Not worthy of its awards won

Rating: 3/10 (27 July 2004)

This movie is a long, overrated drawn out picture that could have been summed up in about 30 mins as an ESPN sports Century special. Oh GOD, is this movie long and drawn out. By the end of the movie, I was so happy it was over, that I didn't care what had happened. I was just glad to hear that great theme song, which is the only thing that is great about the movie. It's a good movie at best and I would only recommend this to people who feel the need to see some of Oscars worst picks.
I believe this is based on a true story about the 1924 British Olympic Team that apparently was an underdog story. The movie is sooooo uninspiring though, that I really don't care to look up anything about the factual story. The plot is slow, confusing and most of all BORING!!! I could see where it was trying to show the struggles of the athletes and their conflicts, but the acting was so poor for a movie of this stature, that it just hurt to watch for 2 verrrrrry long hours. One thing I was inspired to look up was the filmography of the unknown main actors in this movie and to no surprise are the lists unimpressive. I was not shocked to see that any of the top 4 actors listed have done nothing before or since the movie came out in 1981 and Chariots of Fire is the only recognizably impressive thing on all their lists. The beginning of the movie is confusing and sorting out the characters is more of a challenge than the one the athlete's go through in the movie. The plot and story continue to be uninspiring and the great moments which are far and few between are missed b/c of how drawn out things are to get to them.
The only great aspect of this movie is the theme song and it is not played enough to save the movie. But here's something strange: We have a movie set in the 20's with music that has synthesizers from the 80's. Throughout the movie, I'm thinking, "This was set in the 20's right?" So even though the music is great, it really sticks out like a very sore thumb when you hear it in a TWENTIES timepiece.
The scenery throughout the movie is good also but we don't watch a movie b/c it has a great view of a person running on a mountainside.
When I found out this movie came out the same year as Raiders of the Lost Ark, my jaw hit the floor. There is no way this was the best picture of 1981 and it is proof that some years, the Oscar idiots don't even come close. I have a theory that you can sometimes pick the most "Jewish" picture and it will win the award. I would bet that this holds true for 1981. B/c one of the characters has a Jewish background, it ended up winning. I know it's a stupid theory, but it works sometimes and holds water when a movie like this is picked over a much more entertaining and pleasurable movie like Raiders of the Lost Ark. This movie is good, not great. It's overrated and never deserved an Oscar for best picture. The only Oscar it deserved was best original score and it won that. Justice was not served in the others that it won and I can only imagine what great movies were overlooked that year. In the end, I just didn't care about this story b/c of it's plot and uninspired acting and did not deserve all the Oscar accolades that it got. 3/10 stars--probably one of the worst picks for Best Picture until Million Dollar Baby came out.