Boxoffice-Febuary.1998

February, 1998 21
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BACK ON TRACK
Screenwriting Legend Robert
Towne Returns to the Director's
Chairfor ^*Without Limits''
by Wade Major
TRACK MEETING: Billy Crudup plays legendary track star
Steve Prefontaine for director Robert Towne in 'Without Limits.'
With
the scripts for such
legendary and classic
films as "Chinatown,"
"The Last Detail," "Shampoo"
and "Greystoke: The Legend of
Tarzan" to his credit, Robert
Towne has no shortage of accomplishments
of which to be proud.
On this day, however, it is a remarkable
bit of directorial prowess
that has him beaming. He fast
forwards a videotaped dupe of his
latest film, "Without Limits,"
based on the life offamed distance
runner Steve Prefontaine, to the
climactic 5,000-meter race at the
1972 Munich Olympics. As the
race nears its final stages, Towne
calls out the cuts, which alternate
seamlessly between actual 35mm
footage of the race and his own
recreation of the event. 'That's
Steve. That's Billy. And that's
Steve. Now, that's Billy."
Billy, in this case, is Billy
Cmdup, a previously little known
Broadway star hand-picked by
Towne to incarnate one of the
most admired and beloved athletes
of all time. So flawless is
Cmdup's mimicry of Prefontaine's
unmistakable running style, and
so meticulous is Towne's staging
of the race, that most audiences
will likely never recognize the
juxtaposition.
"Because Disney wouldn't let
us use ABC's coverage, we were
stuck for footage of the race," he
explains. "But then we found, in
the vault at Wamer Bros., outtakes
from [the 1972 Olympics documentary]
'Visions of Eight.'
Among them we found two sections
that were never done, and
one of those was of that 5,000-
meter race. So we were very
lucky because we found perfect,
unexposed 35mm film of
that race that had never been
put into any other film. The
result is that you have full
shots of Munich stadium and
shots of Steve waist-high that
cut to Billy and back, and you
can't tell the difference."
Towne's perfectionism as
both a screenwriter and a director
is legendary, despite his
infiiequent efforts from behind the
camera. "Without Limits," in fact,
marks only his third outing as a
director after 1982's "Personal
Besf ' and 1988's 'Tequila Sunrise."
By his own admission,
"Without Limits" is closer to
Towne's heart than either of his
previous films, the culmination of
a journey that began some 20
years ago when Kenny Moore, a
friend of the late Prefontaine and
a champion runner in his own
right,
approached Towne about
filming Steve's story. Preoccupied
with another project, Towne
let the idea lapse until he and
Moore met again three years later
on the set of Towne's track-andfield
themed "Personal Best." As
Towne's and Moore's friendship
matured, the film that would
emerge two decades later began to
take shqje.
Known as simply "Pre" to his
friends and fans, Steve Prefontaine
would have been an anomaly
in any sport. His mercurial
personality, spirited arrogance
and dazzling style had made him
a rising star even before he accepted
the njtelage of legendary
University of Oregon coach Bill
Bowerman, played in the film by
Donald Sutherland. Equally as
passionate off the track. Pre also
became one of the first and most
vocal opponents of the now defunct
Amateur Athletic Union
(AAU), challenging what he considered
its questionable methods
and shady ethics at a time when
the organization was thought respectable.
But Prefontaine would
never hve to see his prime or the
AAU'sdemise. Just one year prior
to the start of the 1976 Montreal
Olympics, at which he was expected
to take the gold medal that
had eluded him in Munich, Steve
Prefontaine was killed in an automobile
accident.
"If he had won the big race and
if he'd gotten the girl and if he'd
*'Ifhe had won the big
race and if he 'd gotten
the girl and if he'd
survived, it wouldn 't be
a story worth telling.
He was a tragic hero...
his reach always
exceeded his grasp. "
survived," reflects Towne, "it
wouldn't be a story worth telling.
He was a tragic hero, really, in the
sense that his reach always exceeded
his grasp. That's the thing
people loved most about him. Unlike
most distance runners, he
wasn't introspective, he was not
shy. He let it
all hang out. He let
them see the pain that he was in
and the effort he was making. And
he hit them with the incandescence
of a rock star."
Key to the success of "Without
Limits," says Towne, was the
close involvement of both Bowerman
and Prefontaine's then
girlfriend, Mary Marckx, both of
whom cooperated closely with
Towne and the film's producers to
help lend the film the greatest possible
sense of authenticity. Mary
provided Towne with more than
200 personal letters from Steve
while Bowerman, who would
later found the athletic-wear gjant
Nike based on his homemade running
shoe designs, went so far as
to volunteer his home as a shooting
location. "If Bill had not lived
and been so conspicuously the
giant that he is," says Towne,
"Steve's legend would not have
survived. Bill was ready to keep it
alive. And that goes to the heart of
this movie. It's nsally about the relationship
between these two men."
Nor does Towne shy from sharing
the glory with Crudup, whom
he graciously credits with literally
bringing Steve's legend to life.
"I'd heard that Billy had been on
Broadway in a play called 'Arcadia,'
and that he'd won Best Newcomer
of the Year, although that
meant nodiing to me because I
hadn't seen him. So I went to the
Regency to meet him on this
crowded Sunday morning. And
when 1 finally saw him, in this chair,
leaning up against a wall, he just
waved. There was something so
sweetly arrogant about him watching
me try to find him, that in that
moment I said, 'You're cast'"
Summing up the essence of
the film's message, Towne defers
to a Une fk)m the film in
which Sutherland says that
there is "more honor in outrunning
a man than killing him."
Says Towne, "I beUeve that's
what the Olympics are about.
I believe that sport, at its best,
is the development of a ritual
with very specific rules that
allow men to take out their
hostiUty, their anger, their aggression
by celebrating their respective
skills and not by doing physical
harm to one another. I don't know
a better thing to do."
"Without Limits. "
HH
Starring
Billy Crudup and Donald Sutherland
Directed by Robert Towne.
Written by Robert Towne and
Kenny Moore. Produced by Tom
Cruise and Paula Wagner. A
Wamer release. Opens March 27.