Flying Scotsman - Allein zum Ziel

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.

This was a film I knew nothing about, and a sport I know pretty much nothing about. Saying that I do love sports of all kinds, so I am probably biased. I also like when sports movies are told well, because most of them are not. The only reason this film wasn't a huge hit is because I don't think there is a lot of big bicycle racing movie fans out there. Do I hope this gets a good run on DVD, absolutely. Will very many people pick up a movie (particularly in the U.S.) about a Scottish man racing bicycles, almost definitely not. I thought that even though the story was very straight forward, it was very well written, competently directed, and excellently acted. If this was acted by any other lesser actors, this film would have just been another sports movie. If not for the very underrated and quite unknown Jonny Lee Miller starring in the title role I doubt this would have been worth watching at all. Just as "Seabiscuit" made the world love horse racing, hopefully so will this get some well deserved attention. Give it a try if you are looking for a good old fashioned sports flick.

An inspiring movie I had the pleasure of seeing at the Edinburgh film festival. I was briefly in the same cycling club as Obree. I followed his career and read his autobiography. I still cycle today and boy was I pleasantly surprised at the twists, turns and intrigue which come out in the movie; it gave me new perspectives on a complex and colourful life.

What Obree did was monumental and this film does him justice, shedding light on his inner struggles and showcasing what an innovative, committed and strong world beater the man is. Don't pigeon hole this as some kind of sports extravaganza - it is a highly entertaining look at the life of an entertaining and brilliant man.

I am a sucker for sports movies where an individual or team overcomes adversity to become champions. I really don't care for the sport of cycling, seeing it just as a two-wheeled version of NASCAR, round and round and round ad nausea, but it was the man, Graeme Obree, played by Jonny Lee Miller, that was interesting.

Battling depression and Ernst Hagemann (Steven Berkoff) really would take the courage of Rambo. I never could figure what Hagemann had against him, but his antics would make anyone crazy.

Brian Cox was fantastic as the minister that was there for him.

Laura Fraser (Land of the Blind, Iron Jawed Angels) was also excellent as his wife Anne.

What I found most enjoyable about this film is the way it straddles the sport-biopic genres. It maintains the acute acting and psychological fullness of a biopic, aided by a fantastic performance by Miller, while being in keeping with the Hollywood highs and lows aspects of great sports movies.

Those not interested in sport should not be put off by thinking this will be a typically superficial or one dimensional sports film. But those sporty types will also find plenty to satisfy them.

As a big cycling fan I was already well aware of the Obree story and I can assure people that is every bit as incredible if not more so than is shown in the film. Naturally the constraints of a film mean that the Obree story is cut short and we don't see how the Superman position was banned or Obree's subsequent depressions especially after his brother died (indeed his brother is completely missing from the film). But by choosing to limit the time scale it describes it allows time for greater detail particularly in investigated his relationship with the priest and Obree's wife.

Equally the film doesn't embellish the truth a great deal in order to increase the drama. Indeed the world record attempts are incredibly understated, as they should be. Obree was never well known in Britain despite being very popular on the continent. As a result the film isn't filled with cheering crowds but rather focuses the isolation he experienced within Scotland in spite of his amazing achievements.