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Bannister: Everest on the Track

NR | 12 April 2016 (USA)

History wonks and running buffs will vie for who loves this movie the most. "Everest on the Track" is as much an historical study of Britain's psychological, if not almost physical, need for something - anything - to erase the woes of World War II as it is a fresh look at the quest for the first sub-4:00 mile, the heretofore deemed physically impossible. Before the war, Britain had bloomed best in its Sporting Tradition, but the amateur accolades leading to Olympic accomplishments were blown off the podiums in the 1952 Helsinki Games. Roger Bannister was the epitome of that disappearing scholar-athlete ideal. Can the lunchtime-trained runner immersed in his medical school studies inject the booster shot into Britain's flagging but still flickering morale?

Grease 1978

Marathon 1965

Breathless 2006

Chariots of Fire 1981

Rudy, the Racing Pig 1995

Michel Vaillant 2003

Left Bank 2008

Running Brave 1983

The Little Rascals 1994

Gallipoli 1981

Larry Silverstein

I was able to pick up a copy of this outstanding documentary from my local library. Despite its short running time of only 1 hour, the film is chocked full of superb archival footage, plus well-edited interviews with many of the people who played key roles in the subject matter.The main focus of the movie is Sir Roger Bannister, the Englishman who became the first person to run one mile in less than 4 minutes. He accomplished this remarkable feat on May 6th, 1954, on the Iffley Road Track, in Oxford. Bannister ran that mile in 3 min 59.4 secs, smashing the previously held world record of 4 min 1 sec, which had stood for a number of years. As a matter of fact, many experts at that time were stating that it was physically impossible for a human to eclipse the 4 min. barrier. Just a short time after Bannister's record breaking performance, the Australian runner John Landy broke Bannister's mark. Just to show Bannister's race was no fluke, the two met face to face in what was called the "Mile of the Century", in August, 1954, and Bannister rallied to catch Landy in the final straightaway and win the race.There's also a concurrent theme in this film, illustrating how Bannister's epic accomplishment combined with two other events, helped restore the shattered psyche of the British people after the devastation and destruction the country suffered during WW2, and the subsequent painful and slow recovery from the ravages of that war.The other events were the coronation of the young and vibrant Queen Elizabeth II (still the reigning monarch in England), and on the same day as the coronation, the announcement that Sir Edmund Hillary had led a British expedition to become the first climbers to reach the summit of Mt. Everest.All in all, Bannister's humble persona really was evident in this documentary, despite having accomplished one of the world's most historic sports feats. He is now 87-years-old and a retired neurologist, living in Britain, and I'm sure his shattering of what was thought to be an impossible barrier, the sub 4 minute mile, will never be forgotten.