PERSONAL BEST - DVD review

When this film first appeared in 1982, I recall reading that Robert Towne--who wrote, produced, and directed it--said he had always wanted to make a movie about a bunch of girls sitting around naked in a steam room. I think he was teasing, but it surely didn't hurt in selling the picture.

Fortunately, Towne is a talented guy, and even though this was his first directorial effort, he had already by that time written the screenplays for "The Last Detail," "The Parallax View," "Chinatown," "Shampoo," "The Missouri Breaks," "Heaven Can Wait," and other notable films. Sure, "Personal Best" contains its share of nudity and sex, but this story of female Olympic track stars is a fairly sensitive portrait of individual ambition, motivation, drive, and honest human affections, as well. That it is far too long for its slender story line is another matter.

"Personal Best" is about four people: two female track-and-field stars, their coach, and a college water-polo player. Their lives intertwine as the narrative goes on, but mainly it's about the first of the two women, a naive young freshman hurdler at Cal Poly, with the other woman and the two men hanging out on the periphery helping to move the action along. And the action is all about competition: the competitive spirit in athletics, in personal relationships, in love, and in sex. Indeed, the whole athletic angle seems to be some kind of metaphor for the other activities. Whether this overly ambitious symbolism works for you is yet another thing.

The plot begins in 1976 during a track meet at the University of Oregon (where things will also end over three years later as the young people prepare for the 1980 Moscow Olympics, a nice pair of bookends for the tale). Our naive young hurdler, Chris Cahill (Mariel Hemingway), has just lost her race, badly. Nearby, a champion pentathlete, Tory Skinner (played by Patrice Donnelly, a real-life track champion), has just done well in her event but notices the despondent Chris and goes over to console her. Chris and Tory almost immediately find an attraction for one another and begin a romantic involvement, which, needless to say, eventually becomes an athletic rivalry.

The two men in the film are, first, the team's coach, Terry Tingloff (Scott Glenn), an edgy, over-the-top, die-hard kind of guy who, at Tory's insistence, reluctantly agrees to let Chris work out with the team; and, second, Denny Stites (Kenny Moore), a water-polo player who becomes yet another rival for Chris's affections.

Everything goes swimmingly until coach Tingloff sees Chris's athletic potential and asks her to enter the pentathlon; yes, pitting her against her lover, Tory.

On the disc's commentary track, Towne tells us that this was probably the most realistic movie about athletes that anyone had ever made up until that time, and I'd have to agree. We follow the athletes religiously through all of their trials and training, from the track to the dorms to the parties to the aforementioned steam room, with the filmmaker providing a refreshing candor in all respects. He filmed the various track-and-field events at actual meets, intercutting staged scenes seamlessly with the real-life action. He also used a passel of real-life athletes to fill out the supporting cast, some of whom were actually competing in the events being filmed. Moreover, Towne seems to have encouraged his actors to improvise much of their actions and conversation, affording an even greater degree of spontaneity and verisimilitude than we usually find in movies. While the film is mostly a dialogue-driven character study, Towne manages to get the viewer involved at least in the sporting events, if not always the friendships. And Towne handles the nudity and sex with sensitivity and restraint, while remaining as revealing as possible.

So if it's a good, tender, compassionate, sympathetic treatment of the joys and travails of life and love, the movie succeeds reasonably well.

Be aware, however, that as a first-time director, Towne may not have designed a movie that will appeal to everyone. I mean, there are the little details that nag: (1) Over three years supposedly go by in the course of the film, but when a character mentions this point late in the story, I had to say to myself, What? It seemed like a few months at best. (2) The movie tells us that Chris and Tory are going to school at Cal Poly, but you'd never know it. I don't think the university gives out athletic scholarships to students only to participate in sports; yet we never, ever see either woman attend a class or crack a book. They're either on the track or in bed. (3) Towne, again as a first-time director, relies overmuch on camera gimmicks, like slow motion and close-ups. Not only do we get close-ups of faces, in particular, but also close-ups of hands, feet, legs, noses, mouths, hair, and sweat. Lots of sweat. Indeed, the movie begins in silence with a close-up of sweat dripping onto a track. I liked that touch, but Towne pushes the device to the limit by the end of the picture. (4) It's always just a little unclear what coach Tingloff's motives are: Does he want to help both women become better athletes? Is he purposely trying to ignite their rivalry and encourage them to compete better? Or is his interest in them more intimate? Then, (5) there's the fact that Chris, the main character, seems to spend half her time crying and weeping for one reason or another. The sobbing gets tiresome after a while (especially in close-up).

"Personal Best" is not your average movie, at least not in content, but it may be that Towne bit off a little more than he could chew in its execution. At over two hours the film tends to overstay its welcome by a good thirty minutes, and in the second half it rather plods along toward its inevitable ending. Still, it's probably as naturalistic a presentation of sports as you'll find, and it beats most of the so-called "real-life" inspirational sports stories we usually get at the picture show. I just wish Towne had allowed his narrative to unfold at a more concise and more consistent tempo rather than pacing it so leisurely, with so many words and so many cinematic contrivances.

Video:
Warner Bros. did their usual good job transferring the movie to disc. They use a high bit rate and anamorphic processing to ensure the picture looks as good as possible. The film does have a modicum of grain in its original print, so some scenes look a tad gritty, and while colors can be quite vivid, there are times when they look a touch pale. Most of the time the screen is free of age marks, although one notices minor flecks in a few solid black areas. Faces can sometimes appear too dark in medium and long shots, but for the most part flesh tones are quite natural. When the video looks good, which is most of the time, it sparkles.

Audio:
There is little one can say about the sound. It's in monaural, reproduced via Dolby Digital 1.0. The engineers balanced the midrange nicely with the rest of the sonic spectrum, and backgrounds are quiet. The audio is clear, to be sure, but it just doesn't have much range or impact, so it's not exactly in the state-of-the-art category of modern soundtracks.

Extras:
The primary bonus item is an audio commentary with the film's writer, producer, and director, Robert Towne, and two of its stars, Scott Glenn and Kenny Moore. They provide some lively discussion, and, frankly, I found myself cutting into it whenever the action on screen slowed to a crawl; which means I listened to a good deal of the commentary. In addition, you'll find a generous thirty scene selections but no chapter insert; a widescreen, anamorphic theatrical trailer; English as the only spoken language; French subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired.

Parting Shots:
There's no questioning the sincerity of "Personal Best," its authenticity, its attention to detail, its naturalistic acting, and its attempt to show all sides of the competitive spirit. However, the movie tends to make its points early and then repeat itself unnecessarily, making for a rather long and sometimes sluggish run to the finish. It's worth a first viewing, but I can't imagine wanting to see it again.

"Personal Best" is a part of Warner Bros.'s third wave of "Directors' Showcase" releases, which also includes Robert Ellis Miller's "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" (1968), Daryl Duke's "Payday" (1972), Richard Lester's "The Ritz" (1976), and Lee Grant's "Tell Me a Riddle" (1980). WB have made them all available separately, and they are all first-time DVD releases, sporting all-new transfers.