Review of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) by Terri H — 07 Jan 2009
Immediately I was transported to another country in another time period. I fell asleep right away because it was too late into the evening to try to decipher what the characters were saying. The next day I put on the subtitles, which helped IMMENSELY.
For people who are not used to British English, I suggest doing this. The subtitles, however, ran over all the people's faces and a lot of action was hidden by these enormous subtitles. On to the story.
Reading from the other reviews, I'm sure you get that the story is about a poor teen who has family problems and gets into trouble for the thrill of it (and as an escape from his boring and serious family life).
When he's out and about with his friend, the accomplice, they get into all sorts of trouble, from stealing cars to picking up girls, to stealing money, and then spending it all. These scenes, juxtaposed with his dying father, his whorey mother, and his annoying bratty siblings, is enough to justify his actions.
I'm not sure how old Tom Courtenay is in this movie but he's supposed to be playing a teen, and he looks like a skeletal old man, especially in the scenes where there is running (very unattractive, for those who care about these things).
I wasn't really a fan of all the flashbacks. To be honest, it was a bit jarring and sometimes pointless because the flashbacks didn't seem to move the story further. The middle of the movie felt slow but it started moving again once tension built up between "Smith" and "Stacy".
Maybe the book was written in this way so the film followed suit. From watching this movie, I found myself asking "Who do you live your life for?" "What does winning mean?" "Who is playing who?" Smith chose what he did because what he had at the school was probably better than what he had at home and being too good at running may have put too much pressure on him to succeed and for the benefit of people he didn't trust.
He essentially chose not to play the game.
This review of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) was written by Terri H on 07 Jan 2009.
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner has generally received very positive reviews.
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