Chariots of Fire (1981)

The opening bars of the Oscar-winning Vangelis score coupled with the shot of the athletes running along the beach, barefoot, at St. Andrews is amongst the most iconic opening scenes from any film, but somehow the rest of this strays all too often into mediocrity thereafter. It tells the story of two British athletes who strove to thrive at the Olympiad in Paris in 1924. Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) comes from a Lithuanian Jewish background. who is welcomed to Cambridge University, but never quite accepted. The other is Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), a devout Christian who comes from missionary stock and who believes that he must serve God before himself - and that includes not running any races on the Sabbath. Both of these men have considerable athletic skills, and the story intertwines their efforts to get to the Games, whilst both must deal with their differing priorities and challenges. It's this middle portion of the film, the prologued character development phase, that all plods along too slowly. It has too little pace and too many characters, and that just drags the film down. The last fifteen minutes liven up considerably though, not just with the events on the track - but amongst those determined to ensure that the whole team attains success making sacrifices and compromises along the way. It has a classy look to it, the costumes and settings are top drawer, but I found the leading performances rather disjointed and at over two hours long, I did struggle to stay engaged.