Champions: A Love Story | |
---|---|
Genre | Drama Sport |
Screenplay by | John Sacret Young |
Directed by | John A. Alonzo |
Starring | |
Theme music composer | John Rubinstein |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producer | Philip Mandelker |
Producer | John Sacret Young |
Cinematography | John A. Alonzo |
Editor | Bernard J. Small |
Running time | 100 minutes |
Production company | Warner Bros. Television |
Original release | |
Network | CBS |
Release | January 13, 1979 |
Champions: A Love Story is a 1979 American made-for-television drama sport film directed by John A. Alonzo and starring Shirley Knight, Tony Lo Bianco, Jimmy McNichol, Joy LeDuc, and Anne Schedeen.
Peter is a teenage ex-hockey player who falls in love with Carrie, a figure skater. [1]
The film's screenplay was written by television writer and producer John Sacret Young, who himself was a former hockey player. [2] Prior to writing the screenplay, Young had been unsuccessfully working as a novelist in Vermont. [2] Commenting on the setting, Young said: "Skating is filled with stories that are very intense - the romances, the hatreds. I don't think that story's ever been told. Skating is a loose fraternity. They share something, the early morning practice, the rigorous training. It's like war veterans without the pall of death." [3]
Young spent six months frequenting ice skating rinks in Colorado, and based many of the characters in the film real people he met there: "You go to any rink and 6 a.m. and here are these burly women in overcoats. They give their lives to this." [2] Young was partly inspired to write the film after the 1961 Sabena Flight 548 plane crash that killed the entire U.S. Figure Skating team. [2]
People magazine deemed the film a "surprisingly compelling 1979 TV movie." [4] Jerry Buck of the Associated Press praised the film as "a warm story that bursts at the seams with vitality and life." [5]
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