The Flying Scotsman

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.

A fantastic portrayal of a true champion - who battled not only the physical elements required for cycling but also mental illness to become one of the greatest cyclists of all time. Johnny Lee Miller is a revelation in the lead role and ably supported by Brian Cox and Billy Boyd. Shame it is not on full release as this is a story that should be heard, unlike other triumph against disaster sappy biopics which have been allowed a wider release. Even if you are not interested in cycling as a sport, this is more about the challenges life puts in your way on the route to any goal and how single-mindedness and determination can win the day but can also be derailed.

Go and see this if you can America - I know he was British but the film and the story speak for themselves.

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.

Were this to have been a sports movie, it would have still been very much worth the ticket. However, the personal story and the battles he had to fight turned this into something so much more. I took my wife, my son and his girlfriend to see this and we all came away feeling the same. 3 of us knew so much about Graeme Obree, but my son's girlfriend had never heard of him, and has no interest in most sport, especially not cycling. That we all loved it says they got that balance right. The cast were excellent with Jonny Lee Miller playing Obree to perfection. Ably supported by Billy Boyd and Brian Cox and Laura Fraser as his wife. This film may do something to raise the profile of amateur cycling. However, even more importantly, it may highlight the issues associated with mental illness. Try to see it, you will not regret it.