I really like this movie but there is one thing I didn't like. As a former sprinter myself I can tell you their form was terrible. Their arms were flailing all over the place and their faces were full of tension. You have to run relaxed. Your cheeks need to be like jell-o. Just bad. Other than that, great movie.
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I did sixty in five minutes once...
Have you ever watched clips of tennis matches from 60+ years ago? The form is nothing like modern tennis--that's just how it was.
I mean, form changing is sort of how records get broken over the years.
Form changes over time as we become more and more knowledgeable about health and science -- that's how times get better and records fall. A hundred years from now, doctors and trainers might be telling athletes to be running in a completely different manner. The runners probably wouldn't break any records today, but as has already been pointed out, the actors were relatively accurate for the athletes they portrayed.
I remember watching an old instructional video on playing tennis on TV, and the instructor said "never hit the ball to hard". lol. Players of this day and age are trying to crush the ball. It was funny to watch that old video of how tennis was taught 60-70 years ago. I'm sure track and field was kind of like this too. Sports evolve over time...
But I just watched CoF for the first time and while I thought it was good, I had to comment on this part of the movie because it really bugged me, I mean, they look like fucking retards when they run in this movie. I watched some of those videos of Liddell and Abrahams and I don't see them grimacing or flailing their arms all over the place like they did in this movie... hmmm...
They look like decent runners in those youtube videos. That being said, I would give this movie a 6.3 out of 10. Pretty good movie but I think it's a little over-hyped. There are some better sports films out there.
My oldest son ran against the Ohio state cross-country champion last year (He also won the state championships in the mile and 2-mile in the Spring). He had rather unorthodox form also...he ran with a "head tilt" that was somewhat reminiscent of Eric Liddell. But did he ever take long strides...I bet he covers more ground in 2 strides than my son does in 4. It was really a pleasure to watch him run.
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