The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
by Tony Richardson
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Actor: Alec McCowen, Avis Bunnage, James Bolam, Michael Redgrave, Tom CourtenayDirector: Tony Richardson
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: Walter Lassally
Producer: Tony Richardson
Editor: Antony Gibbs
Producer: Michael Holden
Writer: Alan Sillitoe
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-02-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 111686
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
DVD Review: A Powerful Film About the Anger of the Underclass
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" (1962), a black and white British, sports oriented drama, was based on Alan Sillitoe's semi-autobiographical novel about a rebellious 18-year-old living in dreary Nottingham, Lancashire. The writer, also the author of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Vintage International), who was then one of the foremost practitioners of the school of English writing known as "the angry young men," that was so influential at the time, wrote the screenplay. The hugely talented British Tony Richardson (Tom Jones) produced and directed the film.
Tom Courtenay, of the harshly chiseled face, (The Dresser) made a stunning debut - it's hard to even tell he's acting -- as Colin Smith, the long-distance runner of the title, a cynical young man determined to fight the system at every turn. He has no interest in school or in the no-future factory job awaiting him, so he turns to a life of petty crime alongside his friend Mike, played by a very young James Bolam (The Beiderbecke Tapes). A botched robbery of a local bakery lands the two in Ruxton Towers, a reform school - they were then known as Borstals. The Governor, the top school official, played by Sir Michael Redgrave,The Importance of Being Earnest - Criterion Collection, who was to be Richardson's real-life father-in-law, believes in the rehabilitative value of physical training. He sees Colin's hidden talent as a runner and arranges a day of track events against a nearby, prestigious public school (that'd be a private school to Americans.) Colin, a conflicted and bitter young man, must decide whether to nurture his ability or once again rebel against authority.
Avis Brunnage, who'd played so many similar parts, does good work as Colin's etched in acid mother. A number of to-be-successful British actors show up in smaller parts: Alec Mc Cowen as Brown, Colin's headmaster; Frank Finlay as a railway booking office clerk. A very young John Thaw (that'd be Inspector Morse, or Kavanaugh QC to you) shows up as Bosworth, another of the Borstal inmates. A young woman with the unlikely name of Topsy Jane debuts as Audrey, Colin's girlfriend: she was slated to play with Courtenay again in the soon-to-be filmed Billy Liar - Criterion Collection, but apparently had a nervous breakdown shortly before filming began. The young Julie Christie stepped into the part, and we know what happened there. A similarly young James Fox, with Edward, one of those greatly talented identical Fox twins, James being the brother who gave up acting for the contemplative life of a religious, gives us one of his earliest impressions of an upper-class twit as No. 7, Gunthorpe, the public school's best runner: the climactic race of the day is going to come down to a duel between him, and Colin's No. 14.
Better use has probably never been made of the anthem "Jerusalem" that comments upon the Great Britain of the time: the utter sense of futility felt by the lower classes; the gritty cityscape, the gray, cold, damp and desolate look of the U.K. in winter. The film shows us the oppression of Colin's home life and his imprisonment, and the freedom he feels when running. The movie obviously falls among the contemporary angry young man school of film-making: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning; This Sporting Life - Criterion Collection: Room at the Top. It makes good use of jump cuts and lengthy flashbacks, ideas then rather new to UK filmmakers that were borrowed from the contemporaneous French "nouvelle vogue" directors. The film was, in fact, influential in the early 60's, although it is now underrated and little known. It has, undoubtedly, dated a bit, but it is still powerful, gripping, arresting: you can supply your own favorite adjectives when you see it.
Description of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
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