The Games

An interesting sports film from the early-'70s, relating to the striving for Olympic glory in the context of the Marathon and which is colourfully filmed in diverse settings focussing on a quartet of runners. Welshman, Stanley Baker is professionally superb as the martinet coach of Michael Crawford's runner while Irish-American actor, Ryan O'Neal's confident sandyhaired US athlete is amusing. Baker instills stiff discipline and ultra-high standards. Michael Winner would go on to direct Brando in the gothic 'The Nightcomers' and the violent western,'Chato's Land' which starred Charles Bronson in 1972.

This is a pretty decent film on one of my favorite subjects, the Olympics. This film pretty much takes its inspration from several real figures in Olympic history (Abebe Bikila, Dorondo Pietri and Emil Zatopek) and uses their stories as the basis of this film. Its just too bad that this film is rarely, if ever, shown on television anymore because it does show what motivates someone to run in the marathon and what it takes to complete it.

Tedious, occasionally absorbing drama chronicling the stories of four male runners from different parts of the globe preparing themselves for the Rome Olympics. Michael Crawford, as the British dairy-deliverer who is found to have an uncanny track time, is the central focus of the film and his early scenes wowing all the hardened experts are fresh and well done; Ryan O'Neal, as the American jock with the (uh oh!) heart condition, is engaging simply because he's so young and eager (he would re-team with screenwriter Erich Segal the same year for "Love Story"). British-made film from erratic director Michael Winner supposedly travels around the world, yet the various locations are not captured to any particular advantage (the look of the picture is stuck in a British rut). The relationship between Crawford and his demanding coach is the most intriguing part of the movie--yet the closer we get to the Olympics finale, the faster interest tends to wane in these characters. ** from ****

In 1970, between working with Oliver Reed in Swinging Sixties flicks and Charles Bronson in exploitation crime, a mainstream Michael Winner directed THE GAMES, centering on a group of worldwide runners training for the Rome Olympics... but the trainers are the most intriguing characters...

In particular Stanley Baker, at this point a British veteran actor (who always looked older than he actually was), as a former running champion with a limp so serious he never lets the viewer forget...

Which takes the kind of energy that's completely lacking in the extremely miscast Michael Crawford as a milkman turned record-breaking sprinter (randomly romancing ingenue Elaine Taylor), whose lightweight acting chops seems more befitting the quirky comedies he was used to...

Although his scenes with Baker are pretty good because the tough coach makes every scene count... As does the Australian Aborigine's own trainer, more of a promoter, in get-rich-quick-schemer (and kangaroo poacher) Jeremy Kemp, as offbeat-crooked as Baker is headstrong-intense...

Meanwhile Ryan O'Neal's American runner hardly has a coach at all... A pill-popping womanizer with a breezy (albeit also miscast) sex symbol appeal, he seems like part of another movie altogether....

In fact every participant's individual story from THE GAMES (including an aged Frenchman seeking a comeback) feels underdeveloped since director Winner, using a barrage of that era's zoom shots and choppy edits, has to stuff them all inside a single 100-minute sports programmer that passes the time decently...

But could have been better if Stanley Baker only had another runner/actor to train, and more time to do so.

Michael Winner made a lot of rather variable films before he found his true vocation as a restaurant critic.This one is prime ham.It is rather difficult to take seriously for one minute.With scrawny Aznavour and Crawford looking like they couldn't go 100 yards. A athletics is not my sport and the same goes for Winner.