The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

This film concerns an ill-educated youth, who is sentenced to a reformatory after robbing a bakery. The borstal's governor a great believer in the rehabilitative powers of sports, is de lighted to learn that Courtenay is a natural distance runner and encourages him to train for a big meet with a local public school, promising him special privileges in exchange for a victory. Most of the film is taken up with Courtenay's training, during which he flashes back to the events and relationships that have brought him to this point in his life. When the big race finally arrives, Courtenay easily outclasses his competitors, but at the finish line he shocks the gover nor with an unexpected act of defiance. (CineBooks' Motion Picture Guide)