Chariots of Fire

PG	Rottentomatoes.com Rating:86%	1981
(Very mild language))	Picky Flicks Quote: "Here, running is a metaphor for life, and the way these men run tells us volumes about their hearts." -Jeffrey Overstreet, Looking Back	RUNTIME: 2 hr. 4 min.
Visit:www.screenit.com for complete details		Movie Mood: All-choked-up

The character of Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire may constitute the fairest treatment of a Christian protag that I’ve seen come out of Hollywood to date. He’s not even the main character of the film, but the movie would be little more than a depressing ode to one young man’s (Harold Abrahams’s) obsession with proving himself to the world if it weren’t for Liddell. And his Christian faith is just an indispensable as his presence. Without it, he’s just another fast runner.

The truth is that I had a pretty limited movie selection when I was young: Umm…Anne of Green Gables (still love it), The Man from Snowy River (hasn’t aged terribly well, perhaps, but it can still be entertaining), The Sting (odd, I know), Beauty and the Beast (the best, most multi-layered animated movie EVER), a handful of "Christy" videos and Billy Graham offerings, etc. I can’t remember much else (we’re talking very young, here; I hadn’t even been introduced to The Princess Bride yet, and that was at eight). And I didn’t really know enough to compare production qualities or acting levels or anything like that, so the fact that there was a character in Chariots that openly quoted scripture and was portrayed in a positive light meant that it must have been an evangelical film.

Imagine my surprise then when, years later, I came back to it (with at least a vague knowledge of what an Academy Award was by that point) and was blown away by the spot-on performances, amazing costuming, period detail, and yes, that famous, pulsing score. Da dum da da dum DUM…Okay I’ll stop.

Despite spending a great deal of its time chronicling its protags’ need for speed, Chariots of Fire is not a fast-paced film. At all. If you don’t watch closely, you might get bored. But there are moments, when that music begins to pound and Liddell’s head drops back as he flies along the turf that send goose-bumps racing up my arms and bring tears to my eyes every time. It’s true. There aren’t more than a handful of movies that can make me cry, and Chariots of Fire is one of them, but when I do, I’m smiling.

Set against the backdrop of the 1924 Paris Olympics and drawing its inspiration from true-life events, Chariots follows the intertwined story of two young runners who couldn’t be more different, except that—to paraphrase Liddell—God made them fast. Eric Liddell is a young Scot who’s descended from Christian, missionary parents, and whose sister, Janie, is worried that he’ll get so caught up in the glamorous world of competitive sports that he’ll forget his true calling: reaching the lost and hurting. Honestly, Janie’s a bit of a downer with all her fretting and nagging. Eric, for his part, is earnest and good, but don’t worry. He’s no cardboard cutout Christian with an incapacity for temptation. He loves to run, and he wants to do it almost as much as he wants anything else. But the man has strength and convictions that put most young men to shame. Liddell’s character is truly admirable and likable, which is difficult to convey sometimes.

Then there’s Harold Abrahams—a Jew (in case you couldn’t tell by the last name)—who’s got a chip the size of the Gaza Strip on his shoulder. As well he might, considering the polite bigotry with which he’s received at Cambridge, where his zeal and brains almost over-qualify him for an acceptance he will never fully receive. He’s out to prove that he’s the fastest man alive in his field, but there’s just one tiny obstacle sprouting unobtrusively up in his path to glory: Liddell. He doesn’t train as strenuously as Abrahams (he’s too busy giving rousing sermons after his races and spending time at the mission), doesn’t even want the victory quite as much, but he’s faster.

The majority of the film trails Harold, and it’s a good thing too, since his failures and tantrums, not to mention his love affair with a beautiful singer, make for slightly more engaging cinema than Liddell’s steady character, but it’s Eric Liddell who makes the choice (I won’t spoil it if you haven’t seen the film) that ultimately affords Harold his long-sought-after victory and which makes the biggest statement about sacrifice and steadfastness in a film that’s about foregoing pleasure and persevering for the sake of the prize.

Chariots of Fire is a great movie, a deserved classic. But, more than that, it’s a testament to what true Christianity should look like, and that makes me want to stand up and cheer more than any photo-finish ever could.

Until next Wednesday, stay picky! You’re mind will thank you later.