The Chariots of Fire theme by Vangelis is what impacted on me as it used to be on the radio all the time when I was a girl and I really loved the music. I never saw the film till now. I hadn't heard about Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams before watching this film.
The story is a true story about two different athletics, (Eric Liddell) Ian Charleson who plays a Scottish missionary who runs because he believes God gave him the gift of running for a purpose and wants to please God. The other is (Harold Abrahams) played by Ben Cross, who wants to prove to everyone included the Cambridge society that he belongs and have them look at his personal achievements and not focus so much on him being a Jew.
The story is told in flashbacks showing Liddell's and Abraham's journey from simple sprinters to competing in the Olympic games in 1924.
It was very heavy going for me to watch as I feel it goes at a slow pace and only seems to get exciting and interesting when the races are happening. I was a little bored with the scenes in-between and found myself zoning out of the movie but when the racing scenes happened I was glued to them and found my heart beating that the men would succeed in their ambition to win a medal. I think it is a patriotic film and I couldn't help cheering for the British runners/athletics and booing the American runners especially the idiot American coach. Terry Rawlings did a superb job of editing the film and the cast did a good job, Nicholas Farrell, Nigel Havers, John Gielgud and Ian Holm who are the best actors Britain has to offer.
The film won 4 Oscars, Best Costume Design, Best Picture, Original Score; Best Director and Best Writing for a screenplay.
I didn't hate the film, I would say watch the film and decide for your self as it really depends if you like sporting films and particularly a gentler pace of story telling.
The story is a true story about two different athletics, (Eric Liddell) Ian Charleson who plays a Scottish missionary who runs because he believes God gave him the gift of running for a purpose and wants to please God. The other is (Harold Abrahams) played by Ben Cross, who wants to prove to everyone included the Cambridge society that he belongs and have them look at his personal achievements and not focus so much on him being a Jew.
The story is told in flashbacks showing Liddell's and Abraham's journey from simple sprinters to competing in the Olympic games in 1924.
It was very heavy going for me to watch as I feel it goes at a slow pace and only seems to get exciting and interesting when the races are happening. I was a little bored with the scenes in-between and found myself zoning out of the movie but when the racing scenes happened I was glued to them and found my heart beating that the men would succeed in their ambition to win a medal. I think it is a patriotic film and I couldn't help cheering for the British runners/athletics and booing the American runners especially the idiot American coach. Terry Rawlings did a superb job of editing the film and the cast did a good job, Nicholas Farrell, Nigel Havers, John Gielgud and Ian Holm who are the best actors Britain has to offer.
The film won 4 Oscars, Best Costume Design, Best Picture, Original Score; Best Director and Best Writing for a screenplay.
I didn't hate the film, I would say watch the film and decide for your self as it really depends if you like sporting films and particularly a gentler pace of story telling.