Nazi-themed thriller.

3) Jericho Mile, 1979. Word was that Peter Strauss got down into the low 4:20s while filming this made-for-TV prison-yard yarn.

4) Chariot's of Fire, 1981. Not because it won the Academy Award as best picture of the year, or because of the Vangelis score, but because it nailed the imbalanced, morally repugnant relationship between athletes and their federation officials, the vestiges of which remain with us today.

5) Fire on the Track, 1995. The Story of Steve Prefontaine, America's most charismatic runner, and now James Dean-like legend told by those who knew him best. Their efforts helped start and sustain the running boom of the 1970s in whose field we still toil today.

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