The Competition

PG

Released Dec 3, 1980

2h 6m

Romance

List

67%

9 Reviews

Tomatometer

63%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

Paul Dietrich (Richard Dreyfuss), at almost 30 years old, is a fading piano prodigy. Heidi Schoonover (Amy Irving) is a talented young pianist with a promising future. When Paul hears of an upcoming competition that could make his career, he dedicates himself to winning. Heidi and Paul meet one day during practice and, though she is immediately drawn to him, Paul thinks romance will just be a distraction. Heidi's teacher, Greta (Lee Remick), is also wary of Heidi's newfound attraction.

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Audience Member

The Competition is an amazing film about two people involved in a piano competition and each other. Richard Dreyfuss is the epitome of stress and Amy Irving is delightful and exudes an innocent charm and grace you can't help but fall in love with. Lee Remick is a force of discipline and understanding as Amy Irving's teacher. Every element of this film from the music to the direction flows perfectly with the story and creates a near perfect cinematic experience. I highly recommend it.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Richard Dreyfuss and Amy Irving learn the strains of music competition when it comes to being a professional pianist the pressure is on and no one can afford any distractions Paul takes one last chance at the California competition in San Francisco and a young girl, Heidi is doing the same for her it's more to actually make her mother proud since she's the 6th in line to be taught in a line of students by Beethoven during the course of the film they meet and make their positions quite clear to win but they didn't expect to fall passionately in love the real issue is can they still be together if one of them ends up winning or losing the biggest shot at their respective careers? maybe some things aren't meant to be shared, can you break the cardinal rule while competing and fall in love at the same time?, nothing can eat into our concentration, there's such a thing as competitive edge and some believe that's the only thing for people to focus on, should a musician be only married to their music? the movie runs too long at 2 hours and there's a lot of conversations and an unnecessary subplot of one of the other contestants getting into trouble but Dreyfuss and Irving are the best reason to watch; they feel like real people experiencing frustrated and complicated feelings the piano concerto performances are top-notch too so for musician lovers it's worthy

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I like the movie for the music, (fell in love with Prokofieve, and started playing piano again) and I'm amazed that of the 6 finalists, only one could actually play the piano. The studio hired someone to teach the other 5 finalists fingering. How they synced it to the actual music is to my not exceedingly over-critical mind amazing. However (spoiler alert), those two 'lovers' have no chance in hell. He could never play second fiddle to a woman superior to himself. When he said it would seep into his playing and bed, he wasn't kidding. Absolutely serious. Unless he became her manager or conductor, or booking agent or a psychopath. A sequel placed 10 years hence would find her successful and him either an alcoholic, city school teacher or lounge lizard.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

uncle p

Story/Screenplay: (2.5/5) A moderately entertaining romance drama about a competitive romantic relationship that develops between two contestants in an elite piano competition. Duration/Tempo: (2/5) At 2 hours and 3 minutes, it's a long movie that felt long. Pacing was slow throughout. Long shots of boring piano concertos didn't help. Cast & Crew: (3/5) Richard Dreyfuss was only OK, but Amy Irving was good. Unfortunately, there was no chemistry between them. Summary: (2.5/5) The story and cast were only OK and the film felt long. A thumbs down.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Will someone give this a blu-ray and DVD release with full commentaries and documentaries. Give it a re-release at the cinema even. Powerhouse performances from Richard Dreyfuss and Amy Irving. Script perfection. Cinematic perfection. Oscar worthy film.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Was a fabulous movie in all respects. Was one of very few movies I saw back when first released that Stuck with me to see again.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

Full Review

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Joel Oliansky

Director

Richard Dreyfuss

Paul Dietrich

Amy Irving

Heidi Joan Schoonover

Lee Remick

Greta Vandemann

Sam Wanamaker

Andrew Erskine

Joseph Cali

Jerry DiSalvo

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Joe Pollack

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Writer-director Joel Oliansky has merely collected a group of cliché characters, inserted some Cold War nonsense and a silly love story and hired a group of pianists to dub in the competitive concertos.

Jun 16, 2022

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

The Competition isn't a great movie, but it's a warm, entertaining one. It has the nerve to tell a story about serious, interesting, complicated people, who are full of surprises.

Rated: 3/4

Oct 23, 2004

Full Review

Larry Vitacco

Philadelphia Gay News

Joel Oliansky's screenplay affords the viewer not only a richly emotional story of two people competing against and falling in love with each other, but a wealth of some of the most beautiful piano concertos ever composed.

Rated: 3.5/4

May 27, 2020

Full Review

Bernard Drew

Gannett News Service

A pat, predictable romantic drama set against the background of the classical music world.

Sep 20, 2019

Full Review

Lawrence O'Toole

Maclean's Magazine

The director and screenwriter, Joel Oliansky, somehow manages to make San Francisco visually dull, and you can feel the plot turns arriving the way an arthritic can predict the weather.

Jul 19, 2019

Full Review

Chuck O'Leary

Fantastica Daily

Rated: 3/5

Oct 27, 2005

Full Review

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Synopsis

Paul Dietrich (Richard Dreyfuss), at almost 30 years old, is a fading piano prodigy. Heidi Schoonover (Amy Irving) is a talented young pianist with a promising future. When Paul hears of an upcoming competition that could make his career, he dedicates himself to winning. Heidi and Paul meet one day during practice and, though she is immediately drawn to him, Paul thinks romance will just be a distraction. Heidi's teacher, Greta (Lee Remick), is also wary of Heidi's newfound attraction.

Director: Joel Oliansky
Producer: Howard Pine
Screenwriter: Joel Oliansky
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Production Co: Rastar Films
Rating: PG
Genre: Romance
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 3, 1980, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 18, 2015
Runtime: 2h 6m
Sound Mix: Stereo, Surround

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