Another Look at Billy Mills' Journey

 By the middle film Running Brave, it can be seen the struggle Billy Mills encounters with himself. After having won many races and giving the Kansas University a championship, Billy suddenly “breaks down” mentally. He begins losing races until he leaves and returns back to his home, the reservation. I believe his internal journey was affected by the visit of some family members to Kansas. They made him feel as if he didn’t belong in the city life, so he began asking himself what was he doing there and that people were using him to get money over his races. Pat, his girlfriend and future wife, tries to talk to him but he leaves anyway.

Billy is confused of who he really is, what is his role in life. He says he had a love for running, but now he became a “running machine”.  His decisions might not have been a good effort into reaching his dream, which was to run in the Olympics in Tokyo, but at least he spent some time with his family, especially with Frank who was drunk and shortly committed suicide. This was a great shock for Billy, since he had a great relation with Frank, almost like brothers. This event, and Pat’s telegram expressing that she loved him and wanted him to be back, gave Billy’s journey a complete twist. After much struggle with his mind, Billy Mills joined the Marine and reunited with Pat. His mind was set on going to the Olympics in Tokyo, winning the race was his dream. A dream which, with hard effort, came true. At the end of the film, Billy goes back to the United States, and is received as a hero.

I believe Mills' internal journey had great effect on the decisions he took; there were many ups and downs as in all of us, but that was what built him as a person and unbeatable runner. Personally, I liked the fact that Billy never changed who he was or denied his ethnicity in the process of reaching his goal, eventhough there was a time when he doubted about himslef and his ability to run. As we can see, the film provides us some of the psycological stages Billy Mills passed as part of his internal journey. He also had a quality to admire which was humbleness. In return, he became stronger and wiser everyday at his young age. This lead Mills to win not only a World Championship, but to be a role model for indians in reservations in the country, as well as all of us.