The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)

Continuing my exploration of the British New Wave / Angry Young Man / Kitchen Sink Realism movement (or parallel linked movements, it might be more fair to say). I tried watching the first five minutes of Tony Richardson's adaptation of Alan Sillitoe's short story first without, and then with, the conveniently supplied English subtitles, and subtitles were clearly the way to go; it was amazing to discover how much of the dialectal, casually enunciated language I missed when I had only my ear to go by.

This is another excellent film of its kind, with superior acting by Tom Courtenay and Michael Redgrave, and fine black and white cinematography by Walter Lassally; but watching it, I could understand why the British New Wave was not a particularly numerous cycle of movies -- there were only about a dozen such films, and a few more outliers up through the Seventies that bear some relation to the cycle. The films really are kind of glum, not least in the way that they (honestly) suggest no way out of their deadening situations.

Courtenay's "long distance runner," a young man sent to reform school for a petty thievery, is actually a sprinter, like most of those reared in his lower class circumstances: despite some intuitions about injustice, he only has a feeling for immediate gratification in the form of impulsive behaviors and momentarily satisfying gestures. The big cynical clincher at the end of the story is consistent with this attitude: the runner gives up his chance at liberation for the sake of poking a stick in someone's eye. Whether the stick is deserved or not is beside the point; the boy has thrown away the long distance race (his life) for the fleeting pleasure of an "up yours." As Danny Peary has astutely pointed out, this is not satisfying or cathartic for the audience, which is apt to be frustrated by the waste of it all. It is a memorable ending, though, well filmed by Richardson -- just not the capper to a fun night out.

POSTSCRIPT: For the record, the total corpus of the British New Wave as best as I can make out comprises these thirteen films: Look Back in Anger and Room at the Top, 1959; The Entertainer and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, 1960; A Taste of Honey, 1961; The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and A Kind of Loving, 1962; The L-Shaped Room, Billy Liar, and This Sporting Life, 1963; The Pumpkin Eater and The Girl with Green Eyes, 1964; Life at the Top, 1965. Another group of films from 1965 and 1966 -- Darling, Georgy Girl, The Knack, and Morgan -- bears perhaps some fringe relation to the New Wave.