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Post by artraveler on Dec 15, 2021 18:11:45 GMT -8
Chariots of Fire
1981
We are forty years after the release of Chariots of Fire. In that time the fundamentals of the movie have moved from reminiscence to mythic. In 1981 it had been less than 60 years since the 1924 Olympic games. People familiar with the games and the Liddell controversy were still alive and available for comment. As were those who knew Harold Abrahams.
The film explores the modern Olympic notion of pure armature sports. The 1920s were perhaps the last vestige of charm, courtesy, and social politeness in the last century. The Great War was over Europe and the rest of the world has come to terms with the tragic death toll of the war. It doesn’t mean that all was perfect. However, Harold Abrahams is admitted to Cambridge. 100 years earlier a Jew would not be allowed to clean toilets in the same university. There is racism about the country. The Olympic teams of the west are almost exclusively white. Politics, while not the obsession it is today is noticeably restrained.
The world 100 years ago was very different from our world. The end of the war, while not forgotten, has brought a level of prosperity to Europe, except Germany, which struggled with war reparations and massive inflation. The movie presents Liddell (Ian Charlson), Abrahams, (Ben Cross) and the rest in a nostalgic way. Liddell’s refusal to run on a Sunday is presented as a heroic stand as is Abrahams’s challenge to authority for equal justice. However, let us not forget that these men were the elite of British society in their era. The 20s were a brief period of innocence and prosperity before the plunge into chaos.
In a way the movie is not about athletics but about the age and loss of innocence brought on by the war and with our foreknowledge of the war to come. In that way it makes it mythic a time long gone when heroes stood tall above the crowd, demigods in their own right.
The music by Vangelis has a quality that adds to the myth of Chariots of Fire. His music is almost exclusively electronic. He also takes credit for the soundtrack of Blade Runner.
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 16, 2021 8:40:33 GMT -8
Maybe I was too young when I first watched that for my one and only time. I found it overwrought. It wasn't dull as much as it was mind-numbingly pretentious. Probably the music was the best part but even that sends adverse shivers up my spine when I hear it. Delayed trauma syndrome or something.
But I can appreciate that many like the movie. I just don't think I can go over that ground again.
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Post by artraveler on Dec 16, 2021 10:55:47 GMT -8
It wasn't dull as much as it was mind-numbingly pretentious. Indeed, it is pretentious. In part that is the element that lends the mythic quality to the movie. I don't propose to say this is one of the great movies of the 20th century, but it is one of the better as it touches on the human element of real people, albeit members of the elite, at a time in history when everyone wanted to forget the horrors of 1914-1918, especially in England. Taken from that point of view it is not even about athletics, or the olympics. |
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 16, 2021 12:27:31 GMT -8
Oh geez. You're being so damn reasonable I suppose I should give it another look. Where did you watch it?
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Post by artraveler on Dec 16, 2021 12:39:25 GMT -8
Where did you watch it? I watched it about a week ago on HBO max. I believe it should be on some other streaming services maybe even you tube. Reasonable is not something any of my ex wives ever said, or for that matter many of my employers. I must be getting old and boring. |
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 8, 2022 18:55:15 GMT -8
I'm 41 minutes into Death By Vangelis, otherwise known as Chariots of Fire. G-d, I think my real problem with the movie is that insipid music because I'm finding it just fine so far.
It's certainly true I ever only saw it on commercial TV. Wrong aspect ratio. Edited. Low resolution. Chopped up by commercial breaks. And long ago. I rented if for $2.99 on Apple TV which is a pretty good price.
Those who think women and men are interchangeable are daft. Watching that early scene where there are various clubs vying for new recruits from the freshman class at Cambridge, it is obvious that it is man's role to be a twit. Good scene, though.
I don't know why I automatically like Jews and feel protective of them. Maybe if one isn't indoctrinated in antisemitism, that is just the natural order of things given the reality of Moses, Jesus, et al. But this Lithuanian Jew, Harold Abrahams, is not particularly likeable...as yet. Certainly he's no friend of John Gielgud.
This must be the movie that gave Nicholas Farrel his breakout role. You certainly see him in lots of stuff after this. He's a regular in British crime dramas, including some Agatha Christie stuff (Poirot).
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 8, 2022 22:03:08 GMT -8
At 1:11 i’d say this is a thin story with a lot of winow dressing. But the Olympics will start soon so hopefully there will be some good races. That one religious woman is creepy and annoying.
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Post by artraveler on Feb 9, 2022 6:21:59 GMT -8
True enough, the story is a little thin, but as a true story it has merit. It is frightfully sentimental but then the 1920s are now a time of sentiment, consider the TV show The Walton's. Underneath the movie does expose the double standards of the olympic committee in England and by extension the rest of the world.
There is still a fiction that olympics is an amateur event, but in truth none of these athletics events are for amateurs. No one is going to the olympics just walking in off the street to compete. The myth of amateurs only is a modern one. The original olympics were grossly professional. They trained for years to compete and were supported by their city state. Under the current myth that makes them professional.
Charoits of fire is an interesting movie. It pays homage to two men, who for a brief time, demigods in their country. The better story is Eric Liddle and his tragic death in China in the 1930s. Abrahams ultimately converts to Church of England, hardly meeting them at their own game. For a brief moment, the olympic ideal actually bloomed in Paris but it quickly died.
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 9, 2022 9:47:23 GMT -8
Can't blame them at all for sentimentality. It's hard for us (well, probably not you) to understand Europe staggering out of the wreckage of the orgy of violence of The Great War. You see that reflected in an early scene where a couple of war-ravaged fellows had some words for the "preppies" disembarking from the train. One fellow says something like, "Laddies. This is why we fought the Hun so that these boys could get a good education." And it was obviously said with more than a hint of sarcasm. The Inspector Rutledge novels are absolutely steeped in the scars of the aftermath of that war.
How interesting. I can understand this guy's anger, combined with his competitive juices, to just tell all these antisemitic upper-class twits to just fuck off. But you can't make a living in that space forever (unless you're a Democrat). Given how Jesus isn't necessarily central to the Church of England (at least these days), maybe that was an easy transition for him. But, in my opinion, being a lousy Christian (not saying he was) is better than being an atheist Jew.
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 9, 2022 10:40:03 GMT -8
I read an interesting comment the other day about the Olympics. Someone said that they ought to get rid of all the sports such as figure skating. Any sport that needs a judge to tell you who won ought not to be an Olympic sport.
I sort of agree with that.
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 9, 2022 11:02:57 GMT -8
Was that blond English religious guy really such a prick? It was beyond his scruple to shake the hand of the Prince of Wales and had to be talked into it.
Yes, an interesting scene with the Prince of Wales and other power brokers trying to convince this Christian to run on the Sabbath...which shouldn't have been a problem because the real Sabbath is on Saturday, right?
Tragic death, indeed. I assume he was on mission. My thought is that there are plenty of people nearby who need help. You don't have to go halfway around the world. But then there are lots of motivations surely in being a missionary.
To his credit, St. Francis did just that: He reached out to the very place he grew up. He branched out from there, of course. But I've become a bit suspicious of the motivations of those who can't seem to find people in their own neighborhood or city who need help and must travel halfway around the world. Wonder if there is a bit of old-fashioned Kiplingesque "white man's burden" in such ventures.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 9, 2022 11:24:25 GMT -8
They used to say that some of the Nazi art was a little homo erotic. Well, isn’t this Olympic poster that keeps showing up in this movie?  |
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Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 9, 2022 11:39:44 GMT -8
I’ve never seen the use of a spade to build starting blocks.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 9, 2022 11:44:37 GMT -8
Abrahams got himself a nice little dish. Ian Holm is, of course, excellent in another role.
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Post by artraveler on Feb 9, 2022 11:47:33 GMT -8
Abrahams ultimately converts to Church of England I think the reason he converted was to marry the girl. A mixed marriage 100 years ago would not have been good for her social status, which was pretty low as she was an actress. I would respect him more if he had just told them to F off and moved to Palestine to fight Arabs and live on a kibbutz. The movie makes a point of his desire to 'be an Englishman'. He could have done a lot of good for Jews in the 30s, and everything I have heard is he sat on his hands. Well, he wasn't the only one but he had access to the, bully pulpit, and kept silent. As for Liddle, his dying as a missionary in China is tragic, but like you I wonder why he did not wander into the slums of Birmingham or Coventry. I think it is Matthew who emphasis missionary work and Liddle must have been depending on that. "What did you expect to find among the heathen, a man clothed in fine raiment?" Matthew 11:8 |
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Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 9, 2022 12:21:00 GMT -8
Overall, the movie wasn't so bad. I'm certainly no stranger to English period pieces. This is in the middle somewhere. I just found it a tad dull here and there.
I read his Wiki page and he does seem like a commendable character. Almost a saint. Still, we're dealing with the characters as portrayed in the movie and I could have choked his sister. And Eric seemed a little bit too pious for his own good.
Walk a mile in his shoes, I suppose. It can't be easy being in the out group. And I read recently the many secular Jews are downright embarrassed by religious Jews. In our own age where people can't summon the gumption not to wear a friggin' mask, I'm going to cut Harold some slack here.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 9, 2022 12:24:54 GMT -8
I know what's so funny about that poster now. It's like they are all saying in unison, "Hi, sailor."
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Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 9, 2022 14:01:23 GMT -8
Well, that certainly makes sense. And let me air something that I don't think applies at all to Eric Liddell (but probably does to a lot of "Doctors without Borders" types): It lets them cast themselves in the role of the savior, something that is harder to do close to home, perhaps mirroring the idea, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town..."
And that's not necessarily a bad thing either. I think, on balance, the Indians (dots, not feathers) benefited greatly from the British fulfilling their WMB on the continent. People benefit from the superior (not all cultures or cultural practices are of equal value) knowledge, ethics and resources of more advanced peoples. This is Thomas Sowell's shtick. Quit apologizing that most good brewers are Germans or most mathematicians are men. Any society can benefit from the "best practices" of another. These ideas, ways, or technology then spreads where they can benefit people. (And that's a good reminder that lunatic or destructive ideas can spread and some countries ought to inoculate themselves against them.)
And anyone who has been to the third world (or read about it) knows that bringing either Judaism or Christianity to any of the world's shit-hole places is a godsend...perhaps quite literally.
Still, there are those annoying types who probably should keep their do-gooder-ism in check.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 9, 2022 14:27:11 GMT -8
Agreed. But there's a couple moments in this movie where Eric and his annoying church-lady sister were, in my view, breaking the third commandment (not taking the Lord's name in vane). They (as many many Christians do) were invoking God to justify their own inclinations. To me that just gets so tiring.
It should also be said that Cheryl Campbell plays another marvelous church lady (opposite to the vicar, played by Paul Eddington) in Miss Marple's very good Murder at the Vicarage. She also does a marvelous job of Lady Frances Carfax in the Jeremy Brett version of The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax, another missionary-related theme. She's been in Maigret and Morse as well. |
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Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 9, 2022 15:40:57 GMT -8
I checked the Wiki entry on Abrahams and Ben Cross hardly seems miscast as Harold Abrahams (at least visually).  But the character in the movie was off-putting in many ways. But then he may have been playing the character to a tee. And yet that, to me, was not a compelling character, even as sort of a heavy. I agree that the Eric Liddell story was much more compelling. Unfortunately his sister sapped much of the life out of it. She was just downright annoying and added nothing to the movie with her screen time. To me the very best parts of the movie were the interactions between Abrahams and his coach. In particular (aside from Gielgud), I thought Ian Holm was one of the few actors in this who sparkled. The rest were rather drab and dull. I understand that a lot of money and care went into the authenticity of the look of the movie (which was perhaps the real star). But the overall story and characters were lacking. There wasn't the "pop" I expect from a great movie. I think this is merely an okay one. I am sure. It has not.  But I guess it's fine within the context of a (now) old movie.
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But I guess it's fine within the context of a (now) old movie.