The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner is a 1962 film based on the short story of the same name. The screenplay, like the story, was written by Alan Sillitoe. The film was directed by Tony Richardson, one of the new young directors emerging from documentary films, a series of 1950s filmmakers known as the Free Cinema movement.
It tells the story of a rebellious youth (played by Tom Courtenay), sentenced to a borstal ('Approved School') for burgling a bakery, who gains privileges in the institution through his prowess as a long-distance runner. During his solitary runs reveries of important events before his incarceration lead him to re-evaluate his status as the Governor's (played by Michael Redgrave) prize athlete, eventually prizing a rebellious act of personal autonomy notwithstanding an immediate loss in privileges. The film poster's byline is "you can play by the rules...or you can play it by ear - WHAT COUNTS is you play it right by YOU...".. The notion is echoed by other contemporary films such as a rapid series of three contemporary Lone Ranger films.
Depicting a bleak, elitist Britain in the late 1950s to early 1960s for the working to middle class, the writer was one of the angry young men producing media vaunting or depicting the plight of rebellious youths. The film has characters entrenched in their social context. Class consciousness abounds throughout: the "them" and "us" notions which Richardson stresses reflect the very basis of British society at the time, so that Redgrave's "proper gentleman" of a Governor is in contrast to many of the young working class inmates.
Much of the screenplay takes place in and around Ruxley Towers, Claygate, Surrey – a Victorian mock castle built by Lord Foley ('Ruxton Towers'). The building had been used as a NAAFI base in the war, giving it a military atmosphere. The original trumpet theme to the film was performed by Fred Muscroft (the Scots Guards Principal Cornet at the time).
The film's words were heavily sampled in the 1980s Chumbawamba track "Alright Now" and text monologues from the book upon which the film is based was printed on the record/cassette covers of their single "Just Look at Me Now".
