Jericho Mile

Watched this TV movie as part of my Michael Mann research. Quite good. It's a prison story about a man put away for killing his father. He sums up his situation as such, "I'm in here for life. I'm guilty. I did my crime, I deserve this, this is where I belong."

The man stays out of everyone's way, all he does all day long is run and run. One day, a prison psychologist times him and he's running close to a 4 minute mile. The main story involves the man hooking up and racing with track stars with the eventual possibility of running in the Olympic Trials.

In the backdrop is the political organization of the prison, the whites, the blacks, and the Latinos, vying for power and control.

It's a TV movie, but I quite enjoyed it. A bit hoaky at times, but for a TV movie made in 1979, not bad.