Although it has been many years since I saw this film it stands out as being an excellent film, both in the content-human relationships & competition, as well as the cinematography.Mariel Hemingway is simply stunning. Indeed the Women's High Jump is among the best events to watch at any Track & Field meet-as the girls are generally young, long & lean.If you follow T & F some of the high jumpers are able to compete at the highest level for over a decade. (I think that 5 of the top 8 of the 1988 Seoul Olympics had also made the final of the 1976 Olympics).There were two good films that I know of that had aim as 80 Olympics-Golden Girl with Susan Anton & this film. So how long did the USSR stay in Afganistan after the 1980 Olympic boycott? 13 years. So if a politician says a sporting team should boycott another country because of civil rights etc-then remind them of this Olympics, which in turn stuffed up the next Olympics as well as a couple of Commonwealth Games especially for African countries.Irony Idi Amin pulled Uganda out of the 1976 Olympics because New Zealand played rugby in South Africa.Even in 2004 the Aust govt was sort of trying to stop the Aust Cricket team from touring Zimbabwe.Enough of politics as I was not really aware of politics when I saw Personal Best in the early 1980's. I was aware of my attraction to girls and in Mariel there is one of the most beautiful as well as the capacity to admire athletic bodies , male & female, both on the track and in the locker room.

Spoilers herein.We have to take this seriously, because it comes from the writer of some of the best films in history. But he has directed only a few projects, and he knows enough to keep them cardboard cutout simple. Sports and sex competitors for the soul in the real world, but Towne's world is a fantasy world where any set of powerful forces can be contrived to bump up against one another.So he started with these two forces, obviously selected for their cinematic power. The lesbian angle is unusual enough (in mainstream cinema terms) to bind the two. Everything else follows: the bodies, the `real' bisexual athlete. It's illustrative to me to perceive what this man does get and what he doesn't.Obviously, he understands that passion, and sex, and bodies (though not necessarily related here) sell. Towne also understands what it means to have a talented cinematographer, someone who can put a little energy into the outing. He also turns the natural blond into a redhead. He understand film iconography all right.What he misses is the plain fact that situation falls outside that misty world of film romance we allow ourselves to accept without question. We don't blindly accept it and look for `reasons' where we wouldn't if it were any other kind of relationship. And finding the reasons artificial, we chuck the whole thing.I personally didn't mind Mariel's lack of art. I'm increasingly appreciating the placement of actors in roles where the deficiency of the person matches that of the character.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 4: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

I have always loved this classic tale of two cool, starry-eyed, cross-country, long-legged distance runners, tragically hailing from opposite sides of the border town track and bar, who manage to break free and sprint halfway to mingle and drool over vodka and KY jelly-filled donuts before making a mad lovers' dash through customs whilst en route to Denmark to consummate their same-sex, syringe-friendly, lesbian marriage. This film fondly reminded me of my own modestly unhappy youth growing up in the outskirts of rural Kashmir country with Brenda, a olympic champion skeet shooter, my ex-former lover, and dedicated but untrustworthy carefree confidante, in a seedy neighborhood where our loyalties were constantly challenged, torn, undermined, and resurrected, only to have the cycle repeat itself like a never-ending perpetual monthly calendar. While Personal Best makes little chronological or other sense, any attempt to introduce a plot would inexorably distract attention from its sensually accurate detailed depictions of the morbidly anorexic female form. Gynecologically speaking, I found this movie to be quite a workout, with my quadriceps twitching in tandem with the characters,' eventually achieving a harmonious, sedentary, fleeting, runners' high. So high, in point of fact, that I levitated slowly out of my stadium theatre seat and joined the Buddha perched on a wall above to share a moment of clarity, whereupon my pacemaker and chronographic watch simultaneously and momentarily stopped ticking. Thank you for this movie!

I saw this film in its first release, then again a few nights ago on cable and it affirmed my first impression that this was one of a scant handful of good sports movies. The shots of San Louis Obispo are evocative, for one thing, giving us not just the apricot sand of the dunes but the whoosh of cars on a distant freeway and the chill of the light fog. Mariel Hemingway, never noted for her acting range, becomes noticeably stronger as the movie progresses. The attractions and tensions within the team are neatly delineated in a naturalistic style by director Towne. What seems bothersome to many commentators is the "exploitation" of females through gratuitous nudity and all the rest of that specious argument. Of course there is female nudity and an abundance of finely toned suntanned flesh, often moving around ballistically in slow motion. It is after all a movie about a team of women athletes. And contrary to popular belief there doesn't seem to be a vas deferens between male and female competitors. And we should consult Leni Riefenstal on how to avoid slow motion. Much of the nudity is locker-room casual. (And there is casual male nudity too.) That which has sexual associations seems appropriate in a story of a love affair between team members and contributes to our understanding of how such an affair could develop.The guy, by the way, is no eleventh-hour hero brought in at the last minute to save the heroine from the catastrophe of lesbianism. He's no dashing Rhett Butler. He's simply another figure, not overly bright, and manipulable. He and the heroine don't ride into the sunset together. The complaints about exploitation seem misdirected. This is a film for adults, a story of love, dedication, and competition, nicely written, directed, photographed, scored, and acted. Zealots in the gay community have an abundance of other targets for their anger. It would have been nice to see more of Patrice Donnely in other films, because she was quite good, especially for an ex-athlete.