Without Limits

Year: 1998

Grade: B

Country: USA

Director: Towne

Review

compared to steve james’ “prefontaine” this may have been the more watchable, accessible film. most of the performances were better here than they were in prefontaine. the notable exception being that i thought jared leto did a better job than billy crudup. they both show pretty much the same stuff and begin and end with prefontaine being recruited and then his death. unsure why only two films have been made about him and both came out with a year of each other and both are so similar.

they did a very good job of accurately reproducing the 1972 race. that said, they didn’t do as good a job as “prefontaine” in capturing the time that pre lived in. this is a slightly easier film to watch, but i think the steve james version captures more of the context as well as the importance of pre as an athlete and runner.