Having read the book, the movie takes way too many liberties with timelines and events. I know, compromising events and time to fit several years into a two hour movie is expected, but they really smooshed shit together. They eliminated a whole year's races, the Olympic trials, and pretty much ditched the main character's backstory almost completely. They even changed the age he was abandoned by his father from 10 to 14, which I found odd. Was it to try and get some sympathy for the dad, or did they think the audience wouldn't buy the fact that Joe Rantz lived by himself for all that time before his enrollment at the UW? Probably the latter, as they portray Joe's dad as a heartless asshole.
But they did keep the major events in the movie, and the races were filmed exceptionally well. Very exciting and well done, really true to how they actually happened.
Again, great movie. Get out of your mom's basement and go see it.
