Endurance (1998)
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50% of critics liked it
(26 reviews) -
59% of users liked it
(312 ratings)
Veteran ethnographic documentarian Leslie Woodhead helmed this U.S.-British docudrama about Ethiopian long-distance runner Haile Gebrselassie (with the Atlanta Olympic games sequence directed by Bud Greenspan). Gebrselassie won the gold medal in the men's 10,000-meters race at the 1996 Atlanta… More Veteran ethnographic documentarian Leslie Woodhead helmed this U.S.-British docudrama about Ethiopian long-distance runner Haile Gebrselassie (with the Atlanta Olympic games sequence directed by Bud Greenspan). Gebrselassie won the gold medal in the men's 10,000-meters race at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, and the Atlanta race serves as a framing device. Yonas Zergaw, the athlete's nephew, portrays him as a youth, with Gebrselassie portraying himself from age 18. At his native village of Asela, he ran 12 miles daily to school. When fellow Ethiopian Miruts Yifter won the 10,000-meter race at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Haile was inspired and became a serious runner at 17, moving to Addis Ababa to begin training. Haile's late mother is played by his eldest sister. Haile's father portrays himself in later scenes, with Haile's first cousin acting as the father as a younger man in the film's earlier sequences. Shown at 1998 film fests (Telluride, Venice). ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Directed By
- Bud Greenspan, Leslie Woodhead
- Written By
- Leslie Woodhead
- Genres
- Documentary, Drama
PG,
- In Theaters
- May 21, 1999 Limited
- Studio
- Buena Vista Pictures
Critic Reviews
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Todd McCarthy, Variety
More analytically inclined will be suspicious of the degree of contrivance involved and the stylistic idealization of Third World poverty.
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Jeff Millar, Houston Chronicle
I found the film engrossing, missing only the opportunity to spend more time with the mechanics of distance training and, perhaps through that, to learn how Gebrselassie became the world's best at what he does.
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Stephen Holden, New York Times
Its mixture of biographical hype and social studies quickly curdles.
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Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle
A solid dramatized biography of Gebrselassie, and much of it features the somewhat introspective runner with a sunny smile.
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Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
He didn't come from a background of training, coaching and determination, but from the rural hills, where we see him running to school, running to the water well, running to the fields, always with that stoic thrumming of his breath.
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Cast
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Haile Gebrselassie
as himself
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Shawananness Gebrselassie
as Young Haile's Mother
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Yonas Zergaw
as Young Haile Gebrselassie
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Tedesse Haile
as Young Haile's Father
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Bekele Gebrselassie
as himself
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Alem Tellahun
as herself
- Haile Gebrsellasie
- Shawananness Gebrsellasie
