NETT gives a "thumbs down" to Spirit of the Marathon

Overall, the NETT gang gave collective "thumbs down" to the Spirit of the Marathon movie.

The highlights included a bit of local flare with Tom Dederian making an appearance, as well as New England greats Bill Rodgers and Joan Benoit Samuelson. And Greater Lowell's Casey Moulton gets a LOT of screen time running along next to, in front of, behind Deena Kastor. Sadly, no shots of Big Ben who ran one of his best races at Chicago that year.

But all in all, the film was a bit heavy on the "human interest" angles and not heavy enough on the "Spirit of the Marathon" itself.

Vlad, who originally pointed it out to us, said, "Well, the "Spirit of the Marathon" is not the best movie I have watched. Sorry for the mislead.
I hope this one is better: http://www.borntorunfilm.com/Trailer%20.html"

Big Ben said, "I didn’t really like the movie, was pretty let down. It was like I was sitting in cross between a weight watchers presentation and a Chicago Marathon promo. There was way too little action, way too little intrigue. They missed golden opportunities to really catch the mystique of the race. They didn’t even explain the relation between Alberto Salazar and Dick Beardsley and their amazing race. Figures like Emil Zatopec were shown running but their real accomplishments weren’t put into perspective. Y’know, they went so far in the beginning of the movie to explain how the race is about pushing the limits and they didn’t really get to the meat of the subject. I felt they concentrated way too much on the back of the pack, and way too little on the folks who’re really striving at working to be at the front of the pack. What the hell do I care about some fat jackass that hurt his knee and can’t run. In my opinion, they failed at really capturing the spirit of the marathon."

Frank KJ summed up his thoughts by saying, "Movie Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars. Three out of the five people followed get injured training for the marathon. Moral of the story: Don't run. Instead on Patriot's Day go to Fenway and watch the Red Sox, then go out and see suffering people limp their injured bodies towards Boston. And if you still really want to run after that, then come out to Lincoln woods and hit the trails with NETT."