Which movies have the most and least accurate portrayal of track and field?

A movie that I think my kids like is called Overcomer. I don't want to rag on it too much, but it is the hokiest, cheesiest movie ever.

Near the end, the bed-ridden hospitalzed dad makes am audio recording about the course that his daughter listens to as she wins the state meet. It's ridiculously unrealistic.

I suppose the overal message of the movie is good, but I couldn't get over how poorly the running was portrayed.

There are 3 movies about Steve. Prefontaine; "Fire on the Track", 1995, "Prefontaine", 1997, and "Without Limits", 1998.

I heard Billy Crudup was running 60 400s for Without Limits. Good flick.

Captain America The Winter Soldier. in the first scene, steve rogers was seen running 13 miles in like 30 minutes, but his shoes were average joe shoes. he ran at 8.65 seconds per 100m. the amount of friction and thermal capacity required of the shoe is far greater than the shoe that he wore.

I'm feeling old: Personal Best (1982), Chariots of Fire (1981), Running Brave (1983).

Yeah, the movie's a little cheesy, but still kinda interesting. The book is much better, especially the sections about Harry Hayes (Michael Crawford--of The Phantom fame). I recall reading an article about the movie back in the '70's. Sports Illustrated reported that Crawford trained under Olympian Gordon Pirie, and that he (Crawford) ran a mile in 4:23-24 during filming.

chariots of fire one of my all-time favourite movies

Thank you. Endurance. Beautiful. Not quite a documentary but almost. A young cousin I think plays young Haile. The father telling him to leave running, it will never get him anywhere. Ha! And the opening music with Haile flying along on the trail by the dirt road is amazing. Ethiopia (been there) has thin air but he is totally cruising. And his life of endurance young turns into medalist and world record holder later. Plus they have the actual 10k from Sydney where Haile beats Tergat by less than any margin on the track (including sprints) if I remember correctly.

Yes! Running Brave about Billy Mills was realistic and quite well done. I read the story of Tokyo told by Billy in an educators’ journal and the film aligned well with it.

Saint Ralph

I came to post this. The idea of Michael Crawford, who up until then I'd seen only as Frank
'ooh Betty' Spencer, seemed like an odd choice as a marathon runner, but he done alright. Very watchable/thoroughly enjoyable.

Fantastic and realistic book on a miler is The Other Kingdom by Victor Price

Not about track and field, but there is a scene with a greyhound track. It is a 1991 movie that is literally called Run. It is so underrated. It is a great one to watch

One of the best Track and Field movies is Running Brave about Billy Mills' 10K victory at the Tokyo Olympics. The recreation of the race is epic. Robby Benson, who played Bill Mills, got into pretty good shape for the role for an actor. He was a 36 minute 10K guy by the time filming started.

imdb.com

Running Brave (1983) ⭐ 6.7 | Biography, Drama, Sport

1h 46m | PG

Open link

Check out these two clips. First one is the actual race where Billy Mills captured the 10K gold. The second clip is from the movie Running Brave. The Director did a great job recreating the actual race.

Chariots of Fire didn’t do much for me. I think the preview with the music is the best thing about it.

It leads up to the Atlanta Olympics and yes, it’s a very pretty movie and inspiring. That opening scene of Haile going on his morning run in Ethiopia would make most of us want to get out the door to put some miles in.

But if you didn’t know anything about track before watching it, you’d think that he had no recognition before Atlanta and that he just came out of nowhere to win Olympic gold, when in fact he was two-time world champion, world record-holder and the big favorite to win.

Yes! I bought the VHS many years ago just for this opening sequence.