Chariots of Fire
Feb. 4, 2022 | SINDNEY COLE
The movie Chariots of Fire opens with a man giving a speech at someone's funeral and is referring to the times when he and the dead man used to run. After it cuts to 1919 and two young men meet in Cambridge and attend Cambridge University. The two young men are Abrahams (Ben Cross) and Montague (Nicholas Farrell). Abrahams is Jewish and already has a stigma that he does not come from money, but he is surrounded by Catholic Englishmen. Once the men are all settled into school, they have a freshman dinner. Within the next couple of days, Abrahams has challenged the record for the 700m dash. All the students crowd in the courtyard to witness the race. No one thinks he will make it because the record has never been broken. Abrahams gets ready to race and is joined by Lindsay (Nigel Havers), another runner. Abrahams becomes the first man to beat the time in seven centuries.
In the next scene, we are in 1920s Scotland, Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) is at a running even for children. At this event the men want Eric to run also because there is talk that he is really fast. When he races, he beats all the men there. After the race the next day they all go to church. While the men walk out of the church they talk about freedom of choice. Eric ends up stopping a boy who is playing ball in the street and tells him that Sunday is God's. That it is not a day to play football but promises to play with him and his family the next day. Then at dinner, they ask God for protection over Eric's family while saying grace at the table. After dinner, they ask Eric if he could train for the Olympics because they want a Scot to run in God’s name.
At the Scotland vs. France race, Eric gets pushed off the track by a French runner but he ends up catching up to them all and winning. Abrahams gets help from Sam Mussabini (Ian Holm) and he ends up becoming his personal coach. Later on, Abrahams gets to go out to eat with a girl from the theater. He is talking about why he runs, and he says it’s because he’s Jewish and that he is semi-deprived. But she doesn’t care or really see it that way. Abrahams then runs against Eric and Eric ends up winning. Abrahams can’t get over it because he runs to win and if he doesn’t win then he doesn’t run.
Eris is supposed to be in the UK on missionary work but instead, he is running. He missed the bus to come to a function and his sister is getting worried that he is losing his way. She says God must always come before running. He says to her that he will eventually go back to China and that God’s way is the only way. This is seen when he does not race on Sunday. He is willing to finish his missionary work, but God gave him this power to run fast, and he wants to win to honor Gods wishes.
The university attacks Abraham for getting Sam to be his personal trainer and thinking about his individual achievements and not his duty to play for the school. But he goes to the Olympics anyway. All the men get on the boat when Eric is told will have to run on Sunday. He did not know this and tells the head guy that he will not be running this race. He stands in his belief that Sunday is God’s Day.
When they get to the Olympics Lindsay is the first to run the hurdles. He gets second place. After that race, there is a dinner party where the head of the Olympics brings Eric in to try and convince him to run on Sunday, but he will not agree to anything. Lindsay ends up coming in and saying because he already won, he will give his Thursday race spot to Eric so he can run and they all agree.
That Sunday he gives a sermon instead of running. In all the races the British men have run and gotten second place or less and they don’t know if they are going to win. Abrahams still has to run his 100 meters and he ends up coming in first and winning the gold. Eric’s race is the next day, and he also comes in first winning gold too.
At the end of the movie, it tells you when all the men died and what they did with the rest of their lives. The opening scene was actually Abraham’s funeral. Lindsay remembers his life and his accomplishments. The last scene is all the men running on the beach.