Chariots of Fire (1981)

“I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.” – Eric Liddell

Number of Times Seen – at least 5 times (a few times on cable in the 80’s, 25 Aug 2001, Apr 2011 and 17 Feb 2014)

Brief Synopsis – Based on the true events that led up to the rivalry and compatriotism of two British runners who strongly held steadfast to their religious beliefs while competing in the 1924 Paris Olympics

My Take on it – I have always liked this movie because of its inspirational message, but I have never felt much of a connection to the characters.

Although it is based on true events, the film makers decided to focus mainly on the events themselves without developing the characters enough.

This is quite unfortunate, because I think that this movie missed the opportunity to be great and will always just be seen as being very good because of that fact.

The problem here is that the movie tries to focus on numerous characters equally and when doing so everyone loses out because the expected “hero” of the movie is not there.  After having seen this numerous times, I cannot tell you which character should be the main focus of the story because the movie doesn’t give us any indication that we should care more for Abrahams, Montague, Lindsay or Liddell.  All 4 of them have the potential, but that potential was lost.

The only thing most people remember about this movie is the opening scene and the music by Vangelis.  Hear it here (accompanied with clips from the movie).

Winner of 4 (of 7) Oscars.  It won Best Picture, Screenplay, Costume Design and Original Score (Vangelis).

It lost Supporting Actor (Ian Holm), Director and Film Editing.

Bottom Line – Very inspirational movie, but lacks developed characters. Recommended!

Rating – Globe Worthy

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