One thing that gets my blood a boiling is bullying.  Part of my feelings on the matter is related to being the victim of such behavior.  It started as soon as I started school, on my first day of kindergarten, when upon entering the classroom and having my childhood nickname announced, everyone laughed at me.  This led to further teasing and eating by myself at lunch most days throughout my elementary school years.  Because of this treatment, when I entered middle school, I decided to start going by my given name, which led to a small amount of social blossoming.  I cannot say I am now the most polished person to be around, but I no longer fear the disapprobation of strangers.  Well, I am better than I was, anyway.  Instead, it comes out more in worrying about keeping my family members and friends happy.  Like I said, it is not perfect, and I have more work to do.  I give this background to explain how a film like Tyson’s Run (2022) can trigger a person like me.  Perhaps you have had similar experiences and might be prone to the same kind of reaction.  While I cannot say I felt any kind of fury while watching it, thanks to some odd technical choices by the filmmakers, it is still full of important material that will hopefully elevate your thoughts on these issues.

Before we get to Tyson’s Run, we are given a significant quote from the Tao Te Ching, “When the student is ready the teacher will appear.  When the student is truly ready the teacher will disappear.”  In the beginning, autistic teenager Tyson Hollerman’s (Major Dodson) teacher is his mother, Eloise Hollerman (Amy Smart).  As his home school instructor, the algebra before them is beyond her.  Seeing the problem, he realizes that he needs a different learning environment to get the instruction he needs.  When Bobby Hollerman (Rory Cochrane), his dad, returns home from his job as head coach of Pope High School’s perennial state champion football team, Tyson asks his father if the fifteen-year-old can go to his school.  Bobby had dreamed of having a “normal” son to take after dad’s athletic career, and is thus guarded around his special needs child.  Eloise angrily overrides her husband’s hesitancy, insisting that Tyson be treated like anyone else.  This is the first of a few arguments between Tyson’s parents, and a sign of the general tension between them.  Instead of being present for his family, Bobby threw himself into his work, leaving Eloise at home to raise Tyson virtually on her own.  All the same, Tyson goes to Pope with his dad the following morning.  His first class is anatomy where he meets two important people.  The first, unfortunately, is Bradley Burton (Isaiah Hanley), who immediately makes fun of Tyson’s different mannerisms and speech.  It gets worse when Bradley feels slighted by Tyson’s superior knowledge of the subject.  The second is Shannon (Layla Felder), a classmate who does not approve of Bradley’s act.  At lunch, Bradley invites Tyson to sit with Bradley’s group, only to push Tyson’s chair out from under him and causing the new kid to spill the contents unto his shirt.  It is Shanon that helps Tyson up and invites him to sit with her and her friends instead.  After school, Tyson goes to the football field to be with his father.  While straightening up the gear on the sidelines, Tyson notices the arrival of a runner using the track to train.  This is Aklilu (Barkhad Abdi), a former Ethiopian distance runner now living in the United States and operating an athletic shoe store.  Remembering how he had seen Mayor Coleman (Reno Wilson) say on the news about the importance of the upcoming town marathon, Tyson decides to start going stride for stride with Aklilu.  Bobby comes over to apologize for his son’s intrusion, but Aklilu is appreciative of having made a new friend.  On the proceeding day in Spanish class, Bradley contrives to have Tyson blamed for having a mirror to look up the teacher’s skirt.  When everyone starts laughing at Tyson after class, he takes off running, leaving the campus and going along busy streets through town.  It is there that he is spotted by Aklilu, who takes the young man into his shop.  Inside, Tyson notices the various accolades Aklilu has on the walls from his racing days, and wonders if he can learn to also be the best runner in the world like the proprietor.  Aklilu agrees to coach Tyson, though Bobby is again reluctant to let this happen. Bobby’s attitude leads to another fight with Eloise.  Overhearing it, Tyson once more runs away, getting more distance between himself and his house in a shorter period of time than anyone thought possible.  Bobby finds his son almost drowning in a lake and is able to save him.  Between this, and a difficult pregnancy for Eloise, Bobby makes the decision to be more supportive of his family, which means stepping down as the head football coach.  This is when other challenges come.  The first is from Mayor Coleman, who, when word of an autistic boy competing in his pet community project gets into the newspaper, asks Bobby that he not allow Tyson to run.  Mayor Coleman fears attention being taken away from him.  Bobby answers this by threatening to go against the incumbent in the upcoming election.  The other hiccup is Aklilu.  At Bobby’s meeting with Mayor Coleman, he learns that Tyson’s mentor had been banned from competing after testing positive for an illegal substance.  While Bobby is now on board with Tyson running, he attempts to keep Aklilu from interacting with his son.  Tyson does not take well to this, and his dedication is rewarded when Aklilu explains that the ban was the result of him taking cold medicine on the day of his last marathon.  This brings us to what the title suggests.  After getting a rough start when he is pushed to the ground and skins his knee, Tyson gets some encouragement from Aklilu, some support from Shannon along the way, and races to victory at the finish line and into the arms of his parents.

There is an odd translation of 1 Corinthians 9:24 before the end credits roll for Tyson’s Run.  Since the Hollerman’s are protestants, and thus sometimes translate the Bible differently, I simply note the fact that it is different.  The Catholic version reads, “Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize?  Run so as to win.”  The one on the screen has it the last bit as, “Run in such a way to get the prize.”  For whatever reason, that struck me as greedy, and somewhat out of phase with the film.  Yes, Tyson is motivated to win, but the Scripture is referring to winning as being Heaven.  The one from the movie seems to me as not acknowledging the help Tyson got along the way, particularly his teachers.  To go back to the quote at the beginning, Tyson demonstrated the fact that he was ready for something and the instructor appeared.  There is Providence at work here, and one of the reasons I jotted down Lao Tzu’s wise words at the beginning.  Of course, the Chinese philosopher was not Catholic, though, to paraphrase C. S. Lewis, if God is neither a liar or lunatic, he must be Lord of All.  That means ancient Asian writers, too.  I bring this up to demonstrate how we can use Lao Tzu’s work to explain the way God is guiding Tyson.  The same can be said for Eloise’s pregnancy or the storm during which Bobby rescues Tyson, all as a way of getting this dad to better appreciate his son.  There is a word for this, and it is what I said a moment ago: providence.  This should not imply that God is directly controlling of our lives.  Instead, He uses these instances to subtly guide us onto the right path.  It is up to us to give thanks to Him for His graces.

Giving thanks to God is something that the Hollermans do often in Tyson’s Run, though I would not call it a faith-based movie.  As I said, there are also some odd filming choices throughout, but they do not take away from the good message.  Simply put, it is a solid piece of cinema worthy of your time.