Some years ago I had seen the 1998 movie about Prefontaine starring Billy Crudup and really enjoyed it. Now I have found this version with Jared Leto on Netflix streaming movies. It is very well done with generous old stock footage used too. In fact Leto is so good in this role it is often hard to tell if we are seeing him or the real Prefontaine in some running scenes.I remember Prefontaine well from the early 1970s because I was a young adult then and still an avid track and field fan. It is too bad his life and running career were cut so short with the automobile accident.A good segment of the middle of the movie depicts the 1972 Munich Olympics, the one where Arab militants killed some Israelis, and throwing the games into turmoil. Pre's big race, the 5K run, was held anyway and going for gold, in the last few meters just lost 3rd place, and a medal, by a fraction. Thus the comment, "They might name 4th street after me." Jared Leto is Steve Prefontaine, R. Lee Ermey is good as coach Bill Bowerman who invented the "waffle sole" running shoe and went on to establish the company Nike. And Amy Locane is good as Pre's girlfriend Nancy Alleman.Those who are indifferent to track and field might not enjoy this movie, but for us fans it is truly a fine movie.

I had never heard of Steve Prefontaine before I learned that they were making a movie about him, even though he was from Oregon. When I finally saw the movie, I figured that I would just have to accept what the movie showed. "Prefontaine" mostly does a good job, although it goes a little overboard in focusing on how the assassinations at the 1972 Olympics affected him personally. Also, I would have liked to have learned maybe a little more about his childhood.So, although we may not be certain about how accurate the movie is, it's an interesting look at the athletic world in the early '70s. Also starring Ed O'Neill and R. Lee Ermey.

Prefontaine provides a deeply inaccurate portrayal of the life and skill of American track star Steve Prefontaine. The film creates a girlfriend whom he never had, and shows him as uneasy and unconfident about his ability. It makes claims of him having a poor kick to finish races, and yet this is not as large of an issue in actuality, while the issue of his body type not being that of a runners is true. The film is poorly scripted as well, doing a terrible job of capturing Bill Bowerman's personality. Bowerman was certainly eccentric, yet the film shows him in more of a lunatic or crazy form. Especially with the introduction of him by the mailbox scene. Another film created based on Prefontaine's life, Without Limits, truly and best finds the truth. The script and production were overlooked by Kenny Moore (writer), whom was a close personal friend of Prefontaine, and Mary Marx, Prefontaine's girlfriend, in the film Without Limits. The misinformation provided in Prefontaine extremely frustrates me because the least a biographical film can do is stick to the facts.

I've only ever fallen asleep once during a movie in my adult life and this was the movie. This movie was seriously the most long, drawn out and boring movie I have ever seen. I would not recommend it to a single person. Just awful, I'd rather watch grass grow. (pardon the cliché)