Downhill Racer (1969) on Netflix
Colorado's David Chappellet joins the American downhill team in Wengen, Switzerland, replacing an injured racer. Coach Eugene Claire wants teamwork; Chappellet skis for himself.
- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb6.3/106,626 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes85%
Trailer
Plot summary
David Chappellet comes from Idaho Springs, Colorado, a small town where he grew up a loner with one ambition: to be a skiing champion. U.S. coach Eugene Claire brings him and D.K. Bryan to Wengen, Switzerland, to fill in for an injured teammate. Chappellet draws a late start at the Lauberhorn and refuses to race; his European debut comes instead at the Arlberg-Kandahar in Austria. In the summer the squad trains in Oregon, and Chappellet visits his father at the family homestead, where conversation runs short. He looks up Lena, an old flame. He then returns to France, wins the Grand Prix de Megève, and meets ski manufacturer Machet's assistant, Carole Stahl.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Downhill Racer (1969)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Paramount bought the film rights to Oakley Hall's novel from director Mark Robson for $15,000 in February 1966; when the project stalled, studio production head Robert Evans used it as bait to entice skiing enthusiast Roman Polanski into directing Rosemary's Baby.
- Polanski left the project to concentrate on Rosemary's Baby, and the studio sued Robert Redford for walking away from the starring role; Redford revived the film by pitching it to Gulf+Western owner Charles Bluhdorn.
- In 1969 Buck Holland and Jan Schimmel filed a $6 million lawsuit claiming Downhill Racer was based on their story Devil On His Hills, which they gave to Redford, and asking Paramount to stop saying the film came from Oakley Hall's book; Hall countersued.
- Three weeks before shooting was due to begin, Paramount canceled Downhill Racer over its $3.5 million budget; filming went ahead only after the budget was cut.
- Screenwriter James Salter had not read Oakley Hall's novel, and his starting point came from Roman Polanski, who told him the film should be a modern-day High Noon in which the sheriff is killed and someone is called in to replace him.
- David Chappellet is said to be based on Colorado's Buddy Werner of Steamboat Springs, the first American to win an F.I.S. downhill race, who broke his leg in training two months before the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley, where he would have been a medal favorite in the downhill.
- Other scenes were shot at Utah's Timp Haven ski area, which Robert Redford acquired in 1968 and which is now the Sundance Resort.
