A scathing discovery just revealed that football and basketball athletes attending the much-revered University of North Carolina had received passing grades for courses they never took, primarily because the classes didn't exist.

Depending on how the individual observer assesses Colin's choice, he can be considered either as declaring his independence or as self-destructively tossing it aside. Either way, Sillitoe's and Williams's (and movie director Tony Richardson's) final image is devastating, haunting, a truly indelible fade-out.