Runners

About Runners

Runners is a 1983 British film directed by Charles Sturridge and starring Kate Hardie, James Fox and Jane Asher. It was written by Stephen Poliakoff.

Article

Runners is a 1983 British film directed by Charles Sturridge and starring Kate Hardie, James Fox and Jane Asher. It was written by Stephen Poliakoff.

Contents

Premise

An English father heads for London in search of his missing teenage daughter.

Cast

Kate Hardie as Rachel Lindsay

James Fox as Tom Lindsay

Jane Asher as Helen

Eileen O'Brien as Gillian Lindsay

Bernard Hill as Trevor Field

Reception

Box office

Goldcrest Films invested £721,000 in the film and earned £401,000.

Critical

Time Out wrote: "The unfancy realism of Sturridge's direction emphasises that this is a small film; but unlike, say, a TV drama-doc, it doesn't just flesh out a contemporary social problem. Rather, schadenfreude gives way to shaggy dog as writer Stephen Poliakoff weaves a quirky tale out of the loose ends of the here and now."

Variety wrote: "There are a lot of interesting ideas in Runners, but they're never really shaped into a coherent film. ... One is two thirds of the way through the film before the question is even raised of why this girl fled. And it's doubtful whether the sullen sadness in the girl's face or cheap accounts of a world without hope really serve the bill, except for naturally sympathetic youth. It's a view of the world that writer Poliakoff has played with before in TV plays like Bloody Kids and Caught On A Train. He just doesn't seem to have the guts to tackle the theme of alienated youth head on, and consequently he's easily diverted down byways. ...Fox and Asher give as much to the roles as they can."

Article from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), where it is maintained by volunteer editors.

Notable quotes

“Run! Run, like the devil's behind us. Run, to where no one can find us. Be my compass.”
— Alessia Caracciolo, "Outlaws", Know-It-All (2015), Def Jam
“Now, here you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
— Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, chapter 2.—Logical Nonsense: The Works of Lewis Carroll, ed. Philip C. Blackburn and Lionel White, p. 177 (1934). First published in 1872.
“The wise runner, in crowded company, will want to glance around him occasionally to study approaching traffic that may result in his being trapped by methods described above. So while "Don't look back!" and "Don't run wide on curves!" is good general advice, there are times when a runner must disregard them and think for himself.”
— Harold Keith, Sports and Games (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1941), p. 248
“All day he ran. He did not rest. He seemed made to run on forever. His iron-like body ignored fatigue. And even after fatigue came, his heritage of endurance braced him to endless endeavour, and enabled him to drive his complaining body onward.”
— Jack London, White Fang (1905).
“Wearing headphones is a contentious point. Most women runners I know don't wear headphones, and that's during the day, because they are concerned about their safety.”
— Esther Newman as quoted by Rick Kelsey, “Samsung apologises for advert showing woman running alone at 2am”, BBC, (28 April 2022)
“Woah, look over here We got a cute little ol' runner to the right Blue shorts, no shirt Whoo! You're looking good darling That's right, stay in shape”
— KT Oslin, "Younger Men", "80's Ladies" (1987)

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.