It's my private opinion that Robert Towne really wanted to make a picture about two gay **male** athletes but had to write the parts for women in order to get the project financed. The film critics loved it. Audiences stayed away in droves and a five year exile from movie directing was imposed on award-winning scriptwriter Towne, who had to answer some nasty questions of the "What on earth were you thinking?" variety even as the echo of this box office bomb died away.
Sexual aberrance is not confined to the women characters. While there are some fleeting views of real male athletes--shot putters, etc.--acting quite normally, something is decidedly off about the two male leads. The young water polo player who appears late in the film to serve as Chris' (Mariel Hemingway) male love interest is as pretty as any of the women and even less masculine. He is sexually unaggressive if not downright indifferent to the charms of Ms Hemingway, leaving Chris to make the first move, and the second, and the third. Tellingly, he is seen in the full frontal nudity which Ms. Hemingway carefully avoids throughout.
As the trainer of the women's pentathlon team, Scott Glenn is downright bitchy. His often flamboyant dress and flawlessly coiffed hair--he and Patrice Donnelly have hair of the same length--also give him a look like no athletic coach ever seen.
On the plus side, the recent transfer to widescreen disc incorporates all the latest video technology and it shows in the gorgeous views of the California coast and the sparkling blue of Mariel Hemingway's eyes. Her breasts have virtually disappeared (too much upper body work?) but she's got a great pair of legs which again and again are exhibited in the briefest of track shorts.
And the notorious sauna scene? Only if you think muscles on women are attractive. The single lesbian love scene? Very brief, and so tasteful you'll have a hard time staying awake. (I feel a twinge of sympathy for Ms. Donnelly who allowed herself to appear in full frontal in both these scenes, perhaps having been told this was her Big Break in films. It wasn't.)
The athletic competition scenes--which take up the last quarter of the picture? Lots of slow mo, good pacing and camera angles, but--the box office reception shows just how many moviegoers in 1982 were interested in seeing women's sports. Just how much have attitudes changed in twenty-five years? Well, we'll see.
Sexual aberrance is not confined to the women characters. While there are some fleeting views of real male athletes--shot putters, etc.--acting quite normally, something is decidedly off about the two male leads. The young water polo player who appears late in the film to serve as Chris' (Mariel Hemingway) male love interest is as pretty as any of the women and even less masculine. He is sexually unaggressive if not downright indifferent to the charms of Ms Hemingway, leaving Chris to make the first move, and the second, and the third. Tellingly, he is seen in the full frontal nudity which Ms. Hemingway carefully avoids throughout.
As the trainer of the women's pentathlon team, Scott Glenn is downright bitchy. His often flamboyant dress and flawlessly coiffed hair--he and Patrice Donnelly have hair of the same length--also give him a look like no athletic coach ever seen.
On the plus side, the recent transfer to widescreen disc incorporates all the latest video technology and it shows in the gorgeous views of the California coast and the sparkling blue of Mariel Hemingway's eyes. Her breasts have virtually disappeared (too much upper body work?) but she's got a great pair of legs which again and again are exhibited in the briefest of track shorts.
And the notorious sauna scene? Only if you think muscles on women are attractive. The single lesbian love scene? Very brief, and so tasteful you'll have a hard time staying awake. (I feel a twinge of sympathy for Ms. Donnelly who allowed herself to appear in full frontal in both these scenes, perhaps having been told this was her Big Break in films. It wasn't.)
The athletic competition scenes--which take up the last quarter of the picture? Lots of slow mo, good pacing and camera angles, but--the box office reception shows just how many moviegoers in 1982 were interested in seeing women's sports. Just how much have attitudes changed in twenty-five years? Well, we'll see.