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5.0 out of 5 stars
Watch this with someone you love !, Mar 7 2004
This review is from: Competition, the (VHS Tape)
Gosh, there were so many good movies from the 1970's & 1980's. The Competition is definately one of them. People who enjoy classical music with a good star cast will really enjoy this flic. The story is simple enough. Richard Dreyfus & Amy Irving are young pianists who fall in love while vying for the prize of a major competition.For the finale, Dreyfuss chooses Beethoven's piano concerto no.5, while Amy chooses the more complex Prokofiev's piano concerto no.3. Though Amy Irving is more smitten by Dreyfuss's charm, he's a bit reluctant to get involved due to the competition which both parties want to win desperately. Lee Remick is apt as the watchful teacher over Amy Irving. Sam Wanamaker who's also a popular director himself is excellent as the conductor of the competition. Popular 70's music director Lalo Schifrin is the movie's music composer & Joel Oliansky takes the honors for story, screenplay & direction.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
The love/ hate movie, May 24 2002
This review is from: Competition, the (VHS Tape)
I gotta tell you, my sister and I both love Dreyfuss and Irving and Lee Remick. The best part of this movie is the piano competition. The actors were beliveable in their "playing" the piano. Eveything thing else stunk in this movie. It is a guilty pleasure movie. This is possibly the worst acting from an entire cast in a single movie. Lee Remick walks around in robotic motion and needs a beat down for the insults. Dreyfuss' parents should have thrown him out from the basement years ago for over-acting more than usual. Sam Wanamaker and his sweater on the shoulders, joint smoking, getting his mack on to weird music was just what we needed to push us over the edge into uncontrollable laughter. I rent this movie when I need a good laugh and it suits the bill. I am sure that wasn't the intention when it was made. Did I mention about Dreyfuss crying after having sex and that silly cap? Now I need to watch the movie again!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
one of my favorite movies for almost 25 years, Jun 10 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Competition, the (VHS Tape)
I just bought this video to share with my daughter who is a high school musician beginning to seriously compete. I saw it in 1980 when it was released, eight years before she was born, and it has remained in my memory as one of my all-time favorites. I just finished watching it for the first time in 20 years or so. The entire movie looks very late-70s, and Richard Dreyfuss really needs to lose that silly-looking cap, but the power of the music and the message is completely intact. The scene in which Amy Irving performs her concerto is absolutely delicious and riveting. Richard Dreyfuss overacts as usual, but his realization as he listens to her performance backstage that she is, as he puts it, "brilliant," is in itself brilliantly communicated without words. Lee Remick's character provides a kind of narrative frame for Dreyfuss' and Irving's romance, and lends the movie some much-needed zing to balance all that sweetness. As does the delightful Sam Wanamaker, who plays a Leonard Bernstein-type (quite accurate except that Sam's character likes girls). And the music is just extraordinary. Although The Competition is entertaining as a love story, this is most especially a movie for musicians to savor. When I was a music major in college it was those few who were "driven" to create music and felt they had no other choice who were the tortured souls. They reached amazing emotional peaks with their music, but often struggled with despair as well. The rest of us just enjoyed ourselves. The variety of personalities portrayed in this movie is very accurate.
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