Being distracted with other stuff, I completely missed the DVD release of the cycling flick “The Flying Scotsman” in mid-September (it's scheduled for release in the UK in November).
Earlier this week I stumbled across it after taking a stroll to my local video rental store, snatched it up, watched it immediately, and thoroughly enjoyed it.
The movie is based on Graeme Obree's autobiography, “Flying Scotsman; Cycling to Triumph through My Darkest Hours.” Obree set the one-hour bicycling record, twice, in the early 1990s in spite of battling officials at the Union Cycliste Internationale and the demons inside his head.
Scotland
Wonderfully shot in Scotland, the movie was directed by Douglas Mackinnon and stars Jonny Lee Miller as Obree. I recognized one actor in the movie, Brian Cox, who has an Emmy and more than 100 movie and TV shows to his credit. The film was released to theaters in the US about a year ago.
The movie starts with Obree as a child, not too successfully dealing with the local bullies until he gets a bicycle and learns he can escape them.
It follows through his efforts to build a track bike of revolutionary design, using bits and parts from other bicycles. He even scavanges ball bearings from a washing machine. After his first triumphs, he runs afoul of cycling's governing body which finds his bike design and riding style unnatural.
Depression
The movie also suggests that bike distributors are behind the opposition to Obree, who didn't rely on the usual major sponsor.
Much of the movie deals, sometimes with humor, with this frustrating fight against UCI. It also reveals his battle with manic depression, which he tried unsuccessfully to treat without help.
If you're like me, you'll need the English subtitles to follow the dialogue in places where the Scottish dialect is a little heavy.
More about The Flying Scotsman at IMDB. Also, check out a good interview with Obree and his thoughts about the movie at Pez Cycling.
In unrelated Scottish cycling news, a judge rules in favor of a cyclist hit by a bus in “The Falling Scotsman.”
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