one of the greatest, most original films ever made

This film is an original, not a documentary, not a drama, but a completely one off mix of the two, the moving, thrilling tale of Haile Gebresalassie, Ethiopia's greatest runner. It tells tells the story of his life, his childhood in Ethiopia and his stunning career as an athelete. Gorgeous film of Ethiopia, heart-stopping footage of the Olympics. Not to be missed.

good "wide world" movie for kids; so-so for runners...

Haile Gebrselassie is indeed a worthy subject for a docudrama: not only one of the world's all-time greatest distance runners but an amazingly likeable, soulful man to boot. On balance I'm glad I saw this movie--but not delighted to have purchased it, if that apparent paradox makes any sense.

If you, like me, are a runner in search of inspiration, then the opening sequence is worth the price of admission: one uncut take of about three or four minutes in which the camera, apparently in a car, follows Geb as he flows gazelle-like along a dusty roadside path at 5:00 pace, up hill and down dale, stride now shortening imperceptibly and now lengthening: as natural as running gets and as inspiring as any running footage I've ever seen. This is the way running was meant to be. The Platonic ideal.

The problem is the remainder of the movie. With the exception of several short extracts from his 1996 Atlanta Olympics appearance, ENDURANCE is a very slowly paced and sometimes quite weird/funny docudrama in which the youthful Geb (played by a boy actor) and the slightly older pre-Olympics Geb (played by Geb acting "youthful," ingenuous, naive) comes of age in rural Ethiopia. It does indeed, as another reviewer points out, give you a good sense of what life in rural Ethiopia is all about--or at least I'm willing to stipulate that it does, never having been to the country myself. It does a pretty fair job of touching all the bases that you'd expect a low-budget docudrama to touch. If I had a boy who I was hoping to entice to become a runner, this would be a great Christmas gift--but only if that boy had an attention span willing to be hijacked into a much more relaxed narrative pace than our own video-gamed world.

On the other hand, if you, like me, wanted the Ethiopian version of PRE or PREFONTAINE, you'll be wildly inspired by the first four minutes and irritated by the rest; the only part of the video you'll find yourself revisiting are those first few minutes.

Authentic Ethiopian Culture

Having lived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for 2 years, my husband & I can testify that this is a story which shows so well how people live in Ethiopia. We were thrilled to see the beautiful countryside, the city where we lived and worked, the Ethiopian music and the Amharic language we could only speak "a little". It was a thrilling story and beautifully portrayed. I recommend it to all families, students, & children. It exemplifies the determination of someone who has a dream and also shows the deep respect and love there can be even when there is disagreement.