It might seem strange to our American cousins,but the English working-class actually don't hate the so-called upper-classes.They are amused by them,slightly disdainful of them and have as little to do with them as possible.It's the middle-class public school/Oxbridge types(i.e. director Tony Richardson)who do their hating for them.Never forget that revolutions are not made by the people but for the people.This condescending attitude to the working class has blighted the British Cinema for seventy years and British TV for slightly less. All the cheery cockneys,tarts with hearts,warm and wise gritty northerners never had an existence outside of the imagination of an Oxbridge type riven with guilt at living in Chiswick . Alan Sillitoe's "hero"is a "The world owes me a living" Nottingham lad from a respectable(not,as many seem to believe,desperately poor)working-class home.He is a thief.He is not stealing to support his poor old mum,he's doing it because it's fun. He gets caught and sent to Borstal,where the Governor sees his potential as an athlete,allows him privileges not extended to his fellows,and eventually enters him in a race against "proper" schools which he promptly throws to demonstrate his "principles". Not exactly Brain of Britain then. More the sort of lad the screws say "see you soon" to when he leaves. Courtenay's gaunt physique and repressed energy scream resentment and hate that we are somehow supposed to admire and identify with. Richardson uses "New Wave " devices that were already becoming clichés by 1962 in a desperate attempt to distract us from the tiredness of the plot. By all means watch "The loneliness of the long-distance runner",but don't believe it reflected British life in 1962.It merely reflected what Tony Richardson would have you believe British life was like in 1962. Not quite the same thing. The best thing about the film is the dancing,glittering trumpet playing by Pat Halcox,and if you want to hear more of him listen to any Chris Barber record. A few years later Mr Richardson went on to make "The charge of the Light Brigade" which gave him another chance to rubbish the upper classes which he seized with alacrity. If you want to see an accurate portrayal of working-class life,10 minutes from any Terence Davies film will give you more truth than a lifetime's study of Tony Richardson's entire oeuvre.
