From the winter of 1989 until the Spring of 1993, I was a high school wrestler. During that time period, I watched Vision Quest so many times that I wore out my taped copy of it. Recently I saw the DVD on sale for $7.99 at Best Buy (blatant plug for Best Buy?) and I said what the hey.
I suppose with ten years more wisdom behind me, it allowed me to watch the movie with a more critical eye. And allowed me to see how untrue to life the movie really was. Granted, it's not Saved By the Bell fake. You know, where Slater eats a pre-weigh in cheeseburger and proceeds to pound a supposedly tough opponet in ten seconds while wearing no headgear and Vans. If it wanted to be more realistic, the story would go more like this.
* Four days before the match, Lowden Swain checks in at 180 pounds. He then proceeds to go get five sweatshirts and a garbage bag, which will make up his outfit for the next couple of days. All eating will stop from here on out.
* Three days before the match. Lowden is probably down to about 177 lbs at this time. That's a good start, but not enough. Lowden proceeds to mess with the wrestling room thermostat, cranking it up as high as it can go. The end result with 40 other guys sweating in the room is a temperature slightly higher than a June Day in Saudi Arabia.
* Two days before the match. Lowden is at 172 pounds. But oops, he had a bite of post-coital pizza. He's now back at 174 pounds. It's your own fault for messing up your metabolism so badly Louden.
*One day before the match. Lowden works back to about 170 lbs. From now on, he won't be allowed any liquid or food. With the exception of Jolly Ranchers, which he'll use to generate saliva that he can spit out.
*Day of the match. The bottle Lowden has been hocking into is now nearly full with Jolly Rancher spit. He's still half a pound over, so he stands on his head for a half hour or so while spitting. It's time for weigh ins. Louden, you're over. What were you thinking wearing a T-Shirt to weigh ins? Take it all off and try again. After you make it, you can eat that deli sandwich you've been saving. Kick Kuch's ass, and coach may even take you out to Sizzler afterwards so you can get a week's worth of calories back in your system. But be ready, on Monday the pain starts again.
This would probably be a pretty horrible movie though, and what Lowden does to cut weight really isn't the most important part of the script. Elmo points out what this movie is about, "It's not six minutes, it's what happens in the six minutes." Which is part of it, but not all of it. As my old wrestling coach pointed out incesantly, if you believe in something hard enough and are willing to work for it you can make anything happen. I'm quite sure if they ever make Vision Quest II, Lowden Swain will be a Doctor in Outer Space.
Anyway, after watching Vision Quest for the million and first time, I proceeded to get off my butt and run three miles. It's been ten years since I last donned a singlet and headgear. But that doesn't mean there aren't other things out there for me to conquer.
I suppose with ten years more wisdom behind me, it allowed me to watch the movie with a more critical eye. And allowed me to see how untrue to life the movie really was. Granted, it's not Saved By the Bell fake. You know, where Slater eats a pre-weigh in cheeseburger and proceeds to pound a supposedly tough opponet in ten seconds while wearing no headgear and Vans. If it wanted to be more realistic, the story would go more like this.
* Four days before the match, Lowden Swain checks in at 180 pounds. He then proceeds to go get five sweatshirts and a garbage bag, which will make up his outfit for the next couple of days. All eating will stop from here on out.
* Three days before the match. Lowden is probably down to about 177 lbs at this time. That's a good start, but not enough. Lowden proceeds to mess with the wrestling room thermostat, cranking it up as high as it can go. The end result with 40 other guys sweating in the room is a temperature slightly higher than a June Day in Saudi Arabia.
* Two days before the match. Lowden is at 172 pounds. But oops, he had a bite of post-coital pizza. He's now back at 174 pounds. It's your own fault for messing up your metabolism so badly Louden.
*One day before the match. Lowden works back to about 170 lbs. From now on, he won't be allowed any liquid or food. With the exception of Jolly Ranchers, which he'll use to generate saliva that he can spit out.
*Day of the match. The bottle Lowden has been hocking into is now nearly full with Jolly Rancher spit. He's still half a pound over, so he stands on his head for a half hour or so while spitting. It's time for weigh ins. Louden, you're over. What were you thinking wearing a T-Shirt to weigh ins? Take it all off and try again. After you make it, you can eat that deli sandwich you've been saving. Kick Kuch's ass, and coach may even take you out to Sizzler afterwards so you can get a week's worth of calories back in your system. But be ready, on Monday the pain starts again.
This would probably be a pretty horrible movie though, and what Lowden does to cut weight really isn't the most important part of the script. Elmo points out what this movie is about, "It's not six minutes, it's what happens in the six minutes." Which is part of it, but not all of it. As my old wrestling coach pointed out incesantly, if you believe in something hard enough and are willing to work for it you can make anything happen. I'm quite sure if they ever make Vision Quest II, Lowden Swain will be a Doctor in Outer Space.
Anyway, after watching Vision Quest for the million and first time, I proceeded to get off my butt and run three miles. It's been ten years since I last donned a singlet and headgear. But that doesn't mean there aren't other things out there for me to conquer.