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Spirit Of The Marathon
R1 - America - Image Entertainment Review written by and copyright: James Teitelbaum (25th October 2008). |
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The Film
 This is a documentary feature about a group of people preparing to run the 2005 Chicago Marathon. The show takes no point of view, has no narration, and contains few surprises as we follow a group of disparate people through their training. Some of the people are Chicagoans, but we are also introduced to a man from Kenya who lives in Tokyo, and a yuppie couple from California. Joining them in the big race is a spunky college student from Illinois who is hung up on her adoption, a cheerful septuagenarian man who is running with his daughter, and a single mother who was once obese and who is running to get fit. These people are all interviewed at length about why they run, how it affects their lifestyle, and what their goals as runners are. They talk about training, their inspiration, and their running equipment. The film goes into a bit of personal detail about who these people are, and it effectively forms a series of character studies about a group of very different individuals who all share a common passion. Some of these people are more obsessive than others, and some of them are more serious than others. Most of them are likable enough, except for the yuppie man, who is a pompous twit. There is a strange sense of vindication when he is injured and has to drop out of the race. He and his wife are painted as seriously competitive people, and it clearly pains the man to be relegated to being his wife's waterboy. Other individuals are less competitive, and are simply in the race for reasons of self-fulfillment; winning isn't even on the agenda for many of them. Augmenting the tale of these people on their quest to run nowhere really quickly, is a history of the marathon as a sport. Appearing to discuss these topics are a wide variety of people associated with the sport, including several Olympic medalists, former winners of the Boston, Chicago, New York, and other marathons, plus the authors of several books on the subject. Beginning with the original race to the Greek city of Marathon, progressing through the establishment of the Olympic games in 1896, and then on to the formation of the Boston marathon, the entire history of the race is explored. The first woman to ever run in Boston is interviewed, various winners of various races are interviewed, and various world record holders are interviewed. As someone who has absolutely no interest in the sport of running, but who will also watch a well-made documentary on almost any subject, I was modestly absorbed by "Spirit of the Marathon". This isn't the sort of production that will draw in the masses based purely on superlative writing and production standards (such as BBC's recent "Planet Earth" (2006), any Ken Burns documentary, or something like "Winged Migration" (2001)), but runners will find it inspiring, and couch potatoes may also find inspiration in it: if nothing else the documentary will indeed make you want to get off the couch and go outside.
Video
The aspect ratio is 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. The video is rather uneven. Virtually no effort at interesting cinematography was made, as the cameramen went for capturing the moment rather than being arty. I noticed a bit of edge enhancement in the transfer. The print is clean, the blacks are deep, and contrast is nice and deep. Running time is 1:42:06, divided into 16 chapters
Audio
"Spirit of the Marathon" is presented in English Dolby Digital 5.1 or 2.0 surround, with subtitles in English and Spanish. Audio production is nothing special, as the interviews were all conducted at various indoor and outdoor locations, in all sorts of conditions. The mix is balanced enough, with occasional music by setting the mood.
Extras
Image Entertainment have included only a featurette, the film's theatrical trailer and a bonus trailers as extras on this disc. The award for most cumbersome featurette title of the year goes to: "Marathon in the Making: Behind the Making of Spirit of the Marathon" which runs for 18 minutes 2 seconds. The featurette consists of a lot of extra footage and interviews that was cut from the final film, and also some interviews with the director/cinematographer Jon Dunham and some of his crew. Dunham talks about the challenges involved in following six people around during their training, and of finding them during the 40,000 person race. The only other extra is the film's theatrical trailer which runs for 6 minutes 30 seconds and a couple of bonus trailers for: - "YPF" which runs for 2 minutes 10 seconds. - "Night of The White Pants" which runs for 1 minute 48 seconds.
Overall
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