Chariots of Fire 1981

The Film:

For someone who's not much of a sports fan, I have a weird obsession with the Olympics. I'm also rather obsessed with the social history of Britain between the wars and I love a good drama about the Upper Class in that era (Upstairs Downstairs, or something written by Forster or Waugh). It therefore goes without saying that I love this film. Even if it wasn't particularly good in an objective sense (which it is!), I'd probably still rather like it. 

I remember the film coming out, although I didn't actually see it until a few years later. I mainly remember it at the time for the soundtrack. My Dad was already a big Vangelis fan and he had quite a lot of his LPs, so it was big news in our house that Vangelis was now incredibly famous indeed! The opening shots of the men running across the beach were everywhere (and parodied everywhere) almost as soon as the film was released. 

I also have a strong memory of hearing Colin Welland's victory speech (for Best Screenplay) with the classic line "The British are Coming!" - not just hearing it years later, but seeing it on the news the next day. In fact, this is possibly the first Best Picture winner that I personally got excited about at the time. I've seen it several times now, and I still really love it (as I say, I'm a sucker for this sort of film!)

Andy has a slightly different interest in this one, as the Paris Olympics scenes were filmed at the Bebington Oval, which was just down the road from where he grew up - and he can remember when the filming was taking place. (It's also, coincidentally, very close to where my Dad grew up, so I also have memories of "that's not Paris, that's Birkenhead" from watching the film as a child!)

The Ceremony:

March 29th 1982 - this was another Johnny Carson hosted evening, with a running time of 3 hours and 44 minutes. Carson opened the show with a classic Carson monologue, which starts at about 13 minutes in to this video and is a bit edgy, fairly political but still very funny today!

This clip also gives us a glimpse of the guests arriving, and a great orchestral Overture, conducted by Bill Conti, that includes various Oscar-winning scores from over the years. You'll have to go hunting yourself for the Liberace medley or the Debbie Allen/Gregory Hines big dance number. But the whole thing is a very 80s spectacular.....


Other Notable Winners That Night:

Warren's very happy that they called out the
right winner first time!

The British didn't conquer Hollywood entirely that night. This was one of those relatively rare occasions where Film and Director went to two different films. For the second year in a row, the Directing Oscar went to someone far more famous for their acting. (In both cases, they only won one Oscar, for Directing!) Warren Beatty has much more recently become notorious for the La La Land gaffe (my take on that can wait until we get there). But this time he was accepting, not presenting!

This was also the year that Katharine Hepburn won her fourth Oscar (something still not matched by any other actor or actress) and Henry Fonda won his first, forty one years after his previous nomination for Grapes of Wrath. The average age of the Actor nominees was considerably higher than usual - with the 77-year old John Gielgud joining fellow septuagenarians Kate and Henry by taking Best Supporting Actor for his role in Arthur.

Best Song:

The 80s is definitely the golden age of the Best Song award. Classic after classic awaits.... This one is particularly wonderful! (Although I'm still not sure how one can get caught between the moon and New York City. I've seen the moon whilst *in* New York City - does that count?)

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

Gaping plot hole aside, the first Indy is a classic!

I'm very happy to have been watching Chariots of Fire. The other nominees were fairly diverse in both subject matter and tone. We had the aforementioned Reds - which, with twelve nominations overall, was favourite to win. We also had On Golden Pond - which took the two big acting prizes for Fonda and Hepburn. Then there was Louis Malle's Atlantic City, which is unfairly probably best remembered now for Susan Sarandon's interesting use of lemons... (to misquote Seinfeld again, they're real and they're spectacular!). And in the midst of these "serious" films, we get a classic Spielberg blockbuster - Indiana Jones' first big adventure, raiding the lost ark with snakes, booby traps, melting Nazis and plot holes aplenty. I think Indy takes the Silver medal in this race!


Our Verdict:

If there's a scene like this in it, you can pretty much guarantee
that I'm going to like the film!

As I said earlier, I already know that I love this film and I've seen it several times before. The story isn't an obvious one to tell, but it lends itself to some great set pieces, lovely character development, beautiful scenery (including Bebington Oval pretending to be 1920s Paris!) and the subtle but effective exploration of some important themes.

Running...lots of running....and Nigel Havers

The basic premise is a story following the Men's Athletics team at the 1924 Olympics. The majority of the men are typical upper class Oxbridge men of sound pedigree. However, the two that we follow closely don't quite fit this profile. Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) has all this background, but he also happens to be Jewish. Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) has none of the pedigree, being the child of Scottish missionaries and a devout Christian himself.

Even more running......and Nigel Havers for the second time!
(a little in-joke for Andy and other Miranda fans there....)

The film follows each of them separately, and then together as they both head to Paris. From previous viewings, it's always been the Eric Liddell story that has stuck with me - from the soul searching scenes set in Scotland through to Liddell's refusal to run on a Sunday. I think this is as much down to Charleson's performance as it is to the strength of Liddell as a character. Charleson completely lights up the screen whenever he is on it and makes the character so sympathetic without softening him at all or making him seem mawkish or too good to be true. (We will see Charleson again next year, but then that's it - he died a few years later of an AIDS-related illness and became the first actor to go public with both the illness and his sexuality. Apparently his Hamlet was amazing, but sadly it was never filmed.)

God bless you Ian Charleson you beautiful man!

This time I focussed a bit more on Abrahams' story and appreciated it much more. It's a far less showy part and the themes of anti-semitism are clear but subtle - which actually makes them far more sinister and effective. From the attitude of the college porter (Richard Griffiths, no less) at the beginning of the film through to the snide distain of the masters (John Gielgud - who was rather busy that year! - and Lindsay Anderson) later on in the story, it confronts a particular type of British attitude very effectively. (Although I'm guessing that much of this was lost on American audiences....).

It's a great film. The period setting and the universal themes mean it hasn't really dated much at all. The soundtrack - which was *everywhere* throughout the eighties - is nowhere near as obtrusive as it could have been and Greek electronica works surprisingly well in this context! I'm obviously pleased, but still quite surprised, that the Academy liked it enough to choose it over its rivals. However, when you look at the list of British-set films that have won Best Picture there's a heck of a lot of Upper Class nostalgia and not a lot of anything else going on (apart from some dodgy-sounding Welsh miners and the technically-Middle Class Minivers - even Oliver turned out to be decidedly posh in the end!). I suppose I could get a bit indignant about that if I really wanted to - but in the end I quite like that sort of film too, so I'm not going to complain....