the audience applauded

Overrated

One of my all time favorites.

Best movie ever!

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.

Fabulous film about the lives of pianists vying in a major competition that shall allow the winner an open-door to success.Dreyfuss must have had a thing with music for years later he starred in the also very good "Mr. Holland's Opus," In that flick he dedicated his life to teaching music in the schools; in this film, he lets an opportunity of teaching go by to vie in this important musical contest.Amy Irving is also wonderful as Dreyfuss' competitor and lover. The part with the Russian assistant applying for asylum should have been played up more. Too bad that the Russian lady who loses just stands there as a wall-flower at picture's end.Lee Remick shined in a supporting role as an imperious pianist, turned teacher who still has a heart by the end.That contestant from the Bronx just couldn't get that Bronx way of life out of him and that scene where his mother slaps him for revealing his delinquent past from very funny at best.

Good drama with great classical music. Not an incisive examination of the cutthroat world of music competition although they do delve into it somewhat. More a drama of a selfish man letting down his defenses and a young girl who learns more than she bargains for when she lets down her guard. Excellent performances from the leads with Lee Remick adding her special brand of class but putting an icy edge to it as Amy's teacher. The only rough patch is when the two leads, who are remarkably free of rhythm for supposed musicians, dance to contemporary and quite awful music. They're glue-foots. For classical music lovers this will be a treat.

This film about a piano competition made plain that the real competition was to find out how to see what was really important in one's life.As good a pianist as Dreyfus was, it was obvious from the film in how he seized direction of the orchestra, that he had the seeds of greatness as a conductor.And, in the end, he gave Lee Remick the lie when she said that great line to Amy Irving: "No man is that good."The disparate goals entwined in the side stories of the other contestants underscored Irving's purity of purpose. Only she sought the piano for the love of the piano.In many ways, Dreyfus' character evoked Jack Nicholson's Oedipean quest for paternal acceptance of worth in the classic _Five Easy Pieces_.Dreyfus was also able to play "young", since he was 33 when the film was released, whereas Irving was actually 25 when the film was made.