01
Le Mans
Why this pick
Its near-wordless racing sequences, European locations, and cool attention to physical skill echo Downhill Racer’s visual, unsentimental immersion in elite competition.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE1969 1h 41m USA
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
Downhill Racer
Drama
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved Downhill Racer, try these.
01
02
Fat City
Why this pick
Another spare, observational sports drama, focused less on victory than on the bruised pride, isolation, and day-to-day grind behind athletic ambition.
03
The Gambler
Why this pick
James Caan gives a similarly volatile portrait of a man whose need to prove himself overwhelms intimacy, rendered with sharp 1970s urban realism.
04
The Driver
Why this pick
For David Chappellet’s aloof, near-mythic concentration: a minimalist thriller about an exceptionally skilled loner, told through terse dialogue and precisely staged movement.
05
Personal Best
Why this pick
It shares the tactile training detail and competitive psychology of Downhill Racer, while treating elite sport as a place where ambition complicates friendship and love.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
American downhill skier David Chappellet arrives in Wengen, Switzerland, to join the U.S. ski team, along with fellow newcomer D. K. Bryan. Both men were sent for by team coach Eugene Claire to replace one of his top skiers who was recently injured during an FIS Alpine World Ski Championships competition. Raised in the small town of Idaho Springs, Colorado, Chappellet is a loner with a single-minded focus on becoming a skiing champion, and shows little interest in being a team player. After refusing to race at the Lauberhorn ski races because of a late starting position, he makes his European skiing debut at the Arlberg-Kandahar in Austria, where he finishes in an impressive fourth position. In the final race of the season at the Hahnenkamm race in Kitzbühel, Austria, he crashes.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Robert Redford
David Chappellet
Gene Hackman
Eugene Claire
Karl Michael Vogler
Machet
Jim McMullan
Johnny Creech
Kathleen Crowley
American Newspaper Woman
Oren Stevens
Kipsmith
Jerry Dexter
Engel
Carole Carle
Lena