Well, I only caught the tail end of this film on HBO, just the final 10 minutes or so, but I must say that it contains probably the most laughable depiction of distance running EVER put on film! I'm a serious distance runner and a dedicated fan of the sport, and I've sat through many painful demonstrations in movies before. However, nothing could have ever prepared me for what is shown on screen in the final 10 minutes of this movie, it literally defies belief! The depiction of the runners is even more ironic considering that African runners completely dominate the sport, and they are elegant and graceful. The female protagonist shuffles along like an overweight pregnant woman, and her "highly trained" male supporters are no better. Well into the race this alleged world class runner is surrounded by pudgy, overweight people, many of whom are WALKING! I find it interesting that the director decided to have her lead the female competition, yet near the end she is shown passing people who look like they're staggering along on two broken legs! Are we to believe that this amazing stellar athlete has only overtaken a crippled person at the very end of the race? Maybe the director just thinks that female runners can't run faster than 12 minute miles, and he has obviously never heard of athletes like Paula Radcliffe or Tirunesh Dibaba.Even if you aren't a running fan you'll be astonished by the insanely inaccurate portrayal of running, and this movie is only watchable as unintentional comedy. Here is a note to the director: The next time you decide to make a movie about a sport, it might be worth it to hire at least one person who actually has observed that sport in action.

It's hard to make a bad movie with the "underdog finally succeeds" sport theme, but this movie succeeds admirably. My mind boggles at how pointless and boring this film is.I guess the director couldn't decide whether this was about the runner or the coach. It ends up being about neither. Ultimately, who cares? Neither character has a likable personality. There is nothing in the movie to make you care about anyone. Even the "bad guy" isn't really bad. (I think he's in two scenes, and seemingly is on some kind of barbituate. ) I think he asks her, once and politely, to leave the coach and train with him. Then later he kinda' sorta' asks her to move in with him. that's it. Conflict! Tension! What will she do? !!-And what's with the depiction of running? Has the director ever SEEN an actual marathon? Christine's form is so incorrect it's absurd, as is the form of the supposed "champion" she competes with (A character with no lines. -Maybe they could have hired, you know, an actual RUNNER?)-And the speed the run at is beyond comprehension. Were they running or speed walking? It's actually laughable. I can literally walk backwards faster then they were running in the big race. Maybe it was too hard to move the cameras at real speed?Another absurdity: (spoiler, I guess) At one point in the big race, the two women in the lead inexplicably fall, at the same time. What they fell on is a mystery. Maybe they both just got exhausted and fell down? -And then they get up, but don't start running again for maybe 30 seconds. Oh yeah, very realistic. This ridiculous event doesn't even add any tension, since the other runners are not close, and besides at this point you have been numbed into a state of catatonia.-I especially enjoyed how all four of her male teammates, highly trained athletes all, drop out of the big race due to charlie-horses, or pulled tendons, or something just as improbable. But who cares? This movie has almost no tension, no resolution, nothing. Some woman runner with absolutely no personality is discovered by an old, boring coach with some past failure that is barely hinted at. They train a lot. She is not happy. They train some more. She wins da big race. Woopie. My description is actually more interesting than the actual movie. I just saved you 90 minutes. Avoid this one like the plague.

I rate this a "seven" because the film brings together several treatments which combine nicely.The best treatment is the study of Barry, played by ARMIN MUELLER-STAHL, an Old-Man-and-the Sea type, a monomaniac, misfit sports coach with a questioned past, slipping into oblivion. He clings to just one race as his reason for being: a tough 90 kilo run, hence The Long Run. This character study alone ranks the film as a watcher.The second treatment is the quiet and serene, still-waters-run-deep dignity of the African runner. This treatment is not enough to support the whole film. She is from Pretoria, and is an ideal-type, too-good-to-be-true. Character development is missing except in the one important sense that is key to the film. In the face of hardships both historical and current, and harboring some doubts as to what she is capable of, she grows in strength and breadth from the hardships of race preparation.The third treatment is fairly formulaic: the David-beats-Goliath sports film. From Hong Kong martial arts film to G-rated knock-offs, the combination of stalwart heart plus beloved underdog is successful again. In this film, other issues obscure the routine set-up, thus providing a slight sense of 'maturity'.The fourth and final treatment is Africa itself. Once or twice each decade,we are treated to a major Hollywood film bringing us the sights and sounds and smells of this most enchanting and provocative continent. THE LONG RUN was shot in South Africa. What we see in the background could just was well be viewed in several of the surrounding countries as well. Alas, the film's creators give us only meager examples of this land and life : a brick factory, some runners, and a taste of scenery. Much more could have been included.Propaganda angles surrounding any such film could damage it. It has not the robustness of, for example, HOTEL RWANDA. I was caught up in the beauty and the story. That was enough for me ,,, and I hope, for you.

This is a South African propaganda film wherein all the blacks and all the whites interact as if race has never been an issue. The utter lack of tension between the haves and have nots is so distracting that for awhile I thought that this was an intentional plot device and that there would eventually be some secret revealed to explain the phony harmony. No such luck.Whoever wrote, directed, and produced this movie knows very little about what real marathon running is like (many pudgy athletes easily cover 20-40 miles while not even one runner who looks like a long distance runner is shown!)..The female lead is very beautiful, and she can act, but she can't run. Her backstory is tantalizingly, but no details ever are offered to explain how this illegal alien has learned such perfect English, self composure, and good mental hygiene. She is the second lead in the film and all we know is that she can run (it would be nice to know why), and that she is smarter than and unafraid of all whites, men, and governmental authorities (why and how this is so is an unforgivable omission).I am almost always a big fan of Mueller-Stahl, but here he is given nothing to work with. He plays an embittered coach who at 60 still cannot train his athletes without reliving his own humiliating experiences in the same race 40 years before. The story unfolds in fits and starts, jumping over gaping plot holes while lingering forever on Mueller-Stahl's quite unbelievably self-absorbed and obviously ineffective dedication to training runners. By the day of the big race he is totally psychotic, becoming more and more unhinged the closer his runner comes to actually winning the race. Again, a little more backstory could have made his Germanic anal retentiveness less cliched.It is never made clear what the coach's goal for his prodigy is: to finish, to make it past the hill he himself couldn't conquer, or to actually win. All we know is that he treats her like a robot and screams annoyingly at her to always slow down. No wonder his methods are at one point referred to as "eccentric".This movie was made with an agenda to depict South Africa in insultingly inaccurate ways. Can anyone still spell apartheid?