If you're surprised that ESPN has produced an understated TV movie that's inspirational, family-friendly and goes against the grain of overhyping sports heroes, you're not alone.
But "Four Minutes" — the somewhat fictionalized story of Roger Bannister, the first man to break the 4-minute mile — is as high-class a TV movie as you're likely to see on any network. It's the sort of thing HBO does at its most high-minded.
"Neither (executive producer) Bud Greenspan nor (writer) Frank DeFord — certainly not me — still can believe that ESPN said they would do this movie," said executive producer Gerald W. Abrams. "It's a movie about the human condition, and networks just don't do that anymore."
ESPN's short history of making TV movies has leaned toward the loud and the profane, profiling the likes of Bear Bryant, Bobby Knight and Pete Rose. Bannister (Jamie Maclachlan) is their polar opposite. He was a media-shy young man who wasn't out to be a star — the most reluctant of heroes.
Set half a century ago, "Four Minutes" is in a world that will seem as foreign to young viewers as Mars. It's post-World War II England, a country that looks more like it just lost a war than won one. Compared to today, mass media is in its infancy. And Bannister isn't looking for glory and fame and commercial endorsements; he's more worried about his med-school studies than his athletic career.
It's a world where it's commonly believed that running the mile in less than four minutes would kill the runner.
Early in the movie, Bannister comments that he and his teammates are among the last true amateurs in sport. Not only are they not being paid as professionals but they're not even on athletic scholarships in college.
"I think this world (today) has got to be so foreign to somebody like Roger Bannister. . . . I think it's a completely materialistic, different world that exists today," Abrams said. "I don't think they could comprehend it."
"Four Minutes" is not a documentary, however. While most of the story follows actual events, DeFord has fleshed it out to make it more theatrical.
The most notable changes are the addition of a coach (Christopher Plummer) who's pure fiction, and the addition of a romantic storyline that uses the right girl (Bannister's future wife) but the wrong time (they didn't meet until after the events at the end of the movie).
But "Four Minutes" is ultimately about personal achievement, not monetary gain.
"He looked at the world in a very peculiar way," Abrams said. "I think that when you consider the magnitude of his achievement, he wasn't directed by just breaking the mile. I think he did this almost as a medical experiment, where he was his own guinea pig.
"He was a very odd duck."
Particularly compared with today's sports superstars.
On cable
"Four Minutes" premieres today at 5, 7 and 9 p.m. on ESPN2.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com