The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

[pro-bassoonist]

BFI are set to release Tony Richardson's classic The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) in the UK on January 19th.

Variety:

It is difficult to conjure up much sympathy for the young 'hero' who comes out as a disturbed young layabout (he seems thoroughly to deserve his fate of landing in Borstal, the corrective establishment for British juve delinquents). Yet the performance of Tom Courtenay and the imaginative, if sometimes overfussy, direction of Tony Richardson, plus some standout lensing by Walter Lassally makes this a worthwhile pic.

Alan Sillitoe has written a sound screenplay for his own short story. Though there are obvious signs of padding, it remains a thoroughly professional job. The flashback technique is used ingeniously, though perhaps overmuch.

Courtenay plays a young man from an unhappy home in the Midlands. Apparently on the ground that the world owes him a living, he seems not interested in work and, inevitably drifts into petty crime and gets sent to Borstal.

He is resentful about 'the system' and takes a strange way of getting back at it. A natural born runner ('we had plenty of practice in running away from the police in our family,' he says bitterly), he is selected to represent Borstal in a long distance race against a public school team. It is the ambition of the governor (Michael Redgrave) to win the cup for Borstal.

Michael Redgrave as the rather pompous, stuffy governor who, to Courtenay's jaundiced eye, represents the system, brings his polished touch to a role that could have become irritating.

Pro-B

[pro-bassoonist]

update:



Pro-B

[Bruce Morrison]

BFI are also releasing 'Saturday Night And Sunday Morning' on BD around the same time. Personally I've always preferred SN&SM to LOTLDR, but it's good to see both these examples of the so-called British "New Wave" of the early 60's getting a BD release.

It would be great to have a BD of Lindsay Anderson's 'This Sporting Life', which IMHO was easily the best of all those films.

[LazerTron]

Ordered, received and watched LOTLDR and, as I didn't know the film, it was a pleasant surprise.
PQ is mostly great for this 1962 movie, sometimes in indoor scenes black areas tend to have some noise.

Also ordered some more BFI releases who shall turn up next week.

[pro-bassoonist]

I hope you ordered Red Desert.

Pro-B

[LazerTron]

Yes, I ordered Red Desert amongst maybe 6,7 other titles. Really looking forward to these films.
Thanks for the heads up though

[pro-bassoonist]

Absolutely. Make sure you have your region settings for the site set properly so you could see/read all Region-B reviews

Pro-B

[keenan_investigates]

Both this and Saturday Night, Sunday Morning were great! It's so good that BFI are releasing these kinds of films on blu-ray, since it's likely I wouldn't have seen them otherwise.
Anyone got any other recommendations for British New Wave films they'd like to share? Are BFI releasing any more on blu?

[LazerTron]

There are some pre-orders on Amazon.co.uk for new BFI titles and they plan to add more every now and then.

I received The Bed Sitting Room and Primitive London today and I'm eager to watch them coming weekend.