After all these years the opening sequence of "Chariots of fire" is still one of the most memorable in the history of movies. A celebration of life and youth, the "simple" pleasure of being alive and running barefoot on the beach and the wonderful soundtrack enhancing the moment.The plot is about Abrahams and Liddell, two very different English athletes who competed in the 1924 Paris Olympic games.Abrahams is a Jew and a bit of a whiner. Allegedly "discriminated" because of his religion, Abrahams is rich, studying at one of the most exclusive universities of the country and on the verge of Olympic immortality. Hardly heavy burdens to bear. Liddell is a Scottish missionary, born in China and ready to go back but not before competing in Paris.Not being into sports, I found the film well-made, but slightly too long. Abrahams love story fills uselessly some screen time. It could have been avoided, without damaging the main plot in any way.Also, for non-English audience, the patriotic pride is a tad overbearing. It is a fine movie, but the big winner is the music, hardly ever used to best effect. You can forget the whole story and you will still remember the boys dressed in white running in slow motion on the beach.

I enjoyed this movie thoroughly, the stories of the two athletes Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddel are captivating, both having to make extreme sacrifices often at their own personal expense. The tension in the build up to the final races could be felt while watching it, particularly the 100 meters when the finalists are getting ready in the changing room. Although it was a real shame to see another Cambridge athlete Douglas Lowe who won gold in the 800 meters refused to be involved in the film. Also as a sports fan, I was disappointed that the main star of the 1924 Olympics was not even mentioned, the Phantom Finn Paavo Nurmi, who astonishingly won the 1500 and the 5000 meters within one hour of each other, setting Olympic records in both events, and Ville Ritola who also did a double of his own the steeplechase and the 10,000 meters while finishing second behind Nurmi in the 5000 meters. Bit of a mistake excluding the Flying Finns but as this movie was about British athletes, maybe that's why we only saw glimpses of them dominating their events during Eric Liddel's monologue when we see the Cambridge athletes struggling to compete. Anyway exclusions aside this movie is well worth a watch, its inspirational and it shows if your willing to work for something you can achieve anything if you set your mind to it.

"Chariots of Fire" is today remembered for three things: 1) its pretentious title, 2) its opening credits of young British men running barefoot in the surf scored to Vangelis' famous synth theme, and 3) being one of the Academy Awards biggest misfires as to a Best Picture winner. How this ponderous and plodding film won over Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" will puzzle film fans for generations to come.The plot: in post World War I Britain two young men from different backgrounds pursue an opportunity to compete as runners at the 1924 Paris Summer Olympics. One is a wealthy, Cambridge student who runs out of anger at a world he feels does not truly accept him due to his being Jewish and thus it's a world that he constantly wants to best. The other is a devout Presbyterian Scot whose life's work will be as a missionary and believes that God reflects his joy in him by giving him the ability to run really, really fast.There is no question that "Chariots of Fire" is well-acted and decently filmed, but there really isn't much of a story here. There's almost no conflict or tension. The two main characters rarely interact with each other. It's as if they each have their own little film. In the Olympics, they don't even compete against one another. The film's "villains" are some stuffy Cambridge deans and the big, bad American Olympic team. However, it's clear from the start that the two main characters are also world class athletes. They're not exactly underdogs.What we get is that two great athletes ran in the 1924 Olympics for different personal reasons. So? Couldn't we make a movie about almost any other Olympic athletes? What made these two any more special or unique? One didn't want to run on the Sabbath? That's interesting, but it's not exactly the stuff of 130 minute movies. Sadly, a lot of "Chariots of Fire" feels like sluggish padding.

This is a great depiction of a true story of Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) and Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) two British track athletes competing in the 1924 Olympic games. Harold is Jewish and Eric is Christian. As the film goes on we see Harold and Eric win their respective races as they become closer friends. Win they are put into a race together we see that the have a sense of competition towards one another but they soon realize how close they are. The film focuses on these two people mostly and their lives behind them. Eric is a soon to be missionary who is running the race because he wants to please God, and Harold is running to overcome anti-Semitism. It's a very good depiction and the acting is also quite good. I like it a lot mostly because I run cross country for my high school. I recommend it and give it 8 stars out of 10.