Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by petew (A) on January 23, 2002 at 20:00:09

In Reply to: Re: "Downhill Racer" one of Gene Hackman's best efforts posted by Victor Khomenko on January 22, 2002 at 17:54:00:

Your distaste for RR is justified, because that is exactly the part he plays in this. * His teammates are sophisticated elite WASPs from Dartmouth college, who trained in the Green Mountains of Vermont, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire--a place where the Gods of Valhalla fear to tread.

and Redford's role was to play the prole. I'm sorry to hear you couldn't let lie for half an hour; you would have seen this story unfold

about the emptyness of "winning",

and the empty souls who persue it.

Hackman is at his very peak. That alone is worth suffering all the rest.

The casting; the camera work is way ahead of it's time for a sports film.

The book "Downhill Racer" was written by Salter. His shop is not 4 miles from here, on the old Germantown Pike in Eagleville, PA. He fit me some boots once, which to me would be as if the virgin Mary gave blowjobs. Ok, I go too far, but then, I've seen Tuckerman's Ravine, and it froze me to the core. I haven't got the guts, but I'd lie about it, and do, every day for the rest of my time. Let God strike me dead then if blastphemy be a mortal sin, it can't be worse than trying to ski the White Mountains in January.

*Those who follow alpine skiing may remember Bill Johnson, the (only) Olympic gold medal downhiller ever produced by the United States. Johnson is like Redford in this film--a crude and ignorant punk, a petty car thief, a country bumpkin, no style, no sense of tradition, of history...just the strongest, the best, the most gutsy, the most determined, the bad-assest downhiller in the world--for that one, all-important moment in time.

That, is America.

did you ever think about sticking one of your swords right through your chest? Just falling on it, from as high up as you can get?

the downhill

when you fall

goes on for an eternity

you hear strange sounds inside of you

your bones shattering in twisted bloody shards

sinues snaping with crisp retort

endless pain without a breath

all the air crushed from your lungs

diaphram spasmed

stars in your brain whirling...

on and on

on and on

when will it stop

a TREE.

you should cry VK

you haven't got the guts

to look Robert Redford full in the eyes

from across the room>

been there

done that