The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

Synopsis

Sentenced to Ruxton Towers borstal for robbing a Nottingham bakery, a defiant working-class youth with natural cross-country athletic talent is groomed by the ambitious borstal governor to win a prestigious race against a privileged public school, but uses his solitary morning runs through misty fields to reflect on his dying father and working-class defiance, pulling up inches from the finish line to intentionally lose the race. Tony Richardson and Alan Sillitoe's British New Wave rebellion summit starring Tom Courtenay.