Chariots of Fire

I know what's in your head right now guys running on the beach in slow motion with the iconic music playing.  That’s what everyone thinks when they first think of this movie.  It’s almost like some weird music video that is ingrained in everyone’s subconscious. Well after watching the movie again I realized that is because it is one of the best parts of the movie. And I am not sure how this movie won best picture. It was a major upset beating Reds, On Golden Pond, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Reds was the favorite to win with Warren Beatty getting a total of 4 nominations for himself as Director (which he won), Actor, Producer, and Screenplay. The second time he did that the first time was for Heaven Can Wait in 1978 and the only other person with that distinction is Orson Welles for Citizen Kane.

Well enough about Reds a movie that I still have never seen. Chariots of Fire is about 2 runners from different worlds trying to get into the 1924 Summer Olympics.   Both runners come from different backgrounds.  Liddell is a Christian Missionary and Abrahams is a Jewish student at Cambridge.  Each one is trying to prove something to the world with their running.  Abrahams is fighting the anti-Semitism he sees around him while Liddell is running for the glory of God.  In Abrahams quest to make it to the Olympics and win a Gold he hires a professional coach which upsets people at the school who think that to remain an amateur you can’t hire someone who is a professional.  In the end they both end up making the team.  After getting to the games in France Liddell finds out that the qualifying run is on a Sunday and refuses to run.  This causes some great disappointment to the head of the British Olympic Committee who doesn’t understand what Liddell is trying to do.  Luckily one of the other contestants steps out of a different race to let Liddell participate.  Both runners end up winning Gold Medals.

The movie for some reason doesn’t work real well.  The two stories end up being boring and I found it hard to care about either runners.  Besides for the music it is hard to find much to like about the movie.  The movie was the first of five movies about real people to win Best Picture in the 80’s.  I personally think that On Golden Pond should have won Best Picture although I still have not seen Reds.  On Golden Pond would have made for an interesting counter point to the previous two winners where the mother walks out on her family. Here instead of walking out the family grows closer.  With great performances by Katherine Hepburn and Peter Fonda who both earned Oscars for their roles.