Synopsis
Bobby Deerfield, a famous American race car driver on the European circuit, falls in love with the enigmatic Lillian Morelli, who is terminally ill.
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Cast
- Al PacinoBobby
- Marthe KellerLillian
- Anny DupereyLydia
- Walter McGinnThe Brother
- Romolo ValliUncle Luigi
- Van DoudeThe Flutist
- Gérard HernandezCarlos Del Montanaro
- Stephan MeldeggKarl Holtzmann
- Norm NielsenThe Magician
- Jaime SánchezDelvecchio
Recommendations
- 75
Chicago Sun-Times
A big, slick melodrama that knows exactly what it wants to accomplish and does so with great craft. - 70
Variety
Bobby Deerfield is a brilliantly unusual love story, told in a European fashion which makes the Sydney Pollack film at first irritating, then intriguing, finally most rewarding and emotionally satisfying. - 58
The A.V. Club
Don't be fooled by the action-packed DVD cover: Pacino spends roughly five minutes of Deerfield racing, and two hours learning, from a woman facing death, how to embrace life. - 50
TV Guide Magazine
This gorgeously shot film is a trifle long at just over two hours; much of the racing footage could have been dispensed with, along with the sudsiest of the emotions. - 50
Slant Magazine
Bobby Deerfield is not so much a failed vanity project as it is a groping, often sensitive and rather death-obsessed character study based on Erich Maria Remarque’s fatalistically titled novel Heaven Has No Favorites. - 50
Newsweek
Even though Alvin Sargent's script lacks both grace and plausibility and director Sydney Pollack has succumbed to pretentions of European artiness, star chemistry might have made this love story catch fire. [03 Oct 1977, p. 71] - 40
The New York Times
Big, expensive, ultimately ridiculous movie that appears to have been constructed to be a Love Story on wheels. - 40
Washington Post
As grand prix driver Bobby Deerfield, actor Al Pacino plays claim of a man whose protective shell is cracked by a dying woman named Lillian (Marthe Keller). Unfortunately, the emotional coming-out tastes as flat as old soda and makes for a tale with all the torrid firepower of a recycled Love Story. [28 Oct 1977, p.11]
