Greetings gentle readers and welcome to another installment of the Sunday Morning Movie. Today it’s a saga of determination and achievement, Chariots of Fire:
and next week’s film, The Glory and Misery of Human Life:
Reviews of Chariots of Fire:
Reel Musings Reviews says:
Visually breathtaking, with each frame mimicking a grand painting, and technically crafted with serene precision and care as we are transported back in time to the years spanning between 1919 and 1924, Chariots of Fire is absolutely sublime and a masterful work of artistic historical cinema. Combining qualities of sports genre films with biographical cinematic conventions, the 1924 Paris Olympics serve as the backdrop and primary basis of Chariots of Fire as two British athletic runners grapple with internal conflict arising from their respective religious identities and social class status. Delicately and intricately directed by documentarian Hugh Hudson in his first feature narrative film, each aesthetic of the filmmaking process is expertly utilized by Hudson and his crew in meticulously recreating the aristocratic England of a bygone era, the lush and vibrant green landscapes of Scotland, and the Parisian Olympics, which of course were of a much smaller scale than the modern games.
Meat Hook Cinema says:
I can also report back from the dark side known as ‘respectable cinema’ that Chariots rocked my world. No, I won’t be abandoning my weird tastes in movies just yet and swapping my slasher movies for copies of fare such as Gandhi and Citizen Kane, but it’s hard to deny the awe, majesty and emotions that Chariots evokes.
Variety says:
What with two social “outsiders” hogging the glory for dear old Albion, the snobby establishment doesn’t come off to raves. Yet at the same time, “Chariots” is also a warm salute to the best of British tradition and values, as well as vivid testament to individual integrity and supreme determination. Welland’s sympathetic screenplay generally succeeds at emotional honesty, time and again inducing a tug or choke but without confusing schmaltz for decent sentiment.
Hudson’s direction gets it all together with admirable assurance and narrative style. No arty tricks, no self-conscious posturing. His use of slow motion and freeze frames for the various racing sequences turns out to be a valid device for sharpening emotional intensity and competitive agony, not the cliched gimmick it might have been.
My take:
A well-made and epic film but one that ultimately left me disinterested. I’m totally unathletic for one thing so sports is always a hard sell, but I can appreciate the struggles of the runners. The thing that really turned me off was the depiction of the world of privilege that these men inhabited.
I don’t have a sophisticated class analysis of the film. I understand one of the characters is an underdog. It’s more of a gut reaction. The white suits, the serious University dons talking of matters of appearance, the well-heeled crowd at the games. It left me a bit cold. I’m glad I watched it, but I won’t again: ⭐.
Director: Hugh Hudson
Writer: Colin Welland
Plot (Spoilers!):
A working-class Jewish man breaks through a ceiling in 1920’s British society and enters Cambridge. He is proud, ambitious, and focused. He encounters bigotry but also earns a place in the hearts of his fellow students. He is a runner and is intent on making it to the Olympics.
A Scottish man, born to missionary parents, has delayed his plans for a missionary life in order to run competitively at Cambridge. His pious sister is heartbroken, but he tells her he runs to please God. It is, after all, God that made him fast.
The two men train and compete fiercely, each following their separate paths. Their hard work pays off. They are invited to represent Britain in the 1924 Olympics, where they each earn a gold medal.
***
Bonus: The Real Chariots of Fire
‘The Real Chariots of Fire’, from Silver River and post produced at Prime Focus, uncovers the true story behind the Oscar-winning movie Chariots of Fire which traced the story of Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams, who both won gold medals at the 1924 Olympics in Paris. The hour-long documentary aired on ITV1 on Monday, 2nd July.
