The Good
An uplifting tale that should tell us all it’s never too late to dream.
The Bad
No Extras.
The Flying Scotsman is the uplifting tale of Graeme Obree (Jonny Lee Miller). Down on his luck and not really providing well for his family, Obree gets rebitten by the cycling bug when British cyclist Chris Boardman wins the gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. As Boardman was a friend of Obree’s they often raced one another and Obree was sometimes on the winning end of those contests. So he decides to build himself a bike out of scrap metal and rededicate himself to the sport. Aided in his quest by wife Anne (Laura Fraser) and pal Malky (Billy Boyd), Obree does everything he can to achieve his goal. However, it is bureaucracy and Obree’s own ill mental state that might prove to be the cyclist’s biggest hurdle.
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What I liked the most about The Flying Scotsman was that it is your garden variety triumph story, yet there were aspects about the film that weren’t always triumphant. I could go into specifics here but I wouldn’t want to give away too much of this film’s story. Make no mistake this is a very warmhearted tale and it is easy to root for our main character, I just found that it wasn’t one of those tales that followed the typical uplifting film playbook and that is what helped it stand out.
Features
No Extras came with this release.
Video
Widescreen. Fox Home Entertainment didn’t send me this release with the proper packaging. It came in a white envelope and as such I can’t really get into technical specifics about the look of this movie. I will say that as far as burned DVDs go, Fox seems to have the process down. This movie is filled with both sharp visuals and scenes of our characters talking. They mix up well here and I never saw any moments that seemed poorly compressed or overpixilated when we moved from exterior to interior scenes.
Audio
Due to the lack of packaging, again, I can’t really say too much about the audio. However, I was able to hear everything okay even though we are dealing with a film that has characters with thick accents (at least I found them to be thick). This said everything appeared to be leveled fine and while I can’t say that I understood everything that was said I do feel that I understood enough to get the gist of the story down. I did enjoy the soundtrack music which seemed to be perfectly suited to the story The Flying Scotsman was telling.
Package
Sadly, Fox sent me a burned copy of this DVD in a white envelope. Due to this I am unable to really say anything about the packaging.
Final Word
I had never heard of Graeme Obree until I saw this movie. In fact, until I was given this movie to review the only real knowledge I had about cycling came from my friend Kevin Foster who is in the Guinness Book of World’s Records for riding his bike across the entire Great Wall of China. Aside from that I have heard of Lance Armstrong but he is more known to me as someone who survived cancer (and left Sheryl Crow) than for cycling. While I won’t say that The Flying Scotsman has made me want to become a cyclist but it has certainly given me a great deal of respect for what these athletes have to go through. I could imagine how tough it must be to commandeer one of those bikes in the most perfect of conditions. Now factor into this the weight on Obree’s shoulders and the fact that he is mentally ill. If anything this movie is testament to the power of the human spirit irrespective of the cycling component.
If you are a fan of the sport or you just want to watch a well told tale, The Flying Scotsman is worth the ride.
The Flying Scotsman was released August 16, 2006.
