Island News & Views
Events · 17th March 2008
Annette Yourk
THE FLYING SCOTSMAN
March 28th, Q.C.C.
Doors 7:30 – Showtime 7:45
Adm: $5.00, Stu/Snr - $4.00
THE FLYING SCOTSMAN is based on the remarkable, true story of Scottish cycling legend, Graeme Obree, who smashed the world one-hour cycling record on a homemade bicycle he constructed using old washing machine parts. In addition to the feel-good, triumph-over-adversity sporting drama, the film also examines Graeme's lifelong battle with depression due to bi-polar disorder.
Jonny Lee Miller squeezes into Obree’s snug biker shorts to inhabit the character of a man driven by ambition but plagued by an oppressive shroud of depression. Obree is also a man touched by genius. An amateur cyclist accustomed to street training against a vehicle, Obree makes it his mission to beat the one-hour world record for biking.
Obree meets with scepticism and resistance from the old guard. It's an uphill battle against rules fuzzy in their logic or rewritten to try and hinder the unlikely champion's progress. His unshakable supporters are his wife, Anne, his best friend Malky and his clergyman/confidant Douglas Baxter. Each one plays their part with the utmost humanity, never defaulting to triumphant sports movie clichés. The Scottish landscape also does its part. And the cycling scenes are excellent. The bike Obree built and named Old Faithful is identical to the one in the film, and may be the real article. Obree himself doubles for the actor in some of the film's more lycra-clad moments.
You want to learn Obree's story, because depression really is a kind of hell on Earth, and this man overcame it to win a championship no one ever expected him to win. When he failed in his first attempt to break the hour record in 1993, he insisted on doing the gruelling course again, the very next day. In 1995 he beat the odds, winning the world record on Old Faithful.
March 28th, Q.C.C.
Doors 7:30 – Showtime 7:45
Adm: $5.00, Stu/Snr - $4.00
THE FLYING SCOTSMAN is based on the remarkable, true story of Scottish cycling legend, Graeme Obree, who smashed the world one-hour cycling record on a homemade bicycle he constructed using old washing machine parts. In addition to the feel-good, triumph-over-adversity sporting drama, the film also examines Graeme's lifelong battle with depression due to bi-polar disorder.
Jonny Lee Miller squeezes into Obree’s snug biker shorts to inhabit the character of a man driven by ambition but plagued by an oppressive shroud of depression. Obree is also a man touched by genius. An amateur cyclist accustomed to street training against a vehicle, Obree makes it his mission to beat the one-hour world record for biking.
Obree meets with scepticism and resistance from the old guard. It's an uphill battle against rules fuzzy in their logic or rewritten to try and hinder the unlikely champion's progress. His unshakable supporters are his wife, Anne, his best friend Malky and his clergyman/confidant Douglas Baxter. Each one plays their part with the utmost humanity, never defaulting to triumphant sports movie clichés. The Scottish landscape also does its part. And the cycling scenes are excellent. The bike Obree built and named Old Faithful is identical to the one in the film, and may be the real article. Obree himself doubles for the actor in some of the film's more lycra-clad moments.
You want to learn Obree's story, because depression really is a kind of hell on Earth, and this man overcame it to win a championship no one ever expected him to win. When he failed in his first attempt to break the hour record in 1993, he insisted on doing the gruelling course again, the very next day. In 1995 he beat the odds, winning the world record on Old Faithful.