Hi John,
I would love to see if I can find the root of your issue. First off though we would need to know a few things: What system you are using (G5, MacPro etc) CPU speed RAM, the OS revision and version of FCP. Also was this a file given by a customer or footage shot yourself, and you are importing it from a CF card, DVD, firewire drive, internal or external RAID?
Sal Cecala
ProMAX Systems