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52-574: Cecil Antonio Richardson (5 June 1928 – 14 November 1991) was an English theatre and film director, producer and screenwriter, whose career spanned five decades. He was identified with the " angry young men " group of British directors and playwrights during the 1950s, and was later a key figure in the British New Wave filmmaking movement. His films Look Back in Anger (1959), The Entertainer (1960), A Taste of Honey (1961), and The Loneliness of

104-535: A borstal for burgling a bakery. He gains privileges in the institution through his prowess as a long-distance runner, but reveries of important events before his incarceration that he has during his solitary runs lead him to re-evaluate his status as the prize athlete of the Governor. The film opens with Colin Smith running, alone, along a bleak country road somewhere in rural England. In a brief voiceover, he says that running

156-463: A 'pre-professional era' – either written at that time or looking back at it for inspiration", her research stressing that Sillitoe was an author who believed in the unadulterated sport. Running is also used as a metaphor to give Smith the ability to escape from the reality of his class level in society. The use of this sport gives Smith the ability to escape from his life as a member of the working-class poor. Sillitoe used running to give his character

208-461: A 2018 Time Out magazine poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers, and critics, the film was ranked as the 36th-best British film ever made. Alan Sillitoe was part of the group of writers labeled the " angry young men ", who produced media depicting the plight of rebellious youth. The film depicts Britain in the late 1950s and early 1960s as an elitist society in which upper-class people enjoy many privileges, while lower-class people suffer

260-407: A bakery. They climbed in and stole the cashbox, which contained about £70 (equivalent to £1,900 in 2023). Mike wanted to take another trip to Skegness with the girls, but Colin was more cautious and hid the money in a drainpipe outside his house. A surly detective soon showed up and accused Colin of the robbery, but he told the man that he did not know anything about it. The detective later searched

312-428: A bleak life, and portrays the borstal system of delinquent youth detention centres as a way of keeping working-class people in their "place". The characters are entrenched in their social context, and class consciousness abounds throughout. The "them" and "us" notions that Richardson stresses reflect the basis of British society at the time, and Redgrave's "proper gentleman" of a Governor is in stark contrast to many of

364-403: A box-office disappointment. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , the film holds an approval rating of 74% based on 23 reviews, with an average score of 7.6/10; the site's "critics consensus" reads: "Dry and full of angst, this British New Wave classic features potent social commentary and a star making performance by Tom Courtenay as a textbook example of the 'angry young man.'" In

416-403: A commodity useful for his patrons' own promotion. Sillitoe rejects the commoditisation of running in his book and screenplay, believing instead that a professional becomes commercialised and loses the clarity of thought that comes with running otherwise, which is why Smith chooses to forfeit the race. Literary critic Helen Small stated that "the weight of literary attention seems to be focused on

468-533: A fictionalised and pseudonymous Richardson – a domineering and arrogant character whom everyone hated – in his play The Hotel in Amsterdam . Richardson's work was stylistically varied. Mademoiselle (1966) was shot noir-style on location in rural France with a static camera, monochrome film stock and no music. The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) was part epic and part animated feature. Ned Kelly (1970)

520-593: A lack of maturity in his statements, and fuelled a debate about his politics and those of the "movement". Osborne also had consistent and often sarcastic criticism of the British Left . In 1961, he made public headlines with "Letter to my Fellow Countrymen" that represented a "damn you, England" mentality. and protested against Britain's decision to join the arms race. Osborne strongly expressed anger at what Britain had become at that time, but also at what he felt it had failed to become. Osborne's play Look Back in Anger

572-496: A large, incoherently defined group, and was rejected by most of the writers to whom it was applied: see, for example, "Answer to a Letter from Joe" by Wain ( Essays on Literature and Ideas , 1963). Publisher Tom Maschler , who edited a collection of political-literary essays by the 'Angries' ( Declaration , 1957), commented: "(T)hey do not belong to a united movement. Far from it; they attack one another directly or indirectly in these pages. Some were even reluctant to appear between

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624-460: A male "movement", but Shelagh Delaney , author of A Taste of Honey (1958), was described as an "angry young woman"; other female members included Iris Murdoch and Doris Lessing . In the song "Where Are They Now" from the 1973 album Preservation Act 1 by The Kinks , the following lines appear: "Where have all the angry young men gone?/ Barstow and Osborne, Waterhouse and Sillitoe/ Where on earth did they all go?" The Loneliness of

676-683: A producer. Among stars that Richardson directed were Jeanne Moreau , Orson Welles , Rob Lowe , Milton Berle , Trevor Howard , David Hemmings , Nicol Williamson , Tom Courtenay , Lynn Redgrave , Marianne Faithfull , Richard Burton , Jodie Foster , Anthony Hopkins , Mick Jagger , Katharine Hepburn , Seth Green , Tommy Lee Jones and Judi Dench . His musical composers included Antoine Duhamel , John Addison and Shel Silverstein . His screenwriters were Jean Genet , Christopher Isherwood , Terry Southern , Marguerite Duras , Edward Bond (adapting Vladimir Nabokov ) and Edward Albee . Richardson and Osborne eventually fell out during production of

728-415: A terminal illness. When Colin's father refused treatment and died, Colin was left as the family's breadwinner, but he flatly refused a job offered to him at the factory where his father worked. The company paid out a paltry £ 500 in insurance money, and Colin watched with disdain as his mother quickly spent it all on extravagances. Colin symbolically burned some of his portion of the insurance money and used

780-427: A whole, criticising certain behaviours or groups in different ways. On television, their writings were often expressed in plays in anthology drama series such as Armchair Theatre ( ITV , 1956–68) and The Wednesday Play ( BBC , 1964–70); this leads to a confusion with the kitchen sink drama category of the early 1960s. Throughout the late 1950s and into the 1960s, the "Angries" often met at or were nurtured by

832-400: Is alleged to have financed the escape from Wormwood Scrubs prison of the spy and double agent George Blake . Richardson was married to English actress Vanessa Redgrave from 1962 to 1967. The couple had two daughters, Natasha (1963–2009) and Joely (born 1965), then he left Redgrave for French actress and singer Jeanne Moreau . In 1972, he had a relationship with Grizelda Grimond, who

884-400: Is considered one of the great literary friendships of the 20th century). However, the writers in each group tended to view the other groups with bewilderment and incomprehension. Observers and critics could find no common thread between them all. They were contemporaries by age. They were not of the upper-class establishment, nor were they protégés of existing literary circles. It was essentially

936-507: Is especially keen on Colin's abilities because, for the first time, his charges have been invited to compete in a five-mile cross-country run against Ranley, a nearby public school with privileged pupils from upper-class families, and he sees the invitation as an important way to demonstrate the success of his rehabilitation programme. A former runner himself, the Governor takes Colin under his wing, promoting him from dismantling scrap to performing light gardening work, and eventually giving him

988-501: Is especially troubled when Mike is sent to Ruxton Towers for stealing a car and, surprised by Colin's status, asks him whose side he is on. The day of the race against Ranley arrives, with Colin and Gunthorpe, Ranley's star runner, seen as the favourites. Colin eventually overtakes Gunthorpe and gains a comfortable lead, but, as he nears the finish line, the imagery that has been flashing through his mind becomes progressively jarring. He remembers his mother's neglect; his father's dead body;

1040-450: Is overseen by the Governor, who believes that the hard work and discipline imposed on his charges will ultimately make them useful members of society. Sullen and rebellious, Colin immediately catches the Governor's eye as a test of his beliefs. An important part of the Governor's rehabilitation programme is athletics, and he soon notices that Colin is a talented runner, easily able to outrun Ruxton's reigning long-distance runner. The Governor

1092-437: Is the way his family has always coped with the world's troubles, but that, in the end, the runner is always alone and cut off from spectators, left to deal with life on his own. Colin is then shown with a group of other young men, all handcuffed . They are being taken to a borstal (a detention centre for juvenile offenders) named Ruxton Towers, where the inmates live in a series of Nissen huts with no privacy. The institution

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1144-758: The Royal Court Theatre , and in the same period he directed Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon . Then in 1957 he directed Laurence Olivier as Archie Rice in Osborne's next play The Entertainer , again for the Royal Court. In 1959, Richardson co-founded Woodfall Film Productions with John Osborne and producer Harry Saltzman , and, as Woodfall's debut, directed the film version of Look Back in Anger (1959), his first feature film. The Entertainer (1960), A Taste of Honey (1961), and The Loneliness of

1196-681: The Royal Shakespeare Company , and through this venue other such emerging playwrights as Edward Bond and Wole Soyinka were exposed to the AYM movement directly. The New University Wits (a term applied by William Van O'Connor in his 1963 study The New University Wits and the End of Modernism ) refers to Oxbridge malcontents who explored the contrast between their upper-class university privilege and their middle-class upbringings. These included Amis, Philip Larkin , and Wain, all of whom were also part of

1248-756: The protagonist Archie Rice. Osborne became a successful entrepreneur, partnering with Tony Richardson to form the film production company Woodfall . In addition to being seen as archetypal, Osborne was claimed to be one of the leading literary figures of the Angry Young Men "movement". This "movement" was identified after the Second World War as some British intellectuals began to question orthodox mores. Osborne expressed his own concerns through his plays and could be relied upon to provide controversial "angry" pronouncements, delivered with an immaturity compared to impatient youth. Some critics ridiculed Osborne for

1300-512: The British theatre and enable it to act as a "harbinger of the New Left ". Not all members of the movement were angry, young, or male, but all disliked the title "Angry Young Men". Life in 1958 wrote that "the most common prevailing attitude among them is of wry irritation", and named Osborne, Kingsley Amis , John Wain , and John Braine as the best-known. As a catchphrase, the term was applied to

1352-561: The Governor. Locations were shot in and around Ruxley Towers, Claygate , Surrey —a Victorian mock castle built by Henry Foley, 5th Baron Foley . The building had been used by the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes during the Second World War . The film's original trumpet theme was performed by Fred Muscroft, the Principal Cornet (at the time) of the Scots Guards . The film was

1404-518: The Long Distance Runner (1962) are considered classics of kitchen sink realism . He won the 1964 Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for the film Tom Jones . He was also a two-time BAFTA Award winner, and was twice nominated for the Palme d'Or . With his wife Vanessa Redgrave , Richardson was the father to actresses Natasha Richardson and Joely Richardson . Richardson

1456-544: The Long Distance Runner (1962), based on the novel by Alan Sillitoe , also were produced there. Many of Richardson's films, such as A Taste of Honey and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner , were part of the acclaimed kitchen sink realism movement popular in Britain at the time, and several of his films continue to be held as cornerstones of the movement. In 1964, Richardson received two Academy Awards (Best Director and Best Picture) for Tom Jones (1963) based on

1508-519: The Long Distance Runner (film) The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner is a 1962 British coming-of-age film directed by Tony Richardson , one of the new young directors emerging from the English Stage Company at the Royal Court . The screenplay was written by Alan Sillitoe , based on his 1959 short story of the same title , and concerns a rebellious youth who has been sentenced to

1560-402: The decades prior to Osborne and other authors, less attention had been given to literature that illuminated the treatment and living circumstances experienced by the lower classes. As the Angry Young Men movement began to articulate these themes, the acceptance of related issues was more widespread. Osborne depicted these issues within his play through the eyes of his protagonist, Jimmy. Throughout

1612-484: The early-model Angry Young Man, though Cambridge -educated, was a "provincial" writer in his frankness and material and is included in this group. A few are friends, but for the most part they know one another slightly if at all, and they are continually writing unfriendly essays about each other in the literary magazines. Friendships, rivalries, and acknowledgments of common literary aims within each of these groups could be intense (the relationship between Amis and Larkin

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1664-416: The film Charge of the Light Brigade (1968). The basic issue was Osborne's unwillingness to go through the rewrite process, more arduous in film than it is in the theatre. Richardson had a different version. In his autobiography (p. 195), he writes that Osborne was angry at being replaced in a small role by Laurence Harvey to whom the producers had obligations. Osborne took literary revenge by creating

1716-412: The freedom to do solo practice runs outside Ruxton's barbed-wire fences. On these runs, Colin reflects on his life before he was incarcerated. His family lived a difficult, poverty-stricken life in a prefab in a lower-class district of industrial Nottingham . The jobless Colin indulged in petty crime with his best friend, Mike, while, at home, his father's long years of toil in a local factory resulted in

1768-515: The group "weren't exactly a clique since they scarcely knew each other, and apart from being young they shared almost nothing in common, least of all anger." The playwright John Osborne was the archetypal example, and his signature play Look Back in Anger (1956) attracted attention to a style of drama contrasting strongly with the genteel and understated works of Terence Rattigan that had been in fashion. Osborne's The Entertainer (1957) secured his reputation, with Laurence Olivier playing

1820-482: The house, but found nothing. Finally, frustrated and angry, the detective returned on a rainy day to say he would be watching Colin, and, as the two stood at the front door, the torrent of rainwater pouring down the drainpipe dislodged the money, which washed out around Colin's feet. At Ruxton Towers, Colin must contend with his fellow inmates' envying him the favouritism shown to him by the Governor, and he does not like being perceived as "the Governor's blue-eyed boy". He

1872-472: The main roles. Around the same time he began to be active in Britain's Free Cinema movement, co-directing the non-fiction short Momma Don't Allow (also 1955) with Karel Reisz . Part of the British "New Wave" of directors, he was involved in the formation of the English Stage Company, along with his close friend George Goetschius and George Devine . He directed John Osborne 's play Look Back in Anger at

1924-406: The major difference between classes. Alison remarks on this issue while she, Jimmy and Cliff are sharing an apartment, stating how "she felt she had been placed into a jungle". Jimmy was represented as an embodiment of the young, rebellious post-war generation that questioned the state and its actions. Look Back in Anger provided some of its audience with the hope that Osborne's work would revitalise

1976-465: The novel by Henry Fielding . His next film was The Loved One (1965), in which he worked with established stars, including John Gielgud , Rod Steiger and Robert Morse , and worked in Hollywood both on location and on the sound stage. In his autobiography, he confesses that he did not share the general admiration of Haskell Wexler , who worked on The Loved One as both director of photography and

2028-487: The play, Jimmy was seeing "the wrong people go hungry, the wrong people be loved, the wrong people dying". In Britain, following the Second World War, the quality of life for lower-class citizens was still poor; Osborne used this theme to demonstrate how the state of Britain was guilty of neglect towards those who needed assistance the most. In the play there are comparisons of educated people with savages, illuminating

2080-643: The poetic circle known as " The Movement ". Also included among the Angry Young Men was a small group of young existentialist philosophers, led by Colin Wilson and also including Stuart Holroyd and Bill Hopkins . Outside of these subgroupings, the 'Angries' included writers mostly of lower-class origin concerned with their political and economic aspirations. Apart from Osborne, these included Harold Pinter , Braine, Arnold Wesker , and Alan Sillitoe . Some of these (e.g., Pinter) were left-wing and some (e.g., Braine) later became right-wing. William Cooper ,

2132-457: The project during pre-production. In 1974, he travelled to Los Angeles to work on a script (never produced) with Sam Shepard , and took up residence there. Later that year, he began work on Mahogany (1975), starring Diana Ross , but was fired by Motown head Berry Gordy shortly after production began, owing to creative differences. He wrote and directed the comedy-drama The Hotel New Hampshire (1984), based on John Irving 's novel of

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2184-455: The rest to treat Mike and two girls they met to an outing in Skegness , where Colin confessed to his date, Audrey, that she was the first woman he ever had sex with. Colin got in an argument with his mother's lover about who was the man of the house, and his mother told him to leave until he could bring home some money. He and Mike took to the streets, and they spotted an open window at the back of

2236-620: The same covers with others whose views they violently oppose". AYM preferred realism, rejecting the experimental literature of the 1920s and 1930s. Life observed that "They hate the 'phony' in any form and mistrust anything that seems precious or preposterous. they are literary conservatives. They would find the Beat Generation preposterous". Their politics were radical, usually left but sometimes right, sometimes anarchistic , and they described social alienation of different kinds. They also often expressed their critical views on society as

2288-401: The same name and starring Jodie Foster , Beau Bridges and Rob Lowe . Although it was a box-office failure, the film received a positive critical reception. Richardson made four more major films before his death. His last, Blue Sky (1994), was not released for nearly three years after he died. Jessica Lange won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in the film. In 1966, Richardson

2340-434: The success of the Osborne play, the label "angry young men" was later applied by British media to describe young writers who were characterised by a disillusionment with traditional British society. The term, always imprecise, began to have less meaning over the years as the writers to whom it was originally applied became more divergent, and many of them dismissed the label as useless. Literary critic Terry Eagleton noted that

2392-464: The taunts of his fellow inmates; stern lectures from the detective, the Governor, and Audrey. Just yards from the finish line, Colin stops, unmoved by the calls and protests of the Ruxton Towers crowd. He smiles defiantly at the Governor as Gunthorpe passes him and crosses the finish line to victory. Disappointed, the Governor walks away. Some time later, Colin is back dismantling scrap, now ignored by

2444-772: The unprecedented distinction of being the President of both the Oxford University Dramatic Society and the Experimental Theatre Club (the ETC), in addition to being the theatre critic for the university magazine Isis . Those he cast in his student productions included Shirley Williams (as Cordelia), John Schlesinger , Nigel Davenport and Robert Robinson . In 1955, in his directing debut, Richardson produced Jean Giraudoux 's The Apollo of Bellac for television with Denholm Elliott and Natasha Parry in

2496-454: The young working-class inmates. Sillitoe's screenplay can be interpreted as either tragic or bathetic by ultimately projecting the protagonist as a working class rebel, rather than an otherwise rehabilitated, but conformist talent. During the period when Sillitoe wrote the book and screenplay, the sport of running was changing. The purity of running was taken away when Smith entered the race for his own and his institution's benefit, becoming

2548-542: Was a secretary for Richardson's former business partner Oscar Lewenstein , and daughter of British politician Jo Grimond . Grizelda Grimond gave birth to his daughter, Katherine Grimond, on 8 January 1973. Richardson was bisexual, but never acknowledged it publicly until 1985, the same year he contracted HIV. He died of complications from AIDS on 14 November 1991 at the age of 63. Short film Feature film TV movies TV series sources: Adler; Little & McLaughlin; Richardson Angry young men Following

2600-594: Was born in Shipley , West Riding of Yorkshire in 1928 to Clarence Albert Richardson, a chemist, and his wife, Elsie Evans (née Campion). He lived on the edge of Saltaire as a young child and kept grass snakes with his childhood friend Joan Naylor. He was Head Boy at Ashville College , Harrogate and attended Wadham College, University of Oxford . His Oxford contemporaries included Rupert Murdoch , Margaret Thatcher , Kenneth Tynan , Lindsay Anderson and Gavin Lambert . He had

2652-551: Was the monumental literary work that influenced the concept of the Angry Young Man. He wrote the play to express what it felt like to live in England during the 1950s. The main issues that Angry Young Men had were "impatience with the status quo, refusal to be co-opted by a bankrupt society, an instinctive solidarity with the lower classes". Referred to as " kitchen sink realism ", literary works began to deal with lower class themes. In

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2704-543: Was what might be called an Aussie-western. Laughter in the Dark (1969) and A Delicate Balance (1973) were psycho-dramas. Joseph Andrews (1977), based on another novel by Henry Fielding, was a return to the mood of Tom Jones . In 1970, Richardson was set to direct a film about Vaslav Nijinsky with a script by Edward Albee. It was to have starred Rudolf Nureyev as Nijinsky, Claude Jade as Romola and Paul Scofield as Diaghilev , but producer Harry Saltzman cancelled

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