The Competition

The Competition has always been one of my favorite movies - combining classical piano concertos, somewhat-sappy-yet-realistic romance, and a young sexy Richard Dreyfuss (seriously, I love him, esp. his early work, swoon) as an abrasive yet charasmatic concert pianist.

This is one of the few movies I can quote the dialogue from in everyday conversation, love it.


You Can Wait...   April 9, 2008
'Giordano Hussein Bruno' (Campo dei Fiori)
11 out of 16 found this review helpful

...for the DVD. It won't be any more or less dated when it comes. It was a sappy love story in 1980, almost embarrassing, but looking at it now I'm surprised by how well it was put together, without any computer effects, without 5-second cuts for short attention spans, etc. The acting is competent, but it's the music that carries the film. The sexual energy comes from Prokofieff, not Amy Irving.

I used to get residuals twice a year from this, my only major Hollywood gig, but the checks stopped last year. Possibly my contract ran out, or perhaps they stopped showing it on Romanian TV. So scream for the DVD, friends! I can always use the cash. And if you enjoyed the Where's Waldo books, you can play Where's Giordano with this film. I dig out the VHS once in a while just to amaze new acquaintances.


one of my favorite movies for almost 25 years   June 10, 2004
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

I just bought this video to share with my daughter who is a high school musician beginning to seriously compete. I saw it in 1980 when it was released, eight years before she was born, and it has remained in my memory as one of my all-time favorites. I just finished watching it for the first time in 20 years or so. The entire movie looks very late-70s, and Richard Dreyfuss really needs to lose that silly-looking cap, but the power of the music and the message is completely intact. The scene in which Amy Irving performs her concerto is absolutely delicious and riveting. Richard Dreyfuss overacts as usual, but his realization as he listens to her performance backstage that she is, as he puts it, "brilliant," is in itself brilliantly communicated without words. Lee Remick's character provides a kind of narrative frame for Dreyfuss' and Irving's romance, and lends the movie some much-needed zing to balance all that sweetness. As does the delightful Sam Wanamaker, who plays a Leonard Bernstein-type (quite accurate except that Sam's character likes girls). And the music is just extraordinary. Although The Competition is entertaining as a love story, this is most especially a movie for musicians to savor. When I was a music major in college it was those few who were "driven" to create music and felt they had no other choice who were the tortured souls. They reached amazing emotional peaks with their music, but often struggled with despair as well. The rest of us just enjoyed ourselves. The variety of personalities portrayed in this movie is very accurate.