JohnHowardReid It is always a very pleasant change to see and hear great music presented on the cinema screen or on a movie's DVD. I loved all the music selected for "The Competition", but I guess it was simply inevitable that this film would fail at the box-office. The tastes of critics and concert=goers are not only quite different but miles apart from the interests and concerns of the average movie audience.As for me, I loved the music but was not so keen on the movie itself. The plot's idea was certainly a promising one, but it is developed in a disappointing and rather pedestrian fashion. Clumsy and rather feeble direction does not help matters, although I must admit that despite all, the movie does have some fine moments of music and novelty. I also must admit that I especially enjoyed the Prokofieff concerto. This is very spectacularly played, but, as said above, somehow I cannot see movie patrons in Dudleyville, Idaho, applauding with anything like the same gusto and enthusiasm as the audiences in the movie itself.

gcsman The first thing about this film (from 1980) is that it really is an odd duck. How many movies do you see where the outcome of the plot hinges on a piano concerto? It's hard to imagine a movie like this being made today except as an indie film -- no car chases, explosions, fights, and not even anyone you could legitimately call a villain. The world of classical music is front and center from beginning to end, as seen through the progress of the six finalists in an ultra-prestigious competition for young pianists, held in San Francisco. The story concentrates on Paul (Richard Dreyfuss) and Heidi (Amy Irving), but we get intriguing looks at the other four finalists too through briefer vignettes. The time spent on those others probably does take away from a fuller development of the growing relationship between the two main characters, and it leaves a bit of a messy overall structure, but I think it's worth it -- everything adds usefully to the context so that we get a picture of how all their different personalities fit in and what their different goals are. We get to see the total exhilaration of nailing a performance, as well as the crushing loss for the ones who didn't make it through. Not surprisingly, Richard Dreyfuss plays Paul with wild ups and downs, mixing male ego, fragility, and generosity unpredictably. Though Heidi's a bit younger, she's steadier, more self-confident, and the control voice in their relationship. They go through three or four cycles of Paul messing up and then finding ways to apologize, which continues right up to the final scene. (The first time around, he meekly asks Heidi 'Can we talk?' and Heidi replies icily 'So far there's no evidence of that.' If he wants her he'll have to work a bit harder.) The actors in the cast who are most successful at getting this unique world right may be the veterans Lee Remick (playing a former concert pianist herself and now Heidi's stern, worldly-wise teacher) and Sam Wanamaker (the egotistical and somewhat overbearing conductor). They're great. The dialog is quirky, at times leaving the impression that every second line is missing, or that the actors were given first drafts of a script that never quite got polished. The flip side is that it's often unpredictable -- they say or do things you weren't expecting to happen. The biggest examples are the final performances themselves: under incredible pressure knowing this might be his last chance, Paul delivers the performance of his life with the Beethoven Emperor Concerto. It's the culmination of his whole career and in a normal feel-good plot, victory seems like it's lock. But the next night, Heidi goes out and gives the performance of *her* life with the Prokofiev concerto -- and it's better.There are lots of other little gems, such as the scene where Paul and Heidi are walking on the San Francisco wharf arguing intensely, but run randomly into three French sailors (why sailors? why French?? who knows.). Paul angrily starts a disorganized scuffle with them, but then Heidi shouts "Paul! Open your hands!" realizing that if he slugs one of them he'll damage his fingers. Then to defuse things she tells the sailors (in mangled French) that her 'fiance' is terminally ill. And near the end, after the competition is all over and the celebrations have begun, we see Remick quietly go off alone and leap for joy, experiencing the unique type of victory that only a teacher can feel.Most of all, there's the music. Lots of it: Liszt, Saint-Saens, Chopin, Beethoven, Brahms, Prokofiev, Mozart. Other reviewers have described how the actors trained hard to hand-sync with the music to make their playing look like the real thing as much as possible. Irving is the most successful at this. Her performance of the Prokofiev (which really is ferociously difficult) is amazing, and for me this sequence is the high point of the film. It's worth saying too that all the characters, from the conductor and teachers on through the competitors, are shown as totally respecting the music itself and the process of performing, even though personality clashes and maneuvering go on behind the scenes.There aren't many films this one can be compared with. There is "Rhapsody" from 1954, "Counterpoint" (1967), "Shine" (1996), "A Late Quartet" (2012), and of course "Amadeus" (1984). Some of these were better-done and higher-profile movies, but they all use classical music mainly as a setting for character interaction. "The Competition" focuses more purely on the music itself and the process of performance, and that's its main strength.Thankfully, you can get this on DVD now.

nomorefog I was about to start this review by pointing out that I think 'The Competition' is merely an example of 'typical Hollywood schmaltz, but that would be unfair. For one thing, it's not 'typical'. There, I've got that out of the way.Directed by once only director Joel Oliansky. it stars Richard Dreyfuss and Amy Irving as a pair of duelling pianists who are trying to win the piano competition of the title. Dreyfuss is a mercurial genius in two minds whether to persist with his career, as other pianists are receiving the recognition he feels he deserves. For this reason he is losing his perseverance to carry on and feels that he should abandon his nomadic life of travelling around the country competing in these types of events and just 'get a life' like everyone else. Irving is the conscientious worker with a dedicated teacher: with a little luck and perseverance she can be a winner and doesn't need the brashness of Dreyfuss to succeed. Irving and Dreyfuss are meant to be competing with each other, but what do they do? Yep, you guessed it. Questions arise as to who is the most dedicated, which one of them deserves a career in classical music, and how fate somehow has a role in all our lives - more than we are prepared to admit.The piano performances as captured on film are better than most. The two actors trained to mimic at least the appearance of playing at concert level. Their piano performances were actually recorded by two prodigies of that era, Daniel Pollack and Chester B. Swiatkowski, and then dubbed later on. Aside from this competent presentation of piano music, penned by the great classical composers and performed with an accuracy that Hollywood is not renowned for, 'The Competition' is unfortunately, a little bit dull. Sam Wanamaker has a small but entertaining role as a temperamental conductor who takes no nonsense from his students in the competition. The respective parents of the protagonists for example, are stock characters and are brought into the story for a bit of interest but their impact is minimal. There are a few interesting minor characters who round out the competitors but they have minimal screen time. One sub-plot involves an eastern bloc competitor defecting to the west but it really is of less interest than the main plot involving whether Irving and Dreyfuss can overcome their differences and have a romantic relationship away from their individual dedication to the piano.The principal thespians Amy Irving and Richard Dreyfuss have on-screen rapport and work well with each other. But somehow they spend too much time either in competition, or going out on dates and wondering if this means whether they're having a relationship or not. Amy Irving was at one stage married to Stephen Spielberg. She was an extremely talented young actress, but her career seemed not to go anywhere, appearing to fall out of favour with the public. Richard Dreyfuss subsequently had a hiatus due to personal problems but had the talent to return and carry on his successful career. My perennial favourite Lee Remick has a featured role as Irving's wise and demanding piano teacher and she looks beautiful and is a major asset to the project. Classical music is rarely used as the backdrop for a story in a Hollywood film and I suppose we should at least be grateful to 'The Competition' for that but otherwise in most other respects it is the type of conventional entertainment we have come to expect from Hollywood 'The Competition' just scrapes by with a pass mark from me because of the music, and if it tweaks your interest in the subject, become a member of Naxos and you can get your classical music education from there.

smoke0 In 1980 this was a heartwarming love story. In 2005 this is a stale piece of soap. Stand by Your Man should have been the piece Amy Irving played in the competition, because throughout the entire film her character's growth consists of becoming a doormat for the Richard Dreyfus character. I could hardly sit through this two decades later, amazed at Irving's masochistic need to take anything Dreyfus dished out.In this movie, love means having to say you are sorry, over and over again, especially when you have nothing to be sorry for.Ugh.