Roger Bannister

I watched "Four Minutes" last night.

I seriously doubt that Roger Bannister ever ran a race without warming up, or showed up at a track meet a minute before his event was scheduled. I also doubt whether a 19-year old upper-class English lad speaking to his young lady friend in the late 1940's would use the word "bloody."

Did they really count the laps UP from 1 to 4, instead of down? Would someone please research that for me...

The movie made it seem like an accident that Bannister ever ran a single race for Oxford. Huh. Also, you'd never know that he ran other events, was a world-class half-miler, for example, that he frequently competed for his school in inter-collegiate meets...

Graham Wood, the actor who played Chris Chataway (one of Bannister's pacers in his four-minute attempt), looked a little top-heavy to be a world-class runner. During the climactic racing scene, I kept thinking "Bannister must be running really slowly, if he can barely beat that guy...""

On film, the four-minute race takes 4:39.

All in all, I'd rather watch real runners.

Here's a link to old footage of the "Miracle Mile" in which Bannister and Landy (the only two men to run under four minutes for a mile at the time) finally met in competition. Watch Landy look back over his left shoulder at precisely the wrong instant.