Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

JasparLamarCrabb Adapting Alan Sillitoe's short story, director Tony Richardson comes up with one of the best of the British "kitchen sink" dramas. In an astounding film debut, Tom Courtenay plays a wannabe thug sentenced to reform school after being pinched for a burglary. School headmaster Michael Redgrave discovers Courtenay's cross country running skills and attempts to use him to beat the more elite "public" school. While running, Courtenay recalls the events that led him to his sorry existence: his saucy, recently widowed mother, his clingy girlfriend, his attempt at petty crime. Courtenay is excellent and the supporting cast is first rate. Redgrave is great as one of of the by-the-book English stiffs whose callous attempt at exploiting Courtenay backfires. John Addison's bare bones music score & Walter Lassally's stark B&W cinematography add a lot. Featuring Alec McCowen, Avis Bunnage as Courtenay's mum, and Dervis Ward as very persistent cop.

dougdoepke You've got to hand it to the British. The movie's lead character is neither handsome nor very likable, something Hollywood of the time would never have done. As Colin Smith, Courtenay does have a compelling screen presence that's perfect for an ambiguous role. Of course, we sympathize with the working class boy's difficult life and grim surroundings. He appears an instinctive rebel when he burns some money his shrewish mother gave him. But then, he turns around and steals money from a neighborhood bakery and ends up, despite some fast talking, in reform school. So now it looks like Smith is on the fast track to nowhere, like so many of his working class peers. There doesn't appear to be anything special about him except for one thing-- he finds out he's good at running. But how do you use something like that to lift yourself out of a grim background and a barracks-like reform school. Fortunately for Smith, the head of the school (Redgrave, in a tight-lipped performance) opens up an avenue for him. Just beat our arch rival in long-distance competition, says the impressed Redgrave, and the boy will be considered for the British Olympic team. So now, seeing a way out of the harsh surroundings, the formerly rebellious Smith reforms his ways and becomes Redgrave's "blue-eyed boy".All he has to do in return is subordinate himself to others, play the game, and do what he does best, run. The trouble is he discovers something when he's running alone and in the open, something he's never felt before in his closed-in environment. He discovers an overpowering sense of freedom and maybe a better sense of himself too. It's a heady experience that can't be forgotten. So now there's a clash in his life. It's one between his newly found sense of personal freedom versus the game he needs to play to get ahead in society. So what will he do, and what will that say about him, where he comes from, and what success requires. It all comes together the day of the big race.I've hit the high points, as I understand them, because there's little that's revealed by the script. Instead, the viewer has to combine the telling visuals with Smith's general behavior in order to grasp the points of the narrative. In short, nothing is explained for us. For example, nothing need be stated about Smith's environmental influences since the visuals speak volumes. Nor do we need to hear about his family life since the visuals again speak volumes. Also, the flashbacks help by separating past reasons for his later behavior from that behavior. All in all, this was an indirect mode of storytelling that American audiences were not used to in 1962. But it did strike a chord as the box-office numbers indicated.It's a tribute, I think, to the filmmakers that the movie's elements are put together well enough to draw us in and keep us there. The movie's also proof for old Hollywood that leading men don't need to be either handsome or likable to bring in an audience. It also shows that audiences will make an effort to understand when they think the effort is worth it.

thecatcanwait What a great find off YouTube this was. Adapted by Alan Silitoe from a short story.Colin Smith (Tom Courtney) has been sent to a Borstal. He's not feeling remorseful for the petty pinching "wrong" he did: "I got caught – I didn't run fast enough".Turns out he's probably gonna be on the run, running away, all his life. But he seems to like running, is born to run – and he runs fast; "All i know is you've got to run, run without knowing why" We get flashbacks to his "previous" life, all run-of-the-mill working class delinquent stuff: pinching a car with mate Mike (James Bolam); picking up a couple of birds, going off on a joy ride. Dreams of going down to London. A quick snog with the birds. Return car. A couple of mischievous misfits – harmless really.Back we go to the Remand Centre for naughty boys where Smith can turn himself into a good boy if he wins the Cup for The Governor; only he won't allow himself to be corrupted by a non-working class, institutionalised, poncey, version of being good: "I'm gonna let them think they've got me house-trained. But they never will – the bastards". Another version of Arthur Seaton's "Don't let the bastards grind you down" is Colin Smith.Flashbacks to back story: Dad dies. With £500 cash pay-out mother is going on a shopping spree, buys a telly. Colin is not impressed. He burns the (blood) money she gives him. Those birds are picked up again, taken to Skeggy, snogged a bit, fallen in love with a bit. He's confessing to his bird Audrey (Topsy Jane) this sad realisation: "I run away to try and get lost. I was always trying to get lost when i was a kid.I soon found out that you can't get lost though".And then he's done a burglary with Mike and unwisely stuffed the cash up a drainpipe: "Whats the first thing you'd do if you won £75,000 quid? asks Mike" "Count it" comes the droll reply. Yeah, count it, make sure you know how much you've got even if you've got no idea what you'd do with how much you've got. Mike asks, "What do you want to do Col?" "I don't know. Live i suppose. See what happens" says Colin. Hasn't got a clue what to do with his hopeless life has Colin Smith. Except keep running fast, running off, running away.And running free. Which the Governor has allowed Colin to do: run unsupervised outside the perimeter fence. Trusts him. Cus he's "the Governors blue-eyed boy now" isn't he? No he's not. He's not been "had". He's gonna want to lose that race surely. I was ambivalent watching him run it (which i suppose is what i was meant to be feeling) I wanted him to lose the Cup (for The Governor). But i didn't want him to lose the race (for himself) And in the end he didn't lose. Or did he? Well, he hadn't lost his self-respect.And he'd won.At being a loser.Which is frequently where you can find all your slowed down "thievin little bastards" like Colin Smith.

nova-63 Many people label the film as a rebellious lad striking out against authority. That is rather a poor analysis. The young man's dilemma is that he is an intelligent lad who sees the pointlessness of the common man's goals. Clearly, the pursuit of money is pointless to him. Yet he is without direction, which has as much to do with his upbringing and surroundings as his apathy for the pursuit of wealth.When he is sent to the borstal for committing a crime he is surprised to see that his status there begins to climb. This is because he is a terrific runner and the governor of the borstal values athletics and particularly runners. For some time he plays the governors game of honing his skills for an upcoming Cup Race against a public school. Ultimately, the lad understands that the governor's interest in him is not a genuine care for his welfare, but the governor's own selfish desire to win his borstal some acclaim.His fight is not just with the establishment. Clearly he resents the "bosses" who get rich off of the workers sweat and blood. He associates his father's death to his working his guts out so the owners could get rich. But his fight is also with the people who he expects more out of. He is greatly disappointed by his mother. Especially when she quickly takes up a new lover and by her whimsically spending of her husband's life insurance money. Lastly, the governor himself, who is more interested in personal projects, than the welfare of the young men he is in care of.This is a wonderfully written film with a terrific performance by Courtenay.