Vision Quest

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Vision Quest

Directed by	Harold Becker
Produced by	Jon Peters
Written by	Terry Davis Darryl Ponicsan
Starring	Matthew Modine Linda Fiorentino Michael Schoeffling
Music by	Steve Smith
Distributed by	Warner Brothers
Release date(s)	February 15, 1985
Running time	105 min
Language	English
Budget	N/A
IMDb profile

This article is about the film Vision Quest. See Vision quest for the Native American rite of passage.

Vision Quest is a 1985 film starring Matthew Modine and Linda Fiorentino.

Modine plays Spokane, Washington high school wrestler Louden Swain, who falls in love with Carla (Linda Fiorentino), an aspiring artist from Trenton, New Jersey, on her way to San Francisco. The film includes an appearance by Madonna, her first in a motion picture playing a singer at a local bar/restaraunt (filmed at the Big Foot Tavern on North Division in Spokane), where she performs the songs "Crazy for You" and "Gambler". The film was released in some countries under the title of "Crazy For You."

The movie was based on the book by Terry Davis, filmed at Spokane's John R. Rogers High School (referred to as Thompson High School in the film). The school building has gone through major renovations since the filming, with the only recognized characteristic being the school's front entrance. (Interior cafeteria scenes were filmed at Joel E. Ferris High School on Spokane's South Hill.) The movie has become somewhat of a cult-classic among high school wrestlers for its various wrestling scenes, in particular Louden's extreme weight loss measures and workout regime.

In the film, Louden Swain is a wrestler who finds out after turning eighteen that he needs to do something in his life. He decides to drop weight to wrestle at the 168 division (he previously was the varsity 190 wrestler) to challenge Brian Shute, a menacing three time state champion from nearby rival Hoover High School, who has never been defeated in his high school career. After meeting Carla, he begins to fall in love with her. Despite her not wanting him to, he begins to lose sight of his goals as a wrestler. Along the way his drastic weight loss culminates in an unhealthy situation in which he gets frequent nose bleeds due to a lack of iron in his diet (which costs him a match that he was winning). He and Carla finally admit their love for one another, but she can tell he is losing his focus. She decides to move out and continue on to San Francisco, but not before seeing Louden's match against Shute. The title Vision Quest is explained when one of Louden's teammates Kuch, who believes heavily in Native American culture, tells him that he is searching for his place in the circle, which Louden comes to realize is true.

Differences from the book

Louden wrestles at 137, not 168.
Thompson High School, which was used in the film, appears to relate more toward Spokane North Central High School (which was oddly filmed at North Central's rival Rogers H.S.), was actually based on Spokane's Shadle Park High School, where author Terry Davis graduated from (Shadle's team made a brief appearance as Sherman High School).
In the book, Carla was living with Louden, but for longer than the movie version and was actually settled down with him, living in Spokane.
Gary Shute was the actual name of the character in the book that Louden was going to wrestle (the books ends when their match begins). He was also from Evergreen High School; rather than Hoover High School (which appears in the movie to be based on Mead High School).
In the book Otto Laft had a more larger role than in the movie.
Elmo, the cook who works with Louden, was actually a black former boxer, and Gene Tanneran, Louden's English teacher, was white and going out with a cheerleader. In the movie, Tanneran is a black former basketball player, and Elmo is white.

Soundtrack by Tangerine Dream. The soundtrack also included songs by Journey ("Only The Young") and former Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow/Black Sabbath vocalist Ronnie James Dio ("Hungry For Heaven").