The Flying Scotsman (2006)

Director:

Douglas Mackinnon

Writers:

John Brown (writer) and
Simon Rose (writer) ...

Release Date:

26 April 2007 (New Zealand)

Genre:

Drama | Sport

Tagline:

Hope made him a dreamer. Heart made him a hero.

Plot:

The true story of Graeme Obree, the Champion cyclist who built his bicycle from old bits of washing machines who won his championship only to have his title stripped from him and his mental health problems which he has suffered since.

Plot Keywords:

Bicycle | Bi Polar | Courier | Scot | Based On True Story

Awards:

7 nominations

Cast

Jonny Lee Miller	...	Graeme Obree
Sean Brown	...	Young Graeme Obree
Joseph Carney	...	Child Gang Leader
Crawford McInally-Kier	...	First Child Bully
Jan Plazalski	...	Second Child Bully
Niall Macgregor	...	Graeme's Father
Julie Austin	...	Graeme's Mother
Morag Calder	...	First Office Receptionist
Billy Boyd	...	Malky
Laura Fraser	...	Anne Obree
Jean Marie Coffey	...	Woman at Finish Line
Christopher Anderson	...	Baby Ewan
Brian Cox	...	Douglas Baxter
Ron Donachie	...	Scobie
Morven Christie	...	Katie

Also Known As:

Flying Scotsman - Allein zum Ziel (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some mature thematic elements and strong language.

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

Germany | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Ireland:15A | UK:15 | Germany:6 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | New Zealand:M

Filming Locations:

Galston, Ayrshire, Scotland, UK

Company:

ContentFilm International

Trivia:

David Tennant was cast in this film but had to drop out because of changed dates.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Several vehicles on the 1993 Glasgow streets are models not available at that time (including a Vauxhall Tigra introduced in 1994, and a Ford Focus, which was not introduced until 1998).

Does justice to the legend

As director Douglas MacKinnon said making a good sports film is difficult and the road is littered with heroic failures. This is a good film partly because it is about cycling, a minority sport every nuance of which is not ingrained on the public consciousness, and partly because it is a well made piece of work which tells an amazing story. It does take liberties with the Obree story as anyone who has read his book will notice, but these are generally fairly minor and do not detract from dramatic piece. The acting is universally great as you would expect from actors of the stature of Brian Cox, Stephen Berkoff etc, and Johnny Lee Miller does a superb job as tortured genius Graeme Obree. The message is uplifting by demonstrating that those who have had an unhappy childhood and suffer from a mental illness can go on and achieve a huge amount in life as Graeme did, despite many setbacks and intransigent officialdom.