The spirit of 2012 captured on film 31 years earlier

Rating: Null/10 (29 August 2012)

Having enjoyed watching much of the 2012 Olympics on television (in the UK, where it was all available live on multiple simultaneous channels, not the limited slices of it shown in the USA which concentrated only on the American medal winners), it seemed a good time to watch CHARIOTS OF FIRE again after many years since last seeing it. My wife and I also have a special affection for this film because it was our dear friend Jake Eberts's first film as Executive Producer. He is not credited on screen because he wanted the Executive Producer credit to go to Dodi Fayed, who put up much of the budget. (He is the same Dodi Fayed who died in the car crash with Princess Diana.) Jake started as a banker and got involved in film finance, leading him to be Executive Producer of 38 important films, only one of those I saw being one which I disliked, namely JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH (1996), which I absolutely hated. Jake's career has been marked by a high moral tone, and a strong streak of idealism. We 'remember him when', i.e. when he was 'just a young banker'. We feel very proud of him. When this film opened, it was unexpected and it burst upon the British public with a wave of enthusiasm and national pride strongly reminiscent of the Olympics which have just ended. The film was brilliantly directed by Hugh Hudson. The modern DVD has unfortunately got extremely faded colour, with browns, reds, and greens predominating. The original print at the time was much more glorious. The DVD also has a big problem with wonky sound balancing, so that music blares and voices fade up and down. You have to watch the DVD with your hand always on the remote, to adjust the sound levels so that you aren't deafened one minute and perplexed by inaudibility the next. The music was composed by Vangelis, and made him famous. That theme was played to exhaustion throughout the recent Olympics, as a recurrent motif. I once knew a beautiful harpist who was taken out by Vangelis in the 1980s, and I asked her how did it go and what was he like. She said he was a strange fellow, that his idea of a date was to drive her round and round London in his elegant Rolls Royce listening to tapes of his music, which she was expected to admire with fervour. This film is an inspiring story of a group of young British runners who want to compete at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. In the end, two of them win gold medals, and one wins a silver. But the human dramas of the characters are intense and passionate. The film has that high moral tone which Jake himself has always had, and is a paean to personal achievement and the pursuit of excellence. (This was the basis of ancient Greek civilization, which was based upon 'excellence', which they called aretē. All that is best in Western civilisation comes from this source, though as I am always saying, the traitors within have severed the taproot of our culture to escape their own sense of mediocrity by never having to view anything superior to their own little selves.) Considering the current collapse of the British educational system, which has rotted from within because of the demented educational establishment's hatred of excellence and determination that 'nobody must lose or fail because it will make them feel bad', it is ironical that this film which glorifies the opposite, as the recent Olympics Games also did, carries such resonance for a betrayed public today. The film has not dated at all, except for its faded colour. It is as exciting and vital as it ever was, and indeed it is even more relevant than before, since it reminds us of what we have lost since 1981. If only this film could be shown in every school in Britain, but then, when will pigs fly? All the performances, except perhaps that by Lindsay Anderson as Master of Caius College, Cambridge, in the film are excellent, and the one that shines the most with idealism and vitality is that of Ian Charleson as the Scot, Eric Liddell. It is a great tragedy that such a talented actor died at the young age of 40, in 1990. He is the one everyone always remembers from this film. Possibly the next best job of acting was by Ian Holm as the coach Sam Mussabini. My favourite scene from this film has always been where the young Lord Andrew Lindsay, played by Nigel Havers, is practising his hurdling on the lawn in front of his gigantic country mansion. He has had a row of hurdles set up, and a butler sets a glass full of bubbling champagne on each hurdle. Lindsay then jumps them all without spilling a glass, except that one slightly wobbles. Such a stylish touch! This is a story which exalts heroic struggle for excellence so greatly that any parent should show it to every child on the planet. What a tonic in a declining and decadent world! None of these fine fellows would have dreamt of manipulating the LIBOR rate. What has happened to everybody? Why is everybody now so selfish, greedy, and heedless, when only the other day nobility of character was still admired, and there were still young men like these who strove for it? The film is not only about men and boys, there are women too, and I think Cheryl Campbell deserves a special mention for her convincing performance as a tedious, narrow-minded, but deeply loving sister of Eric Liddell, the Scot who forfeited a medal because he wouldn't run on Sunday. Those were the days when the cinemas were still shut all over Scotland every Sunday because it was the holy day. But today nothing is holy.