Hell on Wheels
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Movie Reviews of Hell on Wheels
Movie Review: best pro cycle film .
Summary: 5 Stars
I have watch every world comp cycle film I can get my hands on
and this is the best . Great 2hr trainer.
Movie Review: Hell on Wheels
Summary: 5 Stars
Super documentation! Very unusual camera shots of the Tour de France event. Ride with the German team!Movie Review: Almost great.
Summary: 4 Stars
Knowledgeable fans of bicycle racing will enjoy the great footage and this behind-the-scenes look at the German Telekom (now T-Mobile) team in the 2003 Tour De France. However, the lack of narration in this documentary makes it hard for me to give it five stars. It's not that there was too little narration. There is none whatsoever, and very little dialog to keep you informed about what you're watching. I've been following professional cycling since 1984, so I don't need someone to tell me who Eric Zabel is, what the polka dotted jersey means, or how teamwork plays a role in stage racing, but I still thought this film could have been enhanced with at least some minimal narration, if done properly. An option on the DVD of having a soundtrack with the director's comments would have been a great enhancement. The film consists of many interesting bits: Telekom riders (Mostly Zabel) speaking to someone off-camera in German (with English subtitles), segments of an unnamed Tour historian speaking passionately about the history of the Tour, a great deal of footage of the race itself, and multiple scenes of the team's soigner massaging the riders, rubbing chamois cream in their shorts, and providing encouragement to them when they're discouraged. Occasionally the soigner speaks to the camera, but we never learn his name until the closing credits. Actually, we're never told who most of these people are, or what is happening in the race results. Bike racing fans will know these things, but the film expects an unusually high level of knowledge from its audience. There are a couple of interviews (again, with subtitles) of unidentified riders from other teams, but they weren't major stars I'd recognize like Hamilton, Beloki, Mayo and others. The film focuses mostly on the riders' comments about their careers, the sport itself, and their relationships with their teammates. We're never told what stage it is, or what the results are at that point, as if the race itself had no importance. Nothing is mentioned about the very significant fact that Zabel was competing for the green (sprinter's) jersey, or fact that he had won it before. One of the biggest stories of the race was the fact that, after being kicked off the team the year before, and coming back on a lesser squad, Jan Ullrich (a former Tour de France winner for Telekom) was having a great comeback and was threatening Lance Armstrong for the overall. This story, and many of the other fascinating stories of that Tour, is never described to the viewer. In one especially frustrating segment, we follow Alexandre Vinokourov through part of a time trial. We hear the announcer at the finish line state that Ullrich had the best time so far, with Armstrong in second and at that point we wait for Vinokourov to finish to find out the final results. After the race, we hear somebody off camera congratulate him, but we're never told where he ended up in the stage that day. He finished third incidentally, but I didn't get that information from the film. This documentary could have really had some mass appeal to a much wider audience, if only they'd made the effort to provide a voice-over filling in the blanks. As it is, bike racing fans will like it, but those who don't know anything about the sport may have a hard time paying attention through the whole thing. The lack of narration has certain advantages, however. It is more of a fly-on-the-wall perspective, as if you're traveling with the team and you're witnessing events as they occur and left to your own knowledge to interpret the significance of what's happening. For that reason, it's a good film to watch with your bike racing buddies. Finally, compared with the OLN coverage we're used to in the U.S., it can be refreshing NOT to hear Phil and Paul fill every available space of silence with their constant excitable chatter (and over-used self-invented clichés) while watching a bike race. Fans of this film will also enjoy "Overcoming", a 2005 film about the CSC team.Movie Review: An insider's look at the Tour-de-France.
Summary: 4 Stars
First, what this film is NOT: it is NOT a documentary of the 2003 Tour-de-France, even though that is where all the action takes place. When the film is over, you won't even know - unless you already knew - that the race was won by Lance Armstrong, nor will you know who finished second and third, or who won most of the stages. The film does not follow the normal storyline of a race documentary.
What, then, DOES it do? It gives an inside look at what it feels like to be a professional cyclist racing in the Tour-de-France, as seen through the eyes of the German Telekom team (now renamed T-Mobile.) Focusing largely on veteran riders Eric Zabel, Rolf Aldag (since retired), and Andreas Kloden, we get behind the scenes to see what life is really like in big-time cycling. And what we see is a world simultaneously more beautiful, graceful, painful, and smelly than what we see on regular television coverage of the Tour.
"Hell on wheels," indeed, for we see the sweat rolling from the riders' faces, the stress, the injuries, the almost military regimen of a virtually all-male world.
We see the rubdowns, the shaving of legs, the plastering of buttocks with anti-rash gel, the injection of (legal) vitamins and supplements, the urination by the side of the road. We see the dirty side of the sport.
But we also see the grace, and we feel the danger. We see the cyclists at speed, and we feel it. Most television coverage of the Tour is taken from vehicles moving at the same speed as the cyclists, so the sense of speed and danger is often lost. This film captures those elements.
And we also see the roadside spectacle, the picnics, the parties, the campers, the police, the traveling Tour caravan, the circus elements of the Tour, which are often noted only in passing in television accounts of the race.
Those who expected this to be an objective re-telling of the 2003 Tour were undoubtedly disappointed. But I disagree with those reviewers who said this film would be unintelligible to those who are not racing fans. On the contrary, I think this would be an excellent introduction to the sport for non-fans. Focusing on the inner nature of the sport, rather than on the results of a particular race, it is an excellent introduction indeed.
Movie Review: the not-romantic part of professional cycling
Summary: 4 Stars
Hell on Wheels is a docudrama about the Tour de France. It doesn't show the actual competion and the heroism. It's focussing about what real life for professional cyclists means. It appears that the profession is very tough and that "le grand boucle" completely wears you out. Also remarkable are all the fysical problems that can occur. Further the movie shows lots of "behind the scenes" shots from the mecaniciens and supporting personnel of the cyclists.
The quality of the photography is superb and also the quality of the surround sound. You actually hear al the noise that cycling generates and that you never will hear viewing the Tour de France stages. In this particular Tour Lance Armstrong takes the win, but that doesn't play an important role in the movie.
I really liked this movie and it's a must for all cyclist who enjoy watching cylcing.