Although a contemporary of Steve Prefontaine I had never heard of him, not being a fan of track and field. Nonetheless, Without Limits, a biographical film of Prefontaine, made middle-distance running interesting, even exciting. The racing scenes are not the reason to see this movie though, it is the acting, especially Donald Sutherland who plays Bill Bowerman his coach at the University of Oregon. The film follows Prefontaine (Crudup) from his admission to college in 1969 through the '72 Munich Olympics to his death in 1975 as he trained for Montreal. The axis around which the movie revolves is the relationship between wizened coach and impetuous youth, and Crudup and Sutherland do an excellent job of it. As a Baby Boomer it's always a treat to see those late '60s-early '70s years recreated. What memories. You even get to glimpse the founding of the Nike shoe empire in Bowerman's kitchen.

Billy Crudup totally loses himself in the lead role and Sutherland does some of his best work as Coach Bowerman. I can see why many in the public stayed away from the film itself - not too many moviegoers are interested in track & field, let alone track & field in the 1970's. I always knew who Prefontaine was because I ran track and cross country in high school in the late 1970's and remember hearing of his untimely death. The film is done in a very straight forward kind of way and that's why I like it. It doesnt waste too much time with side stories or sub plots. One HAS to have a love story and many of the elements of the romance are some of the weakest moments but what can one do? You have to take SOME of the studios notes (besides - even though I think the actress playing the lead is beautiful, I have seen her in other films and I find her work very one-dimensional). But Crudup is amazing as the obsessed runner and the scenes of the actual races are stunningly photographed and edited. Well done.

Steve Prefontaine (Billy Crudup) gains success as a high school cross country runner in Oregon. He obsessively trains and is the best around. Roscoe Devine (Matthew Lillard) and Kenny Moore (Billy Burke) become his running mates. He gets into University of Oregon coached by Bill Bowerman (Donald Sutherland) and Bill Dellinger (Dean Norris). They would even make their own running shoes. Steve has plenty of female admirers and starts dating Mary Marckx (Monica Potter). Frank Shorter (Jeremy Sisto) is a rival and later training partner. This is a solid biopic with good performances. The races are well-filmed. It's a fascinating driven life. The most interesting for me is Bowerman making the shoes at home. I would have loved to have Phil Knight in this somewhere. Although I'm sure he would have sued the filmmakers to kingdom hell. Overall, this does the biopic genre well.