Four Minutes
Four Minutes
| 06 October 2005 (USA)
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Sir Roger Bannister's historic running of the sub-four-minute mile is celebrated in Four Minutes, an inspiring and respectably authentic TV movie about breaking the most famous barrier in the history of sports.

Reviews
Karry

Best movie of this year hands down!

Afouotos

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

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Voxitype

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

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Juana

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

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fourmins

A film with a lot of heart and fun for everyone! When someone achieves what seems to be the impossible, (Everest, the Moon, Four Minutes,) it opens the door for all of us, and that's it's appeal. Great performances, music and photography as well. Great stuff! I am a mile runner and found the races accurate and an inspiration. The four minute barrier was clearly a physiological brick wall and Bannister the doctor who ran for fun sets about examining the limits of human endurance. There aren't enough movies that celebrate human achievement, so congratulations to ESPN for backing this project. I wonder why it was left to an American network to celebrate the achievements of a British athlete?

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dwightbiggins

Obviously, this is a sports movie so its going to be predictable. I really enjoyed this movie because the individual aspect of track and field makes it extremely hard to make an effective movie about it.Roger Bannister's breaking four minutes for the first time is probably the single greatest event in track history. It was a huge mental barrier which stood for nearly 20 years as something man couldn't break. Al though this movie didn't perhaps focus on that as much as it could, it still got that point across well. It was also very good at showing the world of sport back then - very white, gentile, amateur and elite, especially in Britain. And Roger Bannister was someone who personified all of it. That was shown well in Four Minutes, with him struggling to choose between medicine and running. The only real discrepancy I noticed was that they changed who was coaching him (it was in reality Franz Stampfl, an Austrian).Overall, this was a well-done movie which really covered all the bases in terms of the story of Roger Bannister. It showed who he was, what he was up against, and how he pulled it off.

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eurban1313

The breaking of the 4 minute mile was a milestone (pun intended) in competitive sports. Years later, sports fans remembered where they were when they heard of the achievement. At the time it occurred, it was considered THE transcendent sporting achievement. The movie tries to capture this sentiment primarily through the Christopher Plummer character's dialogue and the repeated comparisons to the Everest expedition. Unfortunately, however, the magnitude of the event doesn't come across to those of later generations. I didn't live during the time of Seabiscuit or Cinderella Man but both of those movies made me feel the drama and significance of what was happening. Four Minutes does not provide that type of emotional involvement. Another quibble is that Bannister's teammates (Brasher and Chataway) get short shrift. Both had very successful running careers that merit some mention at the end.

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Adam Kelly

I had seen this movie advertised for weeks and it looked very lame. Then one day I caught a replay of it on ESPN Classic and since it was the only thing on that was worth watching I kept it running. Good choice.Four Minutes is the story of Roger Bannister, the first human being to run a mile in under 4 minutes. It's based on a true story but certain events were dramatized for the sake of entertainment which is nothing new but it felt kind of cheap at the end of the movie knowing that some things may or may not have ever happened, but all the same it's a fun movie.It starts out slow with Roger the medical student and his tryings for the school sports teams. He is advised to try rowing but ultimately fails and picks up running instead. Throughout the course of the movie Roger is battled with decisions to become a doctor or a runner, ultimately choosing both.It's a by the numbers sports story. Unassuming hero has love problems, becomes good at what he does, starts to doubt himself but eventually overcomes his insecurity to triumph. You know from the get go something is good is going to happen but it suspends your belief enough where the thought of him actually triumphing starts to wain, but obviously he does.Good movie and I highly recommend it.

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