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Features: DVD
A young rebel is chosen to represent his reform school in a track race.Format: DVD MOVIE
"...nihilistic, punky buzz packs an immortal wallop....Classic..." Total Film
"...a worthwhile pic." Variety
Editor's Note
Alan Sillitoe's autobiographical novel about a rebellious 18-year-old living in dreary Lancashire proved to be the perfect material for Tony Richardson to adapt in the early 1960s. The film stars Tom Courtenay as the disaffected Colin Smith, who ends up in a Borstal, or reform school, after robbing a bakery. The Governor (Sir Michael Redgrave), the institution's chief authority, believes in physical training as a means of rehabilitating his charges. Despite his contempt for all authority, Colin one day inadvertently outruns the school's leading long-distance runner, and the Governor immediately assigns him to be trained for an imminent competition with a well-known public school. During his solitary training exercises, Colin flashes back to scenes of his chaotic youth: his father, a blue-collar worker dying of cancer, and his mother, a foul-mouthed harridan, blowing the insurance settlement on a new lover and a new TV. On the day of the big race, the two schools must share a locker room, and Gunthorpe (James Fox), the captain of the opposing team, reflexively wishes Colin good luck. The surprised boy looks at him as though these are the only words of encouragement he's ever received. Courtenay is exceptional in his film debut, exuding the bitterness typical of the director's early "angry young man" films. Employing jump cuts and undercranked scenes borrowed from the Nouvelle Vague, the film emphasizes the oppressiveness of the boy's environment and the temporary freedom that running offers him.
Plot Summary
A troubled British youth is sent to prison after a checkered period of unemployment and petty theft. When asked to represent his correctional facility in a long-distance race, the lad agrees but sees the contest as a means of retribution against a corrupt system.
| Features | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection |
| Entertainment Reviews
 | The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner - DVD By: Chris Barsanti - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 2/28/2007 11:38 PM | |
Overwrought metaphors are never a good thing, of course, though every now and again they can have a certain impact in the right piece of art, if used properly. One thing they don't do, though, is age well, a fact well born out by Tony Richardson's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, which tries to use the sport of its title as a metaphor for rebellion, alienation, and, yes, freedom. While this central device of the film hasn't aged that well in the four decades hence, that is not to say that the film is without merit, just that it may be hard to take quite so seriously....read the full review |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Warner |
| Release Date: 2/13/2007 |
| Original Release Date: 1962 | | Catalog ID: 111686 | | UPC: 00085391116868 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Video: B&W |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Winner (1963) | | | British Academy Awards, Tom Courtenay, Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles |
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| | Professional Reviews | Total Film
"...The nihilistic, punky buzz packs an immortal wallop....Classic..." 11/01/2002 p.110USA Today
"...Call them art or artifacts of an age, but most of the Brit working-class dramas from the early 1960s still hold up....[An] era-evocative movie..." 12/04/1992 p.3D Sight and Sound
"...British realism meets novelle vague-style realism in Allan Sillitoe's tale about a young delinquent who turn out to be a brilliant cross-country runner..." 05/01/2003 p.68 Entertainment Weekly
"What does hold up is Courtenay's natural, scrappy performance." -- Grade: B 02/16/2007 p.65 DVDLaser.com 7 of 10
The film should please fans of the genre, but casual viewers will have more difficulty plodding through it. The picture is always accompanied by a faint grain, but that appears to be more an attribute of the movie's gritty cinematography than a flaw acquired at a later date. The image is also a little soft at times, but the picture never encounters a flaw that the drama cannot utilize effectively. - Doug Pratt
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