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Personal Best (1982)
In director/writer Robert Towne's groundbreaking directorial
debut film - it was Hollywood's frankest treatment of lesbianism
up to that time. The bold sports film celebrated female athleticism
and sexuality, and specifically
emphasized and honestly depicted the naturally spontaneous relationship
between two women track and field athletes who were in training for
the 1980 Olympics, with an emphasis on the
physicality of the athletic, well-toned women. With mixed reviews,
the film eventually cost $16 million to make, and only achieved about
$5.7 million (in domestic revenue).
It provided the suggestive tagline: "How
do you compete with a body you've already surrendered to your opponent?"
- See Sex in Films for the uncensored version:
- in the film's opening set in Eugene, OR at Hayward
Field's 1976 Olympic Trials, the first striking image was of sweat
dripping off the face of promising track-field star hurdler Chris
Cahill (18 year-old Mariel Hemingway at the time of filming, in
her first lead role), as she was poised and set to race in the
starting blocks
Chris Cahill (Mariel Hemingway)
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Tory Skinner (real-life track star Patrice Donnelly
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- from another part of the track infield, the 100-meter
hurdles race was intensely being watched by Tory Skinner (real-life
track star Patrice Donnelly who participated in the 1976 Olympics
as an acclaimed hurdler), an older and seasoned pentathlete who
was holding a shot-put during her own 5-event pentathlon competition;
Chris lost her hurdles race and apologized to her coach-father
Rick Cahill (Larry Pennell); meanwhile, Tory took 2nd place in
her competition (filmed in slow-motion), qualifying her for the Olympic team
- Tory was at a bar that evening to celebrate
her win with black friend Roscoe Travis (Jim Moody), when the
upset Chris suffered a fainting spell, and Tory offered to drive
her home; Tory comforted Chris who began crying about her loss;
in Tory's off-campus apartment, they smoked weed, watched TV, drank
some beer, flirtatiously bantered with each other, and playfully
competed through arm-wrestling; an attraction grew between them
as they determinedly stared at one other - deadlocked with heavy breathing and grunts
- afterwards, Tory expressed her personal fascination
with Chris and her potential, and encouraged her to be more confident
and develop a "killer instinct" to ensure her future in sports:
"If I could have been anyone in that race today, I'd have been
you....Because you can be great... Speed, strength, flexibility.
Everything I always wanted, you've got"; Tory confessed she was
scared and then kissed Chris on the lips
- in a sensitively filmed scene as they laid naked
together, they took turns softly touching and pleasuring each other;
Chris noted that they both would have been called a "carpenter's
dream" by her brothers: "Flat as a board and easy to nail";
Tory switched places and began touching the bisexual Chris who
remarked: "This feels pretty good. I've never had this done before" -
before they embraced and made love
- Chris accompanied Tory to her school - California
Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, CA, where Tory suggested
that Chris train with her coach Terry Tingloff, although her father
was concerned that she hadn't been granted a sports scholarship;
the manipulative coach initially refused to coach or guide Chris
(after viewing her disastrous trials and calling her a "third-rate
hurdler" with "no speed, no guts"), and was skeptical as to why
Tory was promoting her ("Since when is another athlete's performance
so important to you, huh?"); however, he allowed Chris to work
out and race with the team during practices, without coaching her
Chris' Coach-Father Rick Cahill (Larry Pennell)
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Tory's Cal Poly Track Coach Terry Tingloff (Scott Glenn)
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- the two became roommates at the school and soon
entered into a serious lesbian relationship with each other; after
a few months, due to pressure from Tory on the coach, Chris was allowed
to participate with the team by running in one of the hurdle
lanes, and although she faltered at first, she demonstrated speed
and endurance
- after a sweaty workout in a game of touch football,
the taunt female athletes basked in a steamy spa, as the camera
slowly panned from right to left, emphasizing their unabashed physicality;
frank full-frontal sexuality was displayed, with additional overheard
bits of sexually-oriented conversation
Female Athletes in a Steamy Spa
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- by 1978, the two traveled to Cali, Colombia to
compete in the World Student Games; Chris had proven herself with
the team and the coach; however, before the games started, Chris
suffered from food-poisoning by unwisely (against the rules) eating
fruit from a local stand, and as a result, Tory performed poorly
the next day after staying up all night to help tend to Chris's
health; the Coach was upset with both
of them: "You're sick and she can't perform" - but then Chris surprised
him with an excellent time, and was praised by the coach: ("You
ought to get food poisoning more often"); after the trials were
over, Tory became acutely jealous of Chris' interest
in a male athlete at a beer and weed-smoking party, and had to
be pulled aside by the Coach
- upon their return to Cal Poly, Coach Tingloff offered
Chris a "full ride" scholarship (room, board, and tuition)
for the following year, but she was required to train with him
during the summer and change her event to the pentathlon due to
her strength, speed and flexibility - meaning that she would be
competing against pentathlete Tory: ("There's room for more than
one in the country"); he also added: "I don't know what scares
you more. Getting beat by Tory Skinner or beating her?"; now, Chris
had a chance to compete at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow
- again, friction developed between Tory and Chris
over Tingloff's coaching interest in her, and his demand that she
become a pentathlete; a love triangle of
sorts developed between Tory, Chris, and Coach Tingloff
- soon, it appeared to Tingloff
that Tory might be suspiciously sabotaging Chris' superior high-jump
capability just before the Pan American Games (the last int'l competition
before the Olympics); the Coach warned Chris: "Don't get any
more help from her until after the Pan Ams, okay?"
- at the
same time, tensions increased between Chris and Tory over their relationship,
and Tory proposed an ultimatum - they should break up: "Okay, there's
only one thing left to do, kiddo. See other people... Look, either
we're together or we're not together....Yeah, we may be friends,
but every once in a while, we also f--k each other. Either you
move out or I move out and we really are just friends"; but then
they agreed to try and reconcile everything between them
An Emerging Love Triangle between Tory, Chris, and Terry
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Increased Tensions Between Chris and Tory - Tory
Proposed That Chris Move out and They Become Just Friends
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- as the coach had feared, Chris
ended up with an injury (a dislocated left knee) due to Tory's
admitted, ill-advised high-jump coaching; however, Tory avoided
taking the blame for deliberately hurting Chris: "You know I would
do anything to avoid hurting you"; Tory thought the Coach was attempting
to break them up: "Don't let him do this to us," and then asked
if Chris trusted her: "Did I do this to you on purpose? Did I?
Did I? Did I?"
- the Coach encouraged Chris to vacate Tory's apartment
- he also invited Chris to briefly stay with him in his home to care for her; he blamed
Tory for Chris' accident, and became enraged at Chris for continuing
to care about her double-crossing "girlfriend" - "She's crippled
you"; in the film's most emotional confessional scene, the Coach
expressed his resentment at coaching a female team, and was involved
in so many female-related emotional issues: "I could have been
a man's coach. Back-field coach, Oregon State. I had the job. I
had the job....I was coach of the year last year. You know what
that means when you're a womens' coach? Jacks--t. I mean I could
have coached football"; however, Chris adamantly refused to blame
Tory for her injury: "She didn't mean it....I still think she didn't
mean it. And I still care about her"
- as Tory was leaving to compete in
the Pan Am Games, Chris promised to find a new place to live before
she returned; meanwhile, Chris was receiving therapy in a swimming
pool to strengthen her knee; she began
to express interest in professional water polo player Dennis
Stiles (Kenny Moore), a handsome blue-eyed athlete who had won
two Olympic gold medals for swimming (who later wondered if all
the training was really worth it); they began to bond over exercise
and lifting weights
- back at the athletic field, the Coach worried that
Chris and Tory might be undermining each other, and he cautioned
Chris to not be on the practice
field at the same time as Tory: ("I don't want you and Tory on
the field at the same time...I don't think you can handle it"),
but Chris rebuked him: "I work out with everybody else, or I don't
work out at all. I'm too old, too hurt and too tired to put up
with this s--t"
- Chris began to establish
a serious relationship with Denny, even though he knew about her
past lesbian relationship with her ex-roommate Tory; she was embarrassed
to talk about it, but he didn't care; he regarded them as the "two
greatest-looking girls in San Luis Obispo. It wasn't a secret";
Chris vowed their relationship was over: "We don't see each other anymore,
ever"; she playfully accompanied him to the bathroom, to hold him as
he peed into the toilet ("I want to hold it"); when he said that he
was having trouble ("This isn't gonna work"), she turned on the sink
water and he relaxed
A Serious New Relationship with A Male
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Denny's Thoughts About Chris' Past Lesbianism: "I don't care about
any of that"
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Chris' Bathroom Assistance for Denny
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- by 1980, the athletes were again competing at
the Olympic Track & Field Trials at Hayward Field in Oregon, although
they knew that the US had already announced a politically-inspired
boycott of the Summer Olympics in Moscow; both Tory and Chris were
competing against each other in the various pentathlon events; Coach
Tingloff tightly controlled Chris' contact with Tory, commanding
her: "You're not going to say a word to her" - she responded by
calling him a "manipulative, sadistic creep"; he insisted that
she stay focused on competitive winning: "Don't kid yourself. You're
here to kill anybody that gets in your way, and all the rest is
bulls--t"
- in the 100-meter hurdles, Chris
hit one of the hurdles and fell behind in the standings to 5th
place, and then fell back further to 6th place after fouling
in the shot-put event; with words of encouragement from Denny,
Chris achieved her "personal
best" performance in the 3rd event - the high-jump at "6 foot,
three and a quarter," and Tory slightly injured herself during the
long-jump competition (the 4th of 5 events) on a rain-soaked track;
tallying up the results, Chris was now in 2nd place, while Tory was
in 4th place
- in the final event of the pentathlon, the 800-meters
race, Tory came from behind to win the race; as Chris crossed the
finish line, she fell into Tory's arms; both athletes had made
the US Olympic team (Chris placed 2nd, and Tory was in 3rd place);
after being recognized on the winners' stand, Tory acknowledged
to Chris that Denny was a cute male: (Tory: "He's awful cute
- for a guy" - Chris: "Are you s--ttin' me? Hey!");
Chris' experimentation in lesbianism with Tory had only been a transitory
phase
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Close-Up: The Sweaty Face of Track-Field Hurdler Chris
Cahill (Mariel Hemingway)
Flirtatious Talk in Tory's Room
Their First Kiss
Chris Cahill With Tory Skinner
Chris Working Out with Roommate Tory and the Cal Poly Track Team
In Cali, Colombia, Tory Caring For Chris' Food Poisoning
Chris Offered a "Full Ride" At Cal Poly by the Coach
Lovers & Competitors
Also, Chris' Growing Attraction For Her Coach
Chris' Dislocated Knee Injury During High-Jump Practice Due to Tory's
Advice - Was it Sabotage?
The Coach Encouraging Chris' Breakup With Tory
Swimming Therapy for Chris' Injured Knee
Water Polo Player Dennis Stiles (Kenny Moore) - Chris' New Love Interest
Coach to Chris: "You're
here to kill anybody that gets in your way..."
Chris Competing in the Pentathlon (Hurdles) at the Olympic Trials
The Finale: The Winners on the Stand
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