Der Sprinter (1984)

Director:

Christoph Böll

Writers:

Christoph Böll (writer)
Wieland Samolak (writer)

Genre:

Drama | Sport

Plot Keywords:

Satire | Gay Bar | Gay Interest | Homosexual | Gay Stereotype

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Wieland Samolak	...	Wieland
Gerhard Olschewski	...	Ricardo
Renate Muri	...	Bridgitte Sonnenborg
Dieter Eppler	...	Siegfried Dietrich
Miriam Spoerri	...	Magda Dietrich
Wichard von Roell	...	Dr. Klampf
Jürgen Mikol	...	Victor

Also Known As:

The Sprinter (USA)

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color

Movie Connections:

References The Blue Lagoon (1980)

Some comedy doesn't translate well.

I was not really clear on what was just absurd in this film and what was supposed to be funny. Perhaps my American sensibility just didn't get the Teutonic humor.

Wieland is a nelly gay boy who's had a boyfriend but now is alone. His parents have disowned him but his mother has written him saying that if only he would become 'normal' perhaps he could be welcomed back into the family fold.

Wieland sees an old homeless woman sitting outside drinking the last of a very large bottle of wine and moaning that it was her son who had driven her to it. This is enough to make him want to reform. His father has always complained about his long hair and his total lack of interest in sport. Now, wanting to change, Wieland calls him mom and asks how to become normal. When his initial inquiries at a dance studio don't pan out he decides to take up a sport. He decides to become a sprinter (based solely on the allure of a hunky young man trying on a pair of track shorts)

Recruited by a nefarious track coach that needs one more team member to fulfill a quota his career begins. He wins his first race when he's inspired by the buxom charms of the Brunhilda-like women's shot-putter. Her performance is enhanced as well. It's love at first sight.

From here, I either lost the thread of the story or perhaps just lost interest. It seemed absurd that the track coach that recruited him knew less about training than I do. It seemed bizarre that a gay man could suddenly fall for a woman at all, let alone one of such dubious charms. It seemed absurd that if he wanted to impress his father, he wouldn't cut his hair (When he and the shot-putter were together the first few times I thought I was seeing a pair of lesbians waiting for their Harley to get fixed) There were also weird sub plots about performance enhancing drugs, East German track whistles, illegitimate sponsorship deals, and other strangeness that I finally just gave up on.

While there was nothing hateful about this gay-themed movie, there was nothing very worthwhile about it either. Now that I've seen it, I want my 90 minutes back.