The story of the four minute mile-breaker Roger Bannister.
I found myself watching this film the other night on Netflix, it was something that interested me as I do a lot of running myself and thought it would be a decent film to watch. I do have a soft spot for the sport film genre due to working full-time within football and always having a love for sport. I will admit though that whilst I had heard of Bannister I did not know that much about his story.
His story was about being the first person to run a four-minute mile, an unbelievable pace to run a mile in still to this day really. It was claimed that it could not be done but that was to be proven wrong. Bannister was studying at Oxford when he took up running after being spotted having potential if he trained probably and had people to help him out. Part of the problem being that he did not want to listen to people or train all the time with his focus on training to become a doctor.
The film deals with the struggle and then pressure which is placed on Bannister as he begins to represent the UK in running the 1500m. This was not something he really wanted to have to deal with and again his focus was more on becoming a doctor. I thought the film was very well made and the performances keep you interested in the film.
We also see his attempted relationship and how everything was not going to go as he had originally planned before going to University. I am not sure how close the film is to his real life but it certainly made a very good and interesting story to watch as a film. I would recommend this for anyone who is interested in sport as it really does help to show that anything is possible and what you can achieve with good training.
I’ll stick to trying to get back down to running 8 minute miles!
