Vision Quest (1985)

A high school wrestler in Spokane, Washington has trouble focusing on his training regimen when a beautiful young drifter takes up temporary residence at his home.

Director:

Harold Becker

Writers:

Terry Davis (novel), Darryl Ponicsan (screenplay)

Stars:

Matthew Modine, Linda Fiorentino, Michael Schoeffling

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Matthew Modine	...	Louden Swain
Linda Fiorentino	...	Carla
Michael Schoeffling	...	Kuch
Ronny Cox	...	Louden's Dad
Harold Sylvester	...	Tanneran
Charles Hallahan	...	Coach
J.C. Quinn	...	Elmo (as J. C. Quinn)
Daphne Zuniga	...	Margie Epstein
R.H. Thomson	...	Kevin (as R. H. Thomson)
Gary Kasper	...	Otto
Raphael Sbarge	...	Schmoozler
Forest Whitaker	...	Balldozer
Frank Jasper	...	Shute
Roberts Blossom	...	Grandpa
James Gammon	...	Kuch's Dad

Storyline

Vision Quest is a coming of age movie in which high school wrestler Louden Swain decides he wants to be something more than an average high school athlete and sets his sights on a prize that many don't think he can win - he then sets out to reach his goal alone, without much support from his father or coach. His father rents a room to a young drifter, Carla. Swain falls in love with her and she helps him stay focused and prevents him from losing sight of his goals.

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Plot Keywords:

training | teen angst | high school wrestling | wrestling | motorcycle | 

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Taglines:

All he needed was a lucky break. Then one day she moved in.

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | Sport

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 February 1985 (USA)

Also Known As:

Crazy for You

Filming Locations:

Ferguson's Fountain Cafe - 804 W. Garland Avenue, Spokane, Washington, USA

Box Office

Gross USA:

$12,900,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., The Guber-Peters Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Dolby Digital (DVD version)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

At Louden's first wrestling match at his desired weight, the high school band plays the Ewok Theme song from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, which came out the year Vision Quest was filmed.

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Goofs

When Loudon is climbing the peg wall, he puts the right peg in the second highest row at least 3 times as the camera angles changes.

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Quotes

Louden Swain: I'm gonna drop down to 168 and wrestle Shute
Kuch: SHUTE? Shute's a monster! A genuine geratoid! His own father has to use a livewire to keep him from fuckin' the fireplace!

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Connections

Referenced in Mystery Science Theater 3000: Gamera vs. Guiron (1991)

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Soundtracks

Harden My Heart
Performed by Quarterflash
Written by Marv Ross
Produced by John Boylan
Courtesy of Geffen Records
by arrangement with Warner Special Products

User Reviews

It was made for the wrestlers and fans!

Its not hard to understand why some viewers would dislike this movie, since less than .1% of the worlds population ever wrestled in a competitive environment.

But, for those that have, and for the friends and parents of those wrestlers, this movie is a solid 9/10 rating. The movie hits on every aspect of this sports tortuous rigor: losing weight every week, not eating, training, and the mental gymnastics involved with having to believe that you can beat anyone at anytime.

And most realistically, this movie also shows the hardships of doing what every other high school kid does, in combination with the rigors of the sport. They have love relationships, they have classmates, they have to deal with the teachers and coaches, as well as their own family, plus they have to deal with their own teammates each week who may want to take over the top position at their weight.

As one who had over 100 high school matches (15 years before the making of this movie), I can confirm that there is no better movie than this about high school wrestling. When you rate this movie you should not think about how good it is among all other movies, rather you should rate it solely based on its ability to achieve the objective of accurately portraying its subject.

I guess that some would think Louden is not a "team player", but wrestling is an individual sport, no matter how others would want to portray it (although if you win your team gets points). Now that this diatribe (which it might be to some) is about over, I will summarize as follows: Do not watch the movie if you don't care about seeing an exceptionally good story about high school wrestling, you won't like it!