The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner ★★★ Rebel with a Cause 1962
Courtenay, in his film debut, turns in a powerful performance as an angry young man infected by the poverty and hopelessness of the British slums. His first attempt at crime is a bust and lands him in a boys reformatory where he is recruited for the running team. While training for the big event with a rival school, Redgrave's obsession with winning the race and Courtenay's continued indifference to the outcome lock the two in an intriguing, seemingly onesided power struggle. Though widely overlooked when first re leased, it has since been praised as one of the finest teenage angst films of the ‘60s. Riveting depiction on a boy's rite of passage into manhood. 104m/B VHS, DVD . GB Tom Courtenay, Michael Redgrave, Avis Bunnage, Peter Madden, James Bolam, Julia Foster, Topsy Jane, Frank Finlay, Christopher Parker; D: Tony Richardson; C: Walter Lassally; M: John Addison.