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The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

  The Film:
 
from British Lion Film

Directed by
Tony Richardson

Starring
Michael Redgrave (Reformatory Governor)
Tom Courtenay (Colin Smith)
Avis Bunnage (Mrs. Smith)
Alec McCowen (Brown)
James Bolam (Mike)
Joe Robinson (Roach)
Dervis Ward (Detective)
Topsy Jane (Audrey)
Julia Foster (Gladys)
John Brooking (Green)
John Bull (Ronalds)
James Cairncross (Mr. Jones)
Peter Duguid (Doctor)
Raymond Dyer (Gordon)
Frank Finlay (Booking Office Clerk)
James Fox
William Ash Hammond (Johnny Smith)
Peter Kriss (Scott)
Peter Madden (Mr. Smith)
Philip Martin (Stacey)
Arthur Mullard (Craig)
Christopher Parker (Bill Smith)
Robert Percival (Tory Politician)
Anthony Sagar (Fenton)
John Thaw (Bosworth)
Christopher Williams (Public School Boy)

Written by
Alan Sillitoe (also book)

Original music by
John Addison

A bleak, but powerful 1960 British film that ranks as one of the most important United Kingdom imports of the decade. Director Tony Richardson (Tom Jones) tells the story of a rebellious social misfit and petty thief played by Tom Courtenay (The Dresser) who is picked to run on the track team at a reform school for boys. He finds he must balance his spirit and desire to win with his anger and frustration at the life he has led. At times a wrenching character study with no easy answers, Courtenay's performance is a touching portrait of a young man and the journey he takes as he tries to run not only for an unclear future, but from a past he cannot forget. A film indicative of the working class expressionism that came out of England in the early 1960s, Richardson's films stands alone as a downbeat, but insightful story of one man's struggle to determine who he is. --Robert Lane

  Books and more:


The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (VHS Tape)



Other Great Films from 1962

Other Classic Sports Dramas




The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner
by Alan Sillitoe

The Cinema of Tony Richardson : Essays and Interviews
by James Michael Welsh, John C. Tibbetts, Jocelyn Herbert

Best of British: Cinema and Society from 1930 to the Present
by Anthony Aldgate, Jeffrey Richards

Sixties British Cinema (The History of British Film)
by Robert Murphy

The Long-Distance Runner: An Autobiography
by Tony Richardson

 Search "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" @ Amazon.com

 


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