A painstakingly boring film crafted out of bits of melodrama and the idea of epic scope, rather than an actual epic scope itself. Vangelis' iconic main theme is one of only two bright spots (and the rest of the score is jarringly bizarre for this film) -- the other being the photography which is superb. Chronology is not a pre-requisite for an easy to follow film, but a film that starts at an irrelevant ending and then rushes back to a more relevant one before rushing backward again to tell the story properly is hardly worth spending time on as a film viewer. Not one moment of the races seemed dramatic, and the story had little of value to say beyond a clichéd sense of personal victory.

2 stars out of 4.

Ironically, for a movie about running, it's pretty slow. Running is one of my hobbies, so I was really interested in this one. The biggest problem for me is that the main characters weren't interesting at all. The scenes in which they actually run are the best parts of the movie, mainly because of the music by Vangelis. Not a bad film, but I can't say it's good either.

hasn't aged well. i can see why it appealed so greatly at the time it was made, but it's far too drawn out, the story is too generically crafted and the dramatic moments don't work well, feeling overdone and yet lacking substance.
4-5/10