Monica Potter plays Pre’s girlfriend, Mary Marckx, with whom he had a very close relationship up until his death. Many details of Pre’s personal life were included. The film is not strictly about Pre’s running career. That’s why I can beat anyone I’ve ever met.”
Mary marckx prefontaine movie#
The movie contains a quote that perfectly outlines Pre’s indestructible confidence: “I can endure more pain than anyone you’ve ever met. He would run races not to see who was the fastest runner, but to see, “who had the most guts.” Pre was the ultimate competitor. One of Pre’s famous quotes is, “ A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways as they’re capable of understanding.” The way they filmed the race scenes depicted very closely how Pre ran his races in real life. Pre was known to have unbelievable confidence in his abilities and willpower. Throughout the entire film, Crudup does a stellar job of providing the audience with an accurate portrayal of the fiery, and almost cocky nature with which Pre carried himself. Pre’s stubbornness to Bowerman’s coaching is beautifully portrayed by Crudup. Pre was resistant to change the way he ran and would often argue with Bowerman, trying to justify his racing style. Bowerman constantly tried to fix Pre’s front running race strategy, explaining why front running is not the most efficient way to win a race, and could even cause him to lose races against world-class competition. Pre and Bowerman’s back-and-forth relationship was one of the main themes throughout the movie. This had always been Pre’s style throughout high school, and it had worked very well for him. Front running is a racing style in which a runner leads the group of runners throughout the entire race, paying little concern to proper pacing. The University of Oregon’s track program was of great interest to him, and after receiving a late letter from Bowerman, the decision to stay in his home state was effortless.Īs Pre transitions into college, Bowerman immediately notices Pre’s aggressive race strategy of front running. The film starts by following Prefontaine from his high school running days, as he was being heavily recruited by colleges all across the country. In a review by Empire in 1998, the author claims that, “it’s difficult to pick a sports film that offers such complementary levels of entertainment and inspiration.”
It received solid reviews from multiple movie critics upon its release. The film, directed by Robert Towne, stars Billy Crudup as Prefontaine and Donald Sutherland as legendary University of Oregon track coach (and co-founder of Nike, Inc.) Bill Bowerman. Murals of Steve Prefontaine in his hometown of Coos Bay, Oregon.