Rowing Through (1996) User Reviews

Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily...

[Spuzzlightyear · 5/10 · 4 February 2006]

Although this movie grew on me, I gotta admit that it took it's very very slow time to get there. While the topic of Olympians getting the shaft when the whole 1984 Moscow Olympics happened is a largely ignored subject (which is surprising), but let's hope a better film comes of it than Rowing Through, a film that knows it's way around rowing, but becomes largely muddled when it tries to deal with. Large lug Tiff Wood, played by Colin Ferguson has a dream to compete in the Olympics, but those dreams are shattered when the Moscow thing happened. (Hilariously, a huge press conference happens, with everyone wanting his opinion about this, but I mean, who gives 2 bits about a rower??). He then has two wait 4 years until the next one comes along, which of course, is a lifetime to an athlete. There's always a new whelp looking to take your place. So he has to train that more harder. Between his workouts, he's shuffling relationships around, and dealing with male relationships as well, as the U.S. rowing team comes together, the stresses of competition for a spot becomes a challenge as well. As I said, the film is the bomb with the rowing scenes. The director knew his way around a boat it seems, and I liked the many angles the camera took when shooting this (this film did go on to win a well deserved Genie for Cinematography). But it's too bad he didn't have a clue what to do with humans. Filled with supporting characters we don't really care about (who the heck IS Polar Bear anyways?) and throwaway relationships, this film reaches it's curious peak when it flirts with a homoerotic overtoned scene, but I doubt the director caught on to what was happening, and the film limps along after that.

Yoeman fare, but nothing exceptional.

[maeander · 3/10 · 26 May 2003]

If you are into sports (especially rowing) and sports movies, you probably will enjoy this film. The cast is likable and does what they can with a script with one too many clichés. Yet another group of young athletes' dreams are cut short by the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. If you have never played a team sport and had a god-like admiration for your coach, you will wonder what all the fuss is about. Based on a true story does not make it unique or exciting. It is not a bad film. It is just that everything here has been done better somewhere else. You won't not like this film, but unless you have a passion for rowing...you will wonder why it was made. Still it might be worth a rental if there's nothing else you haven't seen.

Film about men training for the 1984 team is not accurate

[greengiddy · 2/10 · 23 December 2004]

Having been an avid rower at the Olympic level, I found this film to have fallen short on a number of different levels. Although the cinematography was often quite beautiful, the screenplay was trite and inaccurate. The film, which is based loosely on Halberstam's very detailed and well-done book, THE Amateurs, attempts to follow the men from Harvard and Yale training for the 1984 Olympic Team (after suffering thru the 1980 boycott), focusing on single sculler Tiff Wood (a member of the 1980 Team who stays out another 4 years to try to make the 1984 team). The insertion of the Harvard coxswain as a love interest to the main protagonist, Tiff Wood, was irritating and demeaning. With respect to the actual rowing footage, using actors training for the Olympics was silly - they kept wobbling in their boats and their lack of skill was painfully obvious - and I actually laughed at loud. It would have been far better to use the extras (who were actual Olympians) and shoot real trained rowers, using only a few closeups as cutaways. From a script and character development standpoint, the film fails to create any three dimensional characters and the film claims "the tie between Tiff Wood's double and Joe Bouscaren's double in the Olympic Trials is now legend." Unfortunately, both doubles were hammered by the actual winner of the Olympic Trials, Paul Enquist and Brad Lewis, who came out of no-where to win the Olympic Gold Medal that year (1984). The interesting story, which is not covered in the film but which is covered in detail in Halberstam's book, is that the boats selected as "camp" boats (and thus given a designation that they are the preferred boats to race in the Olympics) all went over to Switzerland to compete prior to the Olympic Trials. When these boats returned to the US, they then had to prepare for the Olympic Trials - and had little time to rest prior to the trials. Every one of these camps boats was defeated (Enquist and Lewis in the double stayed home in the US and undertook unusual training methods, including meditation, shadow rowing, and other unorthodox ways, but which were very effective in terms of getting two people in sync) as well as the quad (which contained Bouscaren. The other interesting piece is the 1980 boycott, which the film skims over. An entire generation of athletes suffered. Both the men's and women's 1980 team have stayed quite close - and the men began to race the Soviet team on a regular basis after the boycott, which is what sport is all about.

It was such a shame to see the amount of money put into this picture and what the film truly could have been had it more closely followed Halberstam's book and been written by a talented screenwriter.

A lovely movie that's worth seeing

[christodoulos_ · 10/10 · 21 October 2000]

A great movie about a rower who's cut off from the 1980 Olympics in Moscow due to the US boycott. It goes through all the struggles, physical and emotional, he is put to in order to take part to the '84 Olympics against younger rowers. A great movie with an end you don't quite expect. This movie has everything and is worth seeing.