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Downhill Racer

Downhill Racer

Drama · 1969

An ambitious young skier, determined to break all existing records, is contemptuous of the teamwork advocated by the US coach when they go to Europe for the Olympics.

Movie details

Downhill Racer

“How fast must a man go to get from where he's at?”

1969 Drama 1h 41m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

5.9 / 10

Community rating

An ambitious young skier, determined to break all existing records, is contemptuous of the teamwork advocated by the US coach when they go to Europe for the Olympics.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Downhill Racer?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Fast Girls

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When Dr. Marcus Sommers realizes that he and his troubled, estranged brother David may be prone a fatal brain disease that runs in their family, he decides to make peace with his sibling, and invites him on a trip to the Rockies. There, the brothers bond over their shared enthusiasm for cycling and decide to enter a grueling bike race through the mountains. However, Marcus' health soon begins to fail, and David must compete without his brother at his side.

Dad

Dad

Drama · 1989

A busy executive learns during a meeting that his mother may be dying and rushes home to her side. He ends up being his father's caretaker and becomes closer to him than ever before. Estranged from his own son, the executive comes to realize what has been missing in his own life.

Clouds of Sils Maria

Clouds of Sils Maria

Drama · 2014

A veteran actress comes face-to-face with an uncomfortable reflection of herself when she agrees to take part in a revival of the play that launched her career 20 years earlier.

Train Dreams

Train Dreams

Drama · 2025

A logger leads a life of quiet grace as he experiences love and loss during an era of monumental change in early 20th-century America.

Peaceful Warrior

Peaceful Warrior

Drama · 2006

A chance encounter with a stranger changes the life of a college gymnast.

Alive

Alive

Adventure · 1993

The amazing true story of a Uruguayan rugby team's plane that crashed in the middle of the Andes mountains, and their immense will to survive and pull through alive, forced to do anything and everything they could to stay alive on meager rations and through the freezing cold.

Lost on a Mountain in Maine

Lost on a Mountain in Maine

Adventure · 2024

When twelve-year-old Donn Fendler gets tired of waiting for his father and brothers to join him on the summit of Maine's highest peak, he decides to find his own way back to camp. But Donn doesn't count on a fast-moving fog that obscures the path. He doesn't count on falling down an embankment that hides him from sight. And he doesn't count on taking a turn that leaves him alone to wander aimlessly for nearly two weeks in the empty mountain wilderness.

Youth Without Youth

Youth Without Youth

Fantasy · 2007

Professor of language and philosophy Dominic Matei is struck by lightning and ages backwards from 70 to 40 in a week, attracting the world and the Nazis. While on the run, the professor meets a young woman who has her own experience with a lightning storm. Not only does Dominic find love again, but her new abilities hold the key to his research.

September 5

September 5

Thriller · 2024

During the 1972 Munich Olympics, an American sports broadcasting crew finds itself thrust into covering the hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Michael Ritchie

Written by

James Salter

Robert Redford

Robert Redford

David Chappellet

Gene Hackman

Gene Hackman

Eugene Claire

Camilla Sparv

Camilla Sparv

Carole Stahl

Karl Michael Vogler

Karl Michael Vogler

Machet

Jim McMullan

Jim McMullan

Johnny Creech

Kathleen Crowley

Kathleen Crowley

American Newspaper Woman

Dabney Coleman

Dabney Coleman

Mayo

Court is in session

Put Downhill Racer on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Adrenaline Seeker

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.