Donald Crowhurst (1932–1969) was “a British businessman who died while competing in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, a single-handed, round-the-world yacht race. Crowhurst had entered with the hope of winning a cash prize from The Sunday Times to aid his failing business. Instead, he encountered difficulty early in the voyage, and secretly abandoned the race while reporting false positions, in an attempt to appear to complete a circumnavigation without actually circling the world. Evidence found after his disappearance suggests that this attempt ended in possible insanity and suicide.”
From Crowhurst Wiki page: “The 1986 Soviet film Race of the Century gives a dramatic presentation of the events of the Golden Globe Race and the fate of Donald Crowhurst. The movie focuses on the idea of competition in a capitalist society as a soul-consuming “rat race”, where all community members including children are under constant pressure, and failure and poverty are not tolerated. It portrays Crowhurst as a deeply honest man being forced into a dangerous unwinnable enterprise by his disastrous financial situation and the greed of entrepreneur Best. Crowhurst’s suicide is ascribed chiefly to the inability of a moral person to survive in an immoral society. The film includes a portrayal of the Crowhurst family, and a dramatic enactment of Donald’s descent into insanity leading to fatalism. This film has passed relatively unnoticed, and today it is known mainly because Natalia Guseva played the role of Crowhurst’s daughter Rachel.”
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