Visalia Times-Delta
Review by James Ward
January 24, 2008
Documentary 'Marathon' not just for runners
The question going into "Spirit of the Marathon" is whether nonrunners will be interested in a documentary about the 2005 Chicago Marathon.
After seeing the often compelling documentary, the answer to that question is an unqualified yes.
Filmmaker Jon Dunham focuses on a half-dozen likable people — both professional and amateur runners — and then tells us why they choose to put themselves through the grueling experience that is running 26.2 miles.
Along the way, Dunham drops in some fascinating historical background on the modern marathon and features some stunning photography of Chicago, which has never looked so beautiful on the big screen.
Among the fascinating details about the history of the marathon: Through much of the 20th century, women were discouraged from running marathons (some sports officials thought a woman's uterus could fall out) and, at the Olympics, the event was closed to women until 1984.
In one funny sequence, marathon pioneer Katherine Switzer talks about running the 1967 Boston Marathon, an event that was closed to women at the time. The experience turned comically violent when, after realizing she was a woman, a marathon official tried to forcibly remove her from the race. (It was only a body block from Switzer's husband that kept her in the race.)
Among the professional Chicago Marathon runners, the movie spends time with U.S. Olympian Deena Kastor, who comes off as a dedicated and driven athlete, but also warm and funny. You'll be on the edge of your seat when she's battling it out with a tough competitor in the final moments of the race.
The most charming of the spotlighted Chicago Marathon amateurs are 70-year-old Jerry Meyers and his middle-aged daughter, Rona. Watching the father and daughter train for and then run the marathon pulls on the heartstrings — something Dunham was no doubt shooting for.
Dunham also does a good job of showing the massive turnout for the Chicago Marathon. As the race starts, his camera concentrates on the leaders of the pack and slowly pulls back to show runners as far as the eye can see. Amazing.
If "Marathon" has a flaw, it's not exploring world-class runner Daniel Njenga's story more. Njenga seems to split time between his home country of Kenya and Japan, where he apparently works and trains. The movie never asks how or why Njenga got to Japan — or how he deals with the clashing cultures of the two distinctly different parts of the world.
Still, "Spirit of the Marathon" does something remarkable: It explains the attraction of running so that even the most out-of-shape couch potato can understand the pleasures of the grueling activity.