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Personal Best is a gripping film about competition and pushing oneself to the absolute limit - what you leave behind in the process and what you build. Mariel Hemingway's character Chris is blessed with natural talent but initially lacks the drive and motivation that has taken her soon-to-be lover Tori to a higher level in women's track and field. When Chris begins training with Tori and Tori's coach takes her under his wing, Chris moves to the next level.

As Chris' and Tori's romantic relationship begins and then evolves, the competition between them intensifies. Chris' coach Scott Glen remarks to Chris, "I don't know which scares you more, beating Tori Skinner or losing to her." Her quandary culminates at the Olympic Trials where Chris and Tori compete for 2 of the 3 spots on the US Women's Pentathalon Team. And the result is unpredictable yet makes perfect sense - and it was even more meaningful given that the competition was for spots non an Olympic team that wasn't going anywhere, as the Moscow Olypics would take place without the US athletes.

The best part of this film is you get a look at Eugene, Oregon, the mecca of track and field in the early 1980s. Mariel Hemingway is pretty convincing as a pentathlete. She is tall, very fit and moves with much of the grace of a hurdler. Of note is that most of the others in this film, with the exception of Scott Glenn were actual world-class athletes. Jane Fredrick and Kate Schmidt were top women and Al Feuerbach was a champion shot-putter. Kenny Moore, who plays Hemingway's male love-interest is cast as a water polo player. In reality Moore, who does a very good job finished 4th in the Olympic Marathon, was numerous events, but was cursed with running at the same time as Frank Shorter (has a bit part playing a TV announcer). Moore was also a frequent contributor for Sports Illustrated. This is not a genre-defining movie (if there is a genre of this type), but it is quite watchable and gives one a hint of the life of track athletes in the era before they were allowed to be paid above the table.

I believe this movie was the first, and best, movie to treat the relationship between sex and athletic performance in a serious and non stereotypical way. Other films treated athletes as either eunuch/priests whose only concern was their athletic performance, or as over sexed satyrs who required sex as a release and/or distraction from the rigors of training, or sexual relations were gratuitously thrown in as a prerequisite romantic line to draw in a bigger audience.In Personal Best the sexual aspect was actually integral to the plot. We see how sex gets people better opportunities, drives wedges between competitors, and induces self sacrifice--albeit in this case all for naught.I will admit that some of the nude scenes appeared to be gratuitous on the surface, but when you analyze the film you see it was really necessary to show how all those firm toned naked bodies in semi-erotic poses (necessary for maximum athletic performance, I might add) could lead someone down the path to homosexuality.Overall, this movie is a masterpiece of its genre that is interesting, stimulating, and exciting for people of all persuasions.

As flawed as it might seem, and as much as Mariel Hemingway's body may have been exploited in the interest of box office sales... This was a very important movie for me and many girls my age. It was the first movie we ever saw that let us know that we weren't the only girls in the world who liked other girls. And it showed us that this could be beautiful and that we weren't freaks. For that it will always hold a special place in my heart. And the same goes for many other lesbians around my age.

I wish to argue against the fact that the film exploits the bodies of women. It is true that the movie was billed, in pressbook releases, as a sports movie featuring toned, "sexual" female bodies (not an exact quote). In this way, the makers may have attempted to make a film that was pleasurable to the male viewer. I do not argue that.

I do say that the end result was a film that handled the sexual situations very well, without exploitation. You have to consider at the time this film was made, 1982, it was (arguably) the first film to have an open lesbian relationship on the screen. The only real way a film could be generally accepted by the public, at that time, would be by containing some sexual content to please the male viewer. Too many feminist groups have identified with the powerful female figures inherent in this movie to really argue that the film exploits women. I believe that it IDENTIFIES women, and how they see each other.

I thought it was an excellent film, that made an excellent social statement of the times. Yes, it is sexist by today's standards... but watching it looking for the sexism ruins the entire experience of the movie. It is a movie in which to enjoy the characters more than the story, because the characters are so vivid.