Endurance: Critic Reviews

Its mixture of biographical hype and social studies quickly curdles.

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.

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.

More analytically inclined will be suspicious of the degree of contrivance involved and the stylistic idealization of Third World poverty.

Interesting on many levels, but doesn't quite show the passion of the human body like Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia or the thrill of the race like the recent Children of Heaven.

I've seen Olympic TV profile segments that probe deeper than Endurance.

Without looking away from the unhappy circumstances in which many Africans live today, it contrasts the community's material poverty with its spiritual richness,and suggests this may be one of the great lessons that Africa has to teach the West.

A very special sports drama about the drive, determination and grace of an African athlete who is a hero to young black boys around the world

The Olympics sequences are almost completely devoid of drama, and the script never quite makes it clear exactly why he's regarded as being such a special athlete.

It has neither the compelling authenticity of cinema verite nor the dramatic punch of artful fiction.

We leave the film having learned very little, other than that this exceptional long distance runner is certainly quite an athlete.

A movie which makes up for its relative deficiency of conflict and setbacks by its bold, stirring meditation on the lives of people in one of the world's poorest countries.

It's not suspense the film is after. It's something simultaneously more deliberate and more confounding.

A solid dramatized biography of Gebrselassie, and much of it features the somewhat introspective runner with a sunny smile.

If there were a cinematic dullness scale, this movie would reside just one notch ahead of the rating for a blank screen.

As rich in anthropological detail as it is in human interest.

While it is a little inspiring, the movie doesn't have enough punch to keep an audience interested in something as monotonous as marathon running.

This beautiful, highly stylized biographical film tells the story of Olympic gold medal winner Haile Gebrsellasie.

The film leaves so many questions not only unanswered but unasked. Why does Gebrselassie run? What was it like for him to disobey his father and leave home to pursue his dream?

This sweetly simple and honest documentary, shouldn't be confused with a feature film