Chris Cahill is a young track-and-field athlete who competes unsuccessfully in the 1976 U.S. Olympic trials. She meets a more experienced competitor, Tory Skinner, and their friendship evolves into a romantic relationship. The two are part of a group of women trying to qualify for the American track-and-field team bound for the 1980 Olympic Games. Despite their commitment to their training regimen, their dreams are thwarted when the United States announces its boycott of the Games for political reasons, leaving them with only the informal "personal best" marks they achieved during training to connote their achievements.
Cast
Production
Hemingway trained extensively before the film began shooting. Donnelly was one of the athletes who helped Towne with research while he was writing the screenplay. After he had trouble finding a professional actress to play Tory Skinner, she agreed to take the role. The production was halted in July 1980 because of a strike by the Screen Actors Guild. Many of the scenes were filmed in San Luis Obispo County. While the sign on the track said "Cal Poly", which is a university in San Luis Obispo, it was filmed at the track at Morro Bay High School. There are also two scenes filmed at restaurants in downtown San Luis Obispo; the Cigar Factory and 1865. Filming also took place in Eugene, Oregon. Locations included Hayward Field and the nearby Track Town Pizza restaurant. Towne clashed with David Geffen during the production. He would later sue Geffen and others for $110 million. Although Michael Chapman is listed as the director of photography, Reynaldo Villalobos and Caleb Deschanel did uncredited work.
Reception
Critical response
Personal Best garnered a 73% approval rating at review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 33 reviews. Roger Ebert gave the film four out of a possible four stars and wrote, "This is a very physical movie, one of the healthiest and sweatiest celebrations of physical exertion I can remember...It is filled with the uncertainties, risks, cares, and rewards of real life, and it considers its characters' hearts and minds, and sees their sexuality as an expression of their true feelings for each other". Both Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert placed Personal Best on their lists of the ten best films of 1982. Pauline Kael wrote that "There has probably never been a growing-up story presented on the screen so freely and uninhibitedly." Vincent Canby of The New York Times praised the acting of the four leads, but criticized the storyline and the "prettified slow-motion footage."
Box office
Personal Best did well in its initial limited engagement, but ultimately flopped at the box office.
