BEFORE: And so I come to the end of the Robert Redford chain. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but in a strange way, I sort of owe my whole career to Robert Redford. Back in 1991 I was working for a little production company in downtown Manhattan that made music videos and artsy logos for cable channels - I'd had a college internship there and rolled it over into a part-time job, having proven I was somewhat useful. But over the course of 2 years or so they'd gotten a little behind in paying me, and I wasn't sure if they'd ever do a big job and catch up. So I had this intern working there, Laura, and she had found a part-time job stuffing envelopes for a rep company, but had just landed a job working for Redford as some kind of personal assistant. So I looked into taking her place at the rep company, and ended up working there for 22 years. And two years later, someone I worked with at THAT job recommended me to take her place at a real animation company, where I've also worked part-time for 22 years now. So if Redford hadn't hired Laura, I never would have gotten either of my major jobs - he has no idea how much he's inadvertently helped me out.
Years later, I'm now back to part-time work, so I'm keeping my ears open for another break like that. But maybe you only get one like that in a lifetime.
THE PLOT: A story of two motorcycle racers, the inept, unsuspecting Little Fauss and the opportunistic, womanizing Halsy Knox.
AFTER: Putting this right after "Downhill Racer" worked out really well, because essentially they're like the same movie as such: 1) Robert Redford plays a cocky, arrogant athlete in a sport where the main goal is just to go as fast as you can, and not wipe out. 2) He's got a love/hate relationship with a teammate/competitor, who at one point crashes and is taken out of competition, and who he may or may not be manipulating to his own ends. 3) He's got a casual love/love relationship with a woman who might be even more shallow and screwed-up than he is, and who may or may not be manipulating him to her own ends.
(Like "Downhill Racer", there aren't very many technical details here about the featured racing sport. There's one type of race that has two men on a motorcycle, with the passenger shifting his weight to balance the bike or something, at times being only inches from the ground. I would have loved to learn more about this sport, it seems quite dangerous and intriguing.)
Clearly Redford may have been in a groove, or riffing on the same theme, because "Downhill Racer" and this film were released just one year apart, in 1969 and 1970. I realize that skiing and motorcycle racing seem like very different sports, but the two movies seem to share the same DNA - it's just that Olympic-level skiing is very formal and precise, and these California (?) amateur-level motorbike races are anything but. Also, Redford plays more of an obvious con-man type here, so it's a little like "Downhill Racer" cross-pollinated with "The Sting".
In fact, they're so informal that they really don't check the racer's identities very well, so for a while the banned Halsy Knox is able to race under Little Fauss' name, just by riding his bike and wearing his number. This must have been before California put pictures on driver's licenses or something. This situation leads to an uneasy alliance between the two - Fauss needs Halsy to drive him around and create a reputation for him by racing under his name, and Halsy needs Fauss as a bike mechanic.
The alliance is soon broken, and naturally it's due to a love triangle. Yes, there are motorcycle race groupies, as there probably are for any sport or band or actor, and one naturally chooses Halsy, but Fauss pines over her. After they part ways, he hooks up with one of Halsy's old conquests, and whether this is out of spite, or an attempt to be more like him, or just to get his groove on, I'm not sure that I can really say.
The film ends quite ambiguously, as several Redford films have also done this week. It's implied that at some point the ability of the student surpasses that of the master, but they pulled the classic 1970's "Freeze frame" ending, so we don't officially get to see it happen. Or did they just forget to film it?
Also starring Michael J. Pollard (last seen in "Another You"), Lauren Hutton (last seen in "54"), Noah Beery Jr. (last seen in "Only Angels Have Wings"), Lucille Benson.
RATING: 4 out of 10 greasy spoons
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