Great movie, however......

Rating: 8/10 (20 June 2015)

I enjoyed this movie thoroughly, the stories of the two athletes Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddel are captivating, both having to make extreme sacrifices often at their own personal expense. The tension in the build up to the final races could be felt while watching it, particularly the 100 meters when the finalists are getting ready in the changing room. Although it was a real shame to see another Cambridge athlete Douglas Lowe who won gold in the 800 meters refused to be involved in the film. Also as a sports fan, I was disappointed that the main star of the 1924 Olympics was not even mentioned, the Phantom Finn Paavo Nurmi, who astonishingly won the 1500 and the 5000 meters within one hour of each other, setting Olympic records in both events, and Ville Ritola who also did a double of his own the steeplechase and the 10,000 meters while finishing second behind Nurmi in the 5000 meters. Bit of a mistake excluding the Flying Finns but as this movie was about British athletes, maybe that's why we only saw glimpses of them dominating their events during Eric Liddel's monologue when we see the Cambridge athletes struggling to compete. Anyway exclusions aside this movie is well worth a watch, its inspirational and it shows if your willing to work for something you can achieve anything if you set your mind to it.