In America, it took the phenomenon of Lance Armstrong's repeated wins in the Tour de France to capture the general public's attention and bring the sport of bicycle racing front and center.
May 4, 2007 (Press Release) --
Yet, in Europe and in many countries around the world, cycling competitions are frequently major sports stories in the media -- and the subject of great interest, and topics of heated debates by cycling fans around the globe.
Now U.S. audiences will have the chance to learn about a recent cycling hero -- a very unusual one, to say the least -- thanks to the stateside release of "The Flying Scotsman," director Douglas Mackinnon's sensitive and thoughtful film about the life and personal struggles of Scottish cycling champ Graeme Obree (played by English actor Jonny Lee Miller, who does a lovely job with a spot-on Scottish accent.
Obree's life presents another great way to take a fairly simple -- some might even say parochial -- story and turn it into a movie that delivers a universal message about the proverbial outsider fighting against forces that don't want him to become a true insider.
Obree took the cycling world by storm in 1993 when the unemployed amateur convincingly broke the world one-hour record, pumping to victory on a bike of his own design. And unlike the well-financed professionals on the international cycling scene, Obree's bicycle was made by him and not an expensive cycling designer, crafted from bits of scrap metal and even the innards of his wife's washing machine!
While the cycling aspects of the story are fun and add some of the more exciting aspects to "The Flying Scotsman," the truly important thrust of the film comes from revealing the internal mental turmoil that Obree had faced since childhood.
In fact, the only reason he became a cyclist was because his policeman father dug deep into his minimal resources to give young Graeme a bike for Christmas so he could escape the neighborhood bullies who daily beat him up and made his life a living hell. As we see throughout the film -- even in adulthood and after he's become a famous international sports hero -- Obree can still be brought down psychologically whenever he encounters one of those childhood bullies. The reason, of course, is due to Obree's ongoing battles with bipolar disorder that make this film intriguing, juxtaposing a common malady against a character from the world of athletic competition -- certainly not a usual showcase for presenting a story about mental illness.
Obree's life was always tough. While he did find early success in Scottish cycling competitions -- leading him to move from bicycle delivery boy to the owner of a modest cycling shop -- he soon hit another stumbling block when the shop failed.
When he did scrape together the basic financing to stage his amazing attempt to break the world record in Norway in 1993, he then came into the crosshairs of the conservative "old boys club".
Source: http://www.msn.com
Now U.S. audiences will have the chance to learn about a recent cycling hero -- a very unusual one, to say the least -- thanks to the stateside release of "The Flying Scotsman," director Douglas Mackinnon's sensitive and thoughtful film about the life and personal struggles of Scottish cycling champ Graeme Obree (played by English actor Jonny Lee Miller, who does a lovely job with a spot-on Scottish accent.
Obree's life presents another great way to take a fairly simple -- some might even say parochial -- story and turn it into a movie that delivers a universal message about the proverbial outsider fighting against forces that don't want him to become a true insider.
Obree took the cycling world by storm in 1993 when the unemployed amateur convincingly broke the world one-hour record, pumping to victory on a bike of his own design. And unlike the well-financed professionals on the international cycling scene, Obree's bicycle was made by him and not an expensive cycling designer, crafted from bits of scrap metal and even the innards of his wife's washing machine!
While the cycling aspects of the story are fun and add some of the more exciting aspects to "The Flying Scotsman," the truly important thrust of the film comes from revealing the internal mental turmoil that Obree had faced since childhood.
In fact, the only reason he became a cyclist was because his policeman father dug deep into his minimal resources to give young Graeme a bike for Christmas so he could escape the neighborhood bullies who daily beat him up and made his life a living hell. As we see throughout the film -- even in adulthood and after he's become a famous international sports hero -- Obree can still be brought down psychologically whenever he encounters one of those childhood bullies. The reason, of course, is due to Obree's ongoing battles with bipolar disorder that make this film intriguing, juxtaposing a common malady against a character from the world of athletic competition -- certainly not a usual showcase for presenting a story about mental illness.
Obree's life was always tough. While he did find early success in Scottish cycling competitions -- leading him to move from bicycle delivery boy to the owner of a modest cycling shop -- he soon hit another stumbling block when the shop failed.
When he did scrape together the basic financing to stage his amazing attempt to break the world record in Norway in 1993, he then came into the crosshairs of the conservative "old boys club".
Source: http://www.msn.com
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