Chariots of Fire

Composite Score: 87

Starring: Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nicholas Farrell, Nigel Havers, Daniel Gerroll, Ian Holm, John Gielgud, Lindsay Anderson, Nigel Davenport, Cheryl Campbell, and Alice Krige

Director: Hugh Hudson

Writer: Colin Welland

Genres: Biography, Drama, Sport

MPAA Rating: PG

Box Office: $59.32 million worldwide

My take on Watching This Film:

                Chariots of Fire is the film adaptation of the story of the 1924 British Olympic Men’s Track runners Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams who both won gold medals against long odds, proving their causes right in the process. Liddell had refused to run his typical 100m race because the preliminary heats were to be held on Sunday, and his Christian convictions kept him from feeling comfortable running on the “Sabbath”. Abrahams, meanwhile, having been shown up by Liddell in their comparable sprints runs to overcome societal prejudices against Jews, something that existed even in their homeland of Britain in the early 1900s. The film stars Ben Cross as Abrahams and Ian Charleson as Liddell, joined by Nigel Havers and Nicholas Farrell as their fellow Olympians and Ian Holm as Abrahams’s coach Sam Mussabini. The film is considered by many to be one of the best sport films ever made, and its score/soundtrack is one of the most iconic of all time. It received seven Oscar nominations, including Best Supporting Actor for Ian Holm and Best Director and wins for Best Original Score, Best Costume Design, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture.

                There are many commentators who view Chariots of Fire’s win for Best Picture as one of the great upsets in the history of the Academy Awards, and perhaps one of the biggest mistakes that the awards body has made. I was among that number until I rewatched the film and looked back at that year’s Oscars. I’d argue that, in fact, it’s a win that makes perfect sense in hindsight, even if it is the “weakest” film of the year’s Best Picture nominees on paper. The film is a feel-good sports movie about two men of conviction succeeding despite odds stacked against them. It celebrates both Judaism and Christianity overcoming prejudices facing them down and portrays their supporters working in tandem together. On top of all of that, Vangelis’s score is easily one of the best and most influential of all time, and it even beat out John Williams’s iconic score for Raiders of the Lost Ark for the Oscar that year. Meanwhile, the other nominees for Best Picture that year were Warren Beatty’s not quite pro-communist three-hour war correspondent epic Reds, the apparent favorite; Spielberg’s iconic action adventure film that is still an action adventure film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the film that most will agree is actually the “best” of the bunch, just not for the Oscars; Louis Malle’s crime romance with no below-the-line nominations, Atlantic City; and finally, the slowest of the year’s nominees that’s simply there because you can’t give a film two best acting Oscars and not nominate it for Best Picture, On Golden Pond. It was an odd year for the Best Picture category, and if we’re being honest, the film that you’d expect to win of that group did in fact win. And on rewatch, it’s not nearly as slow and overwrought as I initially believed it to be. The performances are strong, even if Holm’s supporting performance is still the strongest – both Cross and Charleson play their parts admirably and with appropriate physicality. The story and themes are fairly compelling, if sometimes bogged down in the fleshing out. Besides a few pacing issues in the middle, the only real issue I take with the film is its celebration of Liddell’s form of religious conservatism. Though principles and standing up for them should be celebrated, I’m not sure that the legalistic interpretation applied by Liddell is necessarily the type of principle that we should be platforming without giving it at least some form of nuance. It was a different time, I suppose.

                As it goes, Chariots of Fire holds up as a strong, well-acted, entertaining, and beautifully scored sports film that actually does earn its accolades and holds up fairly well on rewatch. Some of the execution in its story takes a bit more time than you might prefer and one of the storylines could lead some to problematic conclusions, but it’s actually a solid and well-made film that’s worth watching. Currently, you can rent this film on most streaming services if you’d like to check it out.