"Fast Girls" sprints to........Gold!

[aaronk]

Just watched (on Netflix) the British track movie "Fast Girls".
I liked it!
Sure, it had "Rocky" or "Hoosiers" or (Fill in the blanks!) written all over it.....but it was a definite "feel good" movie!!

The plot centers on a group of British female sprinters vying to become members of GB's 4X100 Relay at the 2011 World Championships, supposedly held in London.

The group consists of 4 black girls and one white girl, who is rabidly coached and promoted by her father.
Well, one of the black girls beats the white girl in a meet prior to the WC, so her dad gets the black girl kicked off the relay team.

Of course, it all ends well.
GB beats the US and Jamaica at the WC, and black chick and white chick become friends, and dad goes down for the count!!!

Okay, so it's a stupid premise!
And some of the running scenes, while not bad, aren't perfect.
But can you name a "fictional" track and field flick where the actors looked and performed like "REAL" track athletes??
Nah, neither can I!

Oh, and there's no sex or nudity in this flick!!
Unlike most other movies centered on female athletes!!
This movie centers on the sport of track and field!!
(And many thanks for THAT!!)

I highly recommend it.....if you haven't already seen it!!

[Marlow]

can you name a "fictional" track and field flick where the actors looked and performed like "REAL" track athletes??

Certainly NOT Personal Best (aka Absolute Worst)!!!
I'm trying to think of ANY T&F Hollywood movies , so I googled it:


Without Limits (1998) - 8.36
Saint Ralph (2004) - 8.30
Jericho Mile, The (1979) - 8.26
Jesse Owens Story, The (1984) - 7.85
Four Minute Mile, The (1988) - 7.76
Running Brave (1983) - 7.72
Prefontaine (1997) - 7.52
Run Fatboy Run (2007) - 7.36
Four Minutes (2005) - 7.35
On The Edge (1985) - 6.84
Across the Tracks (1991) - 6.81
Long Run, The (2000) - 6.24
Chariots of Fire (1981) - 5.66

AHA! Jericho Mile is my FAVORITE and yes, Peter Strauss ran like a miler!!

Robbie Benson did a creditable job in Running Brave and Chariots of Fire was the real deal.

[Daisy]

The recreation of the 5000m final in without limits was pretty good. But I'm assuming most of them had experience as athletes. Pat Porter was great as Virén.

[Conor Dary]

The recreation of the 5000m final in without limits was pretty good. But I'm assuming most of them had experience as athletes. Pat Porter was great as Virén.

I guess, but still kind of silly since the real deal exists in decent video and is infinitely better.

And yes they are real runners, but it still looks like Pat Porter trying to look like Viren. Their running styles are so different and next to impossible to copy.

The only part I liked about the movie and found somewhat believable was Donald Sutherland as Bowerman.

I liked On the Edge, at least until the nonsense at the end. Bruce Dern really can run.

[Flumpy]

'Fast Girls' is amazingly, terribly, brilliantly, awful.

I particularly loved the way they all went out and got drunk the evening before flying to Spain the next morning to compete that in an afternoon indoor 100m relay!!!

The relay practice in the indoor carpark was another highlight. I'm assuming that's what Team USA did as well

[Marlow]

The relay practice in the indoor carpark was another highlight. I'm assuming that's what Team USA did as well

Sometimes I think that must be true . . .

[Jnathletics]

Without Limits (1998) - 8.36
Saint Ralph (2004) - 8.30
Jericho Mile, The (1979) - 8.26
Jesse Owens Story, The (1984) - 7.85
Four Minute Mile, The (1988) - 7.76
Running Brave (1983) - 7.72
Prefontaine (1997) - 7.52
Run Fatboy Run (2007) - 7.36
Four Minutes (2005) - 7.35
On The Edge (1985) - 6.84
Across the Tracks (1991) - 6.81
Long Run, The (2000) - 6.24
Chariots of Fire (1981) - 5.66
.

May not fit but

The First Olympics: Athens 1896

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086713/

A mini-series for TV was good. (Maybe a little corny, but good all the same)

Just some highlights,
The team presenting themselves to sponsors, a ladies organization, in what the athletes thought would be their "Ancient" olympic uniforms.
The discus guy using an implement sized from a statue at one of the Ivy league schools.
The invention of the sprinter's start from the shooting team.
All very entertaining items to name a few.

[James Fields]

Don't overlook the 1979 movie "Golden Girl" starring 6-feet-tall beauty Susan Anton, in the role of a 200m/400m competitor. Other actor names of note: James Coburn, Leslie Caron, Robert Culp.

That film's release time could ride the excitement of looking forward to 1980 Olympics at Moscow but was undone by U.S. President Jimmy Carter's edict: USA athletes stay home.

See more at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079225/

[jhc68]

Gallipoli

[bambam]

Don't overlook the 1979 movie "Golden Girl" starring 6-feet-tall beauty Susan Anton, in the role of a 200m/400m competitor. Other actor names of note: James Coburn, Leslie Caron, Robert Culp.

That film's release time could ride the excitement of looking forward to 1980 Olympics at Moscow but was undone by U.S. President Jimmy Carter's edict: USA athletes stay home.

See more at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079225/

Was going to add that myself - actually she was a 100/200/400 sprinter who was trying to win an Olympic triple, but she was undone by a diabetic problem that was a result of taking HGH since she was young (HGH is diabetogenic). The book for this was written by Peter Lear, the pseudonym of Peter Lovesey, a well-known crime novelist in Great Britain, so an accomplished writer. But also an accomplished track historian - member of NUTS and ATFS and on the Executive Committee of ISOH (International Society of Olympic Historians), and he may know more about 19th century British track than any other person.

[no one]

yes, Peter Strauss ran like a miler!!

While Strauss ran like/had the form of a 200 or 400 guy he was also busy running ~3:50 to a crowd of fellow inmates. I did like the Stones. One slice of the 'time trial' shows him looking at his stop watch for a split and it is too slow, so he grits his teeth and attempts to speed up. ... oh well -I do recall he did some training with an actual runner and or coach. can't recall, and don't know if that's true. I also 'heard' he was able to run 4:28 after his preparation for the film. In the movie he ostensibly runs an incredible time in a time trial - not too believable . In spite of ... a relatively entertaining flick. You can't always get what you want. It won some awards.