FOUR MINUTES

jizzmo wrote:

typical of so many- complain about not getting any attention from ESPN, then when they make a movie about T&F the bash it. Beggers can't be chosers. We are lucky that ESPN even recognizes T&F as a sport. Believe me, we need them more than they need us. Anything- even a fairly lame movie should be appreciated.

Espn didn't have much choice.

All the movies about horse racing have already been made.

Yeah, Francis. He also starred alongside Jennifer Aniston in the original "Leprechaun."

Worst sport movie in history. What a huge let down.

I couldn't get past the coach with the amputated legs in a wheelchair. While Franz Stampfl was more an advisor than coach to Roger, according to Bannister himself, the writer or director took an incredible amount of liberty to change this part of the story.

For a better movie on Bannister, Landy AND Santee, check out this. It is almost a scene by scene representation of "The Perfect Mile." It's called "The Four Minute Mile" and the guy who plays Percy Cerutty throughout the movie might have done the best acting job of all time.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095171/

I never watched it, but a friend told me it was pretty bad. He said there was hardly any running involved, but instead other things that he didn't care about.

While I'm grateful ESPN made a movie about running, I just wish that they'd made a good movie. Why this movie was nearly unwatchable has absolutely nothing to do with the small running details that the average movie-goer would never notice. This movie is bad because it would never inspire anybody to run or teach somebody just what an amazing thing Roger Bannister did.

The movie suffered from tortured dialogue, poor acting, and a wretched script. I hate it when screenplay writers insult my intelligence by having characters say stuff like "Roger, you've always been interested in exploring the limits of the human body! If you don't do this now, you'll regret this for the rest of your life!" Okay, that sure happened.

Ultimately, Bannister, one of the most self-motivated and driven athletes in running history, comes across as a self-doubting pansy who only breaks 4 minutes because other people tell him to do it. If anything, the movie left me with the impression that Bannister didn't have to run very much at all to break this record; he just needed to be convinced to skip rounds every couple days.

Irrelevant characters parade in and out of this movie like even they are surprised to be there. Other than Bannister, not a single character is developed in the slightest, and we have no idea what their motivations or thoughts might be. Chataway and Brasher just appear one day and start running laps. McWhirter just starts making phone calls for the hell of it. Oooh, it's a blonde girl at a cocktail party! Thank God, there was no chance of running fast before SHE came along.

This movie was less awful when it didn't rely on its horrible dialogue to explain why we should care. The simple images of Bannister running in all types of weather, of Stampfl writing interval times on a chalkboard, and of the record-breaking race itself were the high points of this otherwise ordinary movie.

Purely, simply and without defense, this was a bad, bad movie. Setting aside the idea that "any publicity is good publicity," I'd be interested in hearing why anybody else thought otherwise.

Didn't really see the point of having the first love interest in the movie. It contributed nothing to the story.