Ice Castles (1978)

A young girl is on top of the world until a tragic accident dashes her hopes and dreams of becoming a world-class figure skater. Only with the help of those who love her can she prove to ... See full summary »

Director:

Donald Wrye

Writers:

Donald Wrye (screenplay), Gary L. Baim (screenplay)

Stars:

Lynn-Holly Johnson, Robby Benson, Colleen Dewhurst

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robby Benson	...	Nick Peterson
Lynn-Holly Johnson	...	Alexis Winston
Colleen Dewhurst	...	Beulah Smith
Tom Skerritt	...	Marcus Winston
Jennifer Warren	...	Deborah Mackland
David Huffman	...	Brian Dockett
Diane Reilly	...	Sandy
Craig T. McCullen	...	Doctor
Kelsey Ufford	...	Ceciel Monchet
Leonard Lilyholm	...	Hockey Coach
Brian Foley	...	Choreographer
Jean-Claude Bleuze	...	French Coach (as Jean Claude Bleuze)
Teresa Willmus	...	Annette Brashlout
Diana Holden	...	X-Ray Technician
Michelle McLean	...	Skater

Storyline

A young girl is on top of the world until a tragic accident dashes her hopes and dreams of becoming a world-class figure skater. Only with the help of those who love her can she prove to the world -- and herself -- that she still has the potential to realize her dreams.

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Plot Keywords:

tights | ice castles | skating | figure skating | figure skater | 

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Taglines:

When Tragedy Struck, Love Came to the Rescue.

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | Sport

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

Sony Movie Channel [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 December 1978 (USA)

Also Known As:

Castillos de hielo

Filming Locations:

White Bear Lake in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, USA

Box Office

Gross USA:

$20,710,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation,International Cinemedia Center,Major Studio Partners

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Donald Wrye and actor Robby Benson previously worked together on the tele-movie Death Be Not Proud (1975).

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Goofs

Lexie competes in the sectionals, not wanting the judges or audience to know that she has lost most of her sight. However, there is no way she could credibly compete in the compulsory figures section of the competition, that portion which is a highly visual exercise of needing to be able to see the carvings in the ice.

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Quotes

[first lines]
[Nick pulls his truck up to Beulah's Star Ice Castle Lanes, or, depending on how you read the marquee sign, Beulah's Ice Castle Star Lanes]
Nick Peterson: Hey, Charlie.
Charlie: Hi, Nick.
Nick Peterson: How ya doin'?
Charlie: Beats the hell out of me. Hey, what are *you* doin' home?
Nick Peterson: Beats the hell out of me.
Charlie: Hey, Beulah, rack 'em up! Come on!
Nick Peterson: Howdy, Les.
Les: Hey! Nick, what the hell are *you* doin' here?
[...]

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Crazy Credits

The opening credits appear to be in black-and-white, but if you look carefully, you can see the pink face and yellow hair of Lynn-Holly Johnson as she is skating.

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Connections

Referenced in The Holiday (2006)

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Soundtracks

Through the Eyes of Love
(Theme from Ice Castles (1978))
Music by Marvin Hamlisch
Lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager
Sung by Melissa Manchester

User Reviews

Grace

Movies are like people, some of 'em.

You'll encounter some that are like this, so trivial, so unoriginal, so mawkishly dumb that you'll want to stab your eyes. And yet it will have a center -- like this -- that is so appealing you cannot avoid the inner seduction.

The story is completely ordinary and obnoxious. The drama of a soul as a sports competition; characters dragged out of high school cribsheets. Stuff that just makes no sense, even in a fantasy. A completely incoherent rhythm.

The seduction is from the skating. Our sweet young midwestern princess this time is an ice skater. Instead of getting an appealing actress and somehow handling the skating with doubles, they used a real skater. Sure, she's a poor actress, but no less so than the pros involved here. The point is that when she skates, the reality of it is inherited by the story and all of the clunky machinery seems more real by association.

Her face is plain and uninteresting, but that's just an artifact of not knowing how to act, to give us a being. But that's not true at all when we see her move, even at times when she is not moving on the ice. Skaters are actors in a grand theatrical tradition. The "scoring" keeps getting adjusted to make it more and more appealing to audiences, to improve the business of show. And our girl here is fully saturated in the thing.

What makes this different than watching a sports competition? Because those girls and women really are competing, a grueling, joyless enterprise of questionable worth to society. Here, we have the camera placed in very clever and effective places. We have the freedom to have innocent costumes and personal projection. And we have the freedom of our dancer to just dance in most pleasing way her team can devise.

There's a "sex" scene of sorts. No nudity at all. Our girl is in front of a mirror with a cotton blouse and no bra, lightly touching herself. Her slight body under, a couple years later presented as a Bond girl.

An unscrupulous TeeVee personality has been making her a star in a manner within the story very similar to the stance of the movie itself. He is the trainer's lover. With no explanation whatever, he enters and is accepted as our girl's lover.

It is a tender scene in how she moves, with implied violence in the sexual voyeurism. (The plot revolves around her losing her sight and rediscovering her old boyfriend.) If the Olympics is date rape, movies like this are a seduction where money changes hands. I prefer the latter.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.