Endurance

Please release this great movie on DVD. I look foward to replacing my VHS tape. Thanks.

This is a movie I would recommend for people who like to think about life, and how dreams and determination can help improve a person's situation... Not recommended at all for people who want adrenaline rushes, unexpected twists, violence, or sex.

I am a runner myself, and can see why some other runners who reviewed this film were disappointed in not seeing a lot more running by one of the greatest runners of all time.

However, the movie makes up for its shortcomings with great filming of ethiopian scenery, capturing the essence of how many ethiopians face life there, and all accompanied by beautiful, soothing, inspiring music.

What is a crime, is that this is not available on DVD...!!! The DVD version could actually include the whole 10,000 meter race at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, which was not televised in the USA (no US runners, I suppose?), but is widely regarded by the rest of the world as one of the most exciting races ever seen at any Olympics event...!

In any shape or form, I would love to own this on DVD. Any additional interviews, or footage of races, of course, would be extremely welcome...!

PLEASE, PLEASE, release this on DVD...!

There is not much here. You learn a little bit about how Gebrselassie became a runner, and a little bit about life in Ethiopia. But the pace of the movie is so very, very slow, you get only the most vague, broad ideas. It is disappointing to be given only a glimpse, not something more substantial -- the vast majority of the 83 minute running time is simply wasted. If you are interested in Gebrselassie's races, you will also be disappointed. There are snippets from one of his Olympic 10,000 meters races, but they probably add up to less than a minute; and there is nothing whatsoever about any of his other races.

Why, then, did I give this movie 4 stars, when it's so empty? Why not the 2 stars that most of it deserves?

Because for three minutes, during the opening credits, you actually get to see Gebrselassie run.

And it is AWESOME.

This film is an original, not a documentary, not a drama, but a completely one off mix of the two, the moving, thrilling tale of Haile Gebresalassie, Ethiopia's greatest runner. It tells tells the story of his life, his childhood in Ethiopia and his stunning career as an athelete. Gorgeous film of Ethiopia, heart-stopping footage of the Olympics. Not to be missed.

Haile Gebrselassie is indeed a worthy subject for a docudrama: not only one of the world's all-time greatest distance runners but an amazingly likeable, soulful man to boot. On balance I'm glad I saw this movie--but not delighted to have purchased it, if that apparent paradox makes any sense.

If you, like me, are a runner in search of inspiration, then the opening sequence is worth the price of admission: one uncut take of about three or four minutes in which the camera, apparently in a car, follows Geb as he flows gazelle-like along a dusty roadside path at 5:00 pace, up hill and down dale, stride now shortening imperceptibly and now lengthening: as natural as running gets and as inspiring as any running footage I've ever seen. This is the way running was meant to be. The Platonic ideal.

The problem is the remainder of the movie. With the exception of several short extracts from his 1996 Atlanta Olympics appearance, ENDURANCE is a very slowly paced and sometimes quite weird/funny docudrama in which the youthful Geb (played by a boy actor) and the slightly older pre-Olympics Geb (played by Geb acting "youthful," ingenuous, naive) comes of age in rural Ethiopia. It does indeed, as another reviewer points out, give you a good sense of what life in rural Ethiopia is all about--or at least I'm willing to stipulate that it does, never having been to the country myself. It does a pretty fair job of touching all the bases that you'd expect a low-budget docudrama to touch. If I had a boy who I was hoping to entice to become a runner, this would be a great Christmas gift--but only if that boy had an attention span willing to be hijacked into a much more relaxed narrative pace than our own video-gamed world.

On the other hand, if you, like me, wanted the Ethiopian version of PRE or PREFONTAINE, you'll be wildly inspired by the first four minutes and irritated by the rest; the only part of the video you'll find yourself revisiting are those first few minutes.