The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

Tom Courtenay stars as Colin Smith, a working-class youth sent to a Borstal reformatory after a bakery robbery. Gifted with exceptional running ability, Colin is groomed by the governor to win a prestigious cross-country race, but ultimately uses the moment to assert his integrity and rebellion. A landmark of British New Wave cinema, the film is a powerful meditation on class, identity, and resistance.

• Based on Alan Sillitoe's 1959 short story of the same name.
• Tom Courtenay made his feature film debut in this movie.
• Director Tony Richardson was a key figure in British New Wave.
• The film was shot on location in Nottingham and London.
• Michael Redgrave plays the authoritarian Borstal governor antagonist.

• All I have to do is run and win the race and that's all.
• I'm a long distance runner, a lone wolf, a cross-country runner.
• The only honest thing you can do is turn your back on them.
• They're not going to get me, not as long as I can run.
• In-laws, outlaws, they're all the same to me.