Movie Reviews

The Supermilers

No race has captured the imagination of the general public as the race to break the four-minute barrier that occurred during the 1950s. It should be no surprise that the mile run is the only non-metric distance event that is still officially recognized for world records. In honor of the 50th anniversary of Roger Bannister breaking this historic mark on May 6th, 1954 in Oxford (England), a look at this rare documentary film is in order. The format of "The Supermilers" is to show each athlete in action breaking the mile record, provide a brief background of each person, and short interviews about their experiences. Some unique points include Herb Elliott running 36 mile races between 1957 and 1961, never once being defeated, and he broke the four minute mark on 17 occasions. Elliott stopped racing at age 22 and reported "I stopped at my peak and that is the right time to stop". John Walker reports that "the admiration and publicity of breaking through 50 [3:50 mile barrier] was probably four times more than winning Olympic Gold [1976, 1500 meters]". The narrator states "that the athlete's commitment must be total" and Sebastian Coe reinforces this thinking by reflecting that "in 1980, I wanted to win because that was my life". At the end of this film each athlete has the opportunity to predict where the record may advance over the next 15 years. Here are some of their statements: Roger Bannister (3:59.4) "I think three and a half minutes is conceivable: that is based on physiological principles of how much oxygen the lungs can breath in and blood can transport"; Derek Ibbotson (3:57.2) "My standard always was that if you take the world record for 880 yards today and doubled it - beyond that it would be impossible to do it"; Herb Elliott (3:54.5) "We still overprotect ourselves, we still stop that last grind, that challenge to death if you like"; Michel Jazy (3:53.6) "I think that in 10 year's time the world record for the mile will be three minutes 43 seconds"; John Walker (3:49.4) "They are getting stronger, getting bigger, getting faster, they are becoming more fluent and I think that what will happen is that the athletes will become more scientific". Since this film was produced two additional men have lowered the mile mark: Noureddine Morceli ran 3:44.39 on September 12, 1993 in Rieti (Italy) and Hicham El Guerrouj improved the standard in Rome (Italy) by running 3:43.13 on June 7, 1999 to become the fourteenth mile record holder under the four-minute mile barrier.

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