The Other Side of the Mountain is a 1975 American drama romance film based on the true story of ski racing champion Jill Kinmont.

[4] The film was directed by Larry Peerce, written by David Seltzer (based on the 1966 biography A Long Way Up by E. G. Valens), and stars Marilyn Hassett and Beau Bridges.

It features the Oscar-nominated theme song "Richard's Window" (composed by Charles Fox, lyrics by Norman Gimbel), sung by Olivia Newton-John.

Despite her confinement in a wheelchair, Jill Kinmont teaches at a Paiute/Shoshone Native American school in Bishop, California, where she has an informal relationship with her young students.

They and their fellow team member, Linda Meyers, are also fans of skier Dick “Mad Dog” Buek, famous for his daredevil exploits on the slopes.

One day, at a crowded ski lodge, Dick arrives with one arm in a sling and the other holding his new fiancée, which sends Jill running outside in tears, followed by Buddy, who comforts her.

When Jill sees that her main competitor, Andrea “Andy” Mead Lawrence, slows down at the Corkscrew during practice runs, she determines to overtake her by skiing it faster.

Crushed, Jill gives up on therapy, until one day Dick arrives, puts her in her wheelchair, and, without permission, wheels her out of the facility and into the middle of a busy intersection, where he admonishes her for feeling sorry for herself.

[5] The Other Side of the Mountain was one of the most successful box office releases for Universal Pictures in years and was said to have helped the company survive a difficult period.

[6] Vincent Canby of The New York Times said: "The life came first, but the movie seems to have less interest in Miss Kinmont than in the devices of romantic fiction that reduce particularity of feeling to a sure-fire formula designed to elicit sentimental purposes.

"[8] Variety wrote, "Film is a standout in every department, perfect casting, fine acting, sensitive photography and general overall production all combining to give unusual strength to subject matter.

"[9] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it "a surefire formula tearjerker" whose most serious flaw was "the film's emphasis on the ordeal of Miss Kinmont's rehabilitation, which after all is a familiar enough but oh so heart-tugging process, at the expense of detailing her very struggle to do something useful with her life once she has learned to accept she will never again walk.

In certain respects it's a superficial, banal piece of filmmaking, but the story it tries to tell has stirring and inspirational qualities, which cannot be found in any other American films at the moment.

"[11] Tom Milne of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "Though the facts may be facts, everything else is crocodile tears and spurious uplift, from the coy prologue in which the heroine tells her story to a winsome pack of children asking why she never got married, to the bitter-sweet ending (complete with drooling pop song) which would have given even a Victorian chambermaid qualms with its breathless heaping of darkest hours before the dawn.