Μύ Tom Courtenay made his movie debut with this 1962 gem, which is arguably the most cinematic of all the British New Wave/kitchen sink dramas. It gets a fine DVD release, courtesy of the BFI.
TECHNICAL FEATURES
Picture Director Tony Richardson was keen to shoot on location and use as much natural light as possible (a Dogme-ist of his day), and these endeavours have been preserved on DVD. Taken from a new 2002 print, the film's black and white tones have transferred well.
Sound There's not a lot of work for your speakers to do here - just listen out for those pounding feet as Courtenay's Colin Smith runs for almost as long as the "The Mousetrap".
SPECIAL FEATURES
Commentary Film historian Robert Murphy delivers another enlightening commentary to match his effort on the "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" disc. His speech wraps around occasional comments from writer Alan Sillitoe and Tom Courtenay himself, and it's full of information about both the film and the kitchen sink genre.
Like on "SNASM", Murphy is more interested in the film's sociological impact than technical details. The BBFC, for example, was appalled by Colin Smith's flagrant disregard for authority, calling the film "Communist propaganda".
Murphy also highlights the strange career of the wonderfully-named actress Topsy Jane, who disappeared after this and one more movie - she was set to star in "A Kind of Loving", but became pregnant and clearly other things developed.
Tom Courtenay is his charming, soft-spoken self on his clips, recalling life on set with Tony Richardson. Another interesting aside is that most of the extras in the borstal scenes were actually borstal boys in real life - which explains the authenticity of the fight sequences!
Video Essay by Walter Lassally The kitchen sink dramas are often stereotyped as grim depictions of northern life (even though this, like, "SNASM", is set in Nottingham), but "Long Distance Runner" is a beautifully shot movie. This 18-minute featurette talks you through some of the most memorable sequences, such as the romantic scenes on Skegness beach (actually filmed at Camber Sands, because it was closer to London). You'll get a good understanding of the working relationship between Lassally and Richardson after watching this.
Additional Extra Features A self-loading stills gallery (there are only four images, which is a shame, but at least they're captioned), and text biographies of Tony Richardson, Alan Sillitoe, and the Free Cinema movement.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Region: 2
Chapters: 18
Ratio: 1.66:1
Sound: 2.0
Audio Tracks: English
Subtitles: None
Captions: None
Menus: Static, with no music
Special Features Subtitles: None of the special features come with English subtitles.
