This movie came out 24 years ago, but I hadn't seen it a second time so when it ran on cable this afternoon, I watched it from beginning to end.
The movie is about Louden Swain (played by Matthew Modine in his breakout role that launched him to Full Metal Jacket), a typical high school kid in a typical American small town. He is living a middle class life, very ordinary, very hard-working. He's a very good high school wrestler, and before his senior year he decides to drop two weight classes in order to take on the best wrestler in the state, Brian Shupe, who hasn't lost a match in three years.
He meets resistance from his coach, who believes Louden is being selfish -- he could help the team better by winning at his normal weight, but by dropping a weight class he becomes a huge underdog. His teammates are not entirely behind it, either.
Louden trains like a maniac and diets to excess in order to drop the pounds and make the weight, which of course he does, just barely.
In the middle of all of this, his father (played by Ronny Cox), an auto mechanic, takes in a boarder, Carla (played by the smolderingly hot Linda Fiorentino), a mouthy, willful young lady from New Jersey who is "on her way" to California. Why she would want to stop off in Spokane, Washington isn't really explained, but since Carla is so hot, and so obviously attractive to Louden, nobody questions this part of the plotline.
Carla gets in the way of Louden's "Quest", and she realizes it, so the romance comes and goes, just long enough to teach Louden that being a man means understanding what a woman wants.
Louden gets his shot at wrestling Shupe in the climactic scene of the movie.
It's a simple plot. The protagonist is not curing cancer or winning the Heisman Trophy. He's merely set an extremely ambitious goal that many of his teammates could have themselves set, but only he had the "Vision" to see it, the will to prepare for it, and the tenacity to go get it.
It's really a great little movie, the women will love Matthew Modine and the guys will love both the wrestling story and the idea of getting down with Linda Fiorentino.
Oh, and an awesome classic 80's soundtrack with Journey, Madonna, Foreigner, Sammy Hagar, Don Henley and others.
Very inspiring movie. Give it a chance, you'll love it.
The movie is about Louden Swain (played by Matthew Modine in his breakout role that launched him to Full Metal Jacket), a typical high school kid in a typical American small town. He is living a middle class life, very ordinary, very hard-working. He's a very good high school wrestler, and before his senior year he decides to drop two weight classes in order to take on the best wrestler in the state, Brian Shupe, who hasn't lost a match in three years.
He meets resistance from his coach, who believes Louden is being selfish -- he could help the team better by winning at his normal weight, but by dropping a weight class he becomes a huge underdog. His teammates are not entirely behind it, either.
Louden trains like a maniac and diets to excess in order to drop the pounds and make the weight, which of course he does, just barely.
In the middle of all of this, his father (played by Ronny Cox), an auto mechanic, takes in a boarder, Carla (played by the smolderingly hot Linda Fiorentino), a mouthy, willful young lady from New Jersey who is "on her way" to California. Why she would want to stop off in Spokane, Washington isn't really explained, but since Carla is so hot, and so obviously attractive to Louden, nobody questions this part of the plotline.
Carla gets in the way of Louden's "Quest", and she realizes it, so the romance comes and goes, just long enough to teach Louden that being a man means understanding what a woman wants.
Louden gets his shot at wrestling Shupe in the climactic scene of the movie.
It's a simple plot. The protagonist is not curing cancer or winning the Heisman Trophy. He's merely set an extremely ambitious goal that many of his teammates could have themselves set, but only he had the "Vision" to see it, the will to prepare for it, and the tenacity to go get it.
It's really a great little movie, the women will love Matthew Modine and the guys will love both the wrestling story and the idea of getting down with Linda Fiorentino.
Oh, and an awesome classic 80's soundtrack with Journey, Madonna, Foreigner, Sammy Hagar, Don Henley and others.
Very inspiring movie. Give it a chance, you'll love it.
Top Box Office
- 1.$70.2M
- 2.$35.8M
- 3.$23.9M
- 4.$3.2M
- 5.$3.0M
- 6.$2.8M
- 7.$2.3M
- 8.$2.2M
- 9.$2.2M
- 10.$1.2M