A brilliantly performed, gut-wrenchingly sad flick
Comment
02/03/09
Without Limits (1998)
76
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:37
Fresh:28
Rotten:9
Average Rating:6.3/10
Consensus: This drama about American track star and hero Steve Prefontaine intelligently looks at the character of this oft mythologized athlete and features a fantastic performance by Donald Sutherland as Prefontaine's trainer.
Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Robert Towne's bio-pic about the legendary long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine. The picture follows Pre's Oregon upbringing, through his days at Oregon University (where he met and worked with... [More]
Starring: Billy Crudup, Donald Sutherland, Monica Potter, Jeremy Sisto
Director: Robert Towne
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Reviews for Without Limits
Whether he would have won at the next Olympics, we'll never know. What we do know is that Towne, a man of ruefully romantic temperament, has found a soulmate in Steve Prefontaine.
08/05/08
Top CriticWith a very good part for a change, Sutherland invests the imposing Bowerman with a host of subtly expressed attitudes toward his most illustrious charge.
08/05/08
Top CriticExcept for a few lapses, co-scriptwriters Kenny Moore and Towne allow Pre's aura to remain undisturbed by overdramatization and psychological speculation.
08/05/08
Prefontaine's infectious enthusiasm is ably conveyed, although the film might have been a stronger and less earnest effort if producer Tom Cruise had played a more active part.
08/05/08
Top CriticA couple of sterling lead performances by Billy Crudup and Donald Sutherland.
10/14/07
he understated cinematography by Conrad Hall and sterling work from Crudup and Sutherland lend a patina of class, yet it's in the end a po-faced film.
01/26/06
Top CriticNo review available.
07/22/05
Without Limits wins as a sports film precisely because it's not really about sports or a great victory.
07/21/05
Top CriticNo review available.
09/22/04
Bland biopic about runners
07/26/04
Both Crudup and Sutherland deliver superb performances in the support of a thoughtful, committed, and richly visualized film.
11/07/02
'... the biopic plays fine as an intelligent character study of a mythologized athlete who died far too young.'
08/30/02
Without Limits is an admirable departure from the norm, but its greatest strength doubles as an undermining weakness.
07/12/02
Top CriticClick to read the article
03/24/02
Top CriticOffers plenty of interesting insights into the beauty, the poetry, the drama, and the science of athletic competition.
03/03/02
As Pre, Billy Crudup is dynamite -- a magnetic star presence who's unafraid to show how Pre's drive also makes him a bit of a prick.
05/11/01
Top CriticTowne's most important contribution, aside from his gift for structure and willingness to direct this story in a classic, straight-ahead manner, is the power of his words.
02/14/01
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