| | | "Winner of 4 Academy Awards, Including Best Picture."
Features: DVD, English, Spanish, French, Subtitled, Slip Sleeve
Winner of four Academy Awards including Best Picture! The inspiring true story of British athletes competing in the 1924 Olympics. Ben Cross and Ian Charleson head a sterling cast of newcomers and veterans.
"A rare, intelligent, beautiful movie. A thoroughly rewarding experience." Associated Press
"...director Hugh Hudson shows respect for the integrity of his material and the intelligence of his audience." James Berardinelli's ReelViews
"...quite possibly the most lyrical, most spiritual sports movie ever made." MaryAnn Johanson, The Flick Filosopher
"A gusty, emotional movie about what it really takes to be a hero. One fo the finest films of this or any year." Rona Barrett, Today Show
"Outstanding performances..." VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever
Editor's Note
Director Hugh Hudson's absorbing drama, based on a true story, deals with the personal struggles faced by two very different long-distance runners competing for Britain in the 1924 Paris Olympic Games. Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) is a devout Christian who sees victory as a testament to the glory of God, while the other, Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross), is a Jewish Cambridge student who sees victory as a challenge to anti-Semitism and his ongoing struggle for acceptance by Britain's elite. Eric, a hometown Scottish hero to the people, gives rousing sermons after victory and works at a local missionary. Harold runs with a zealous commitment, upsetting Cambridge's educational upper crust (played with enjoyable wit and candor by Sir John Gielgud and Lindsay Anderson) while enjoying social life with his university chums and his beautiful showgirl girlfriend (Alice Krige). But when faced with such a competent challenger, Harold hires trainer Sam Mussabini (Ian Holm) to further his dreams of winning the gold. Ultimately, the two runners meet in Paris to run for British victory in a rousing finale. Featuring an unforgettable soundtrack by Vangelis, this Academy Award-winning film is an inspirational story of athletic excellence and spiritual awakening that captures the zeal of post-WWI Britain and the glory of the Olympics.
Plot Summary
This Academy Award-winning film, based on a true story, follows the rivalry between two long-distance runners competing for Britain in the 1924 Paris Olympic Games.
| Features | Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Warner |
| Release Date: 1/11/2008 |
| Running Time: 123 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1981 | | Catalog ID: 1000024598 | | UPC: 00085391149309 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Standard 1.33:1 [4:3] |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Winner (1982) | | | British Academy Awards, David Puttnam, Best Film | | | British Academy Awards, Ian Holm, Best Supporting Artist | | | Golden Globe, Chariots of Fire, Best Foreign Film | | | Oscar, Milena Canonero, Best Costume Design | | | Oscar, Vangelis, Best Music, Original Score | | | Oscar, David Puttnam, Best Picture | | | Oscar, Colin Welland, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen | |
Nominee (1982) | | | Oscar, Ian Holm, Best Actor in a Supporting Role | | | Oscar, Hugh Hudson, Best Director | |
Winner (1981) | | | Cannes Film Festival, Ian Holm, Best Supporting Actor | | | Cannes Film Festival, Hugh Hudson, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention |
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| | Professional Reviews | Variety
"...Strong script values and top-notch performances....The casting is pin point..." 04/08/1981New York Times
"...Unashamedly rousing, invigorating....Splendidly performed..." 09/25/1984 p.C14 Sight and Sound
"...There are some excellent character turns from the likes of John Gielgud and Lindsay Anderson..." 09/01/2001 p.58 Entertainment Weekly
"[C]ompelling....An extraordinary study of individualism and class conflict..." 02/04/2005 p.118 ReelViews 9 of 10
Exhibitions of good sportsmanship are about as rare as selflessness. Everyone is out for themselves, and the displays of athletes like Albert Belle, John McEnroe, and Dennis Rodman can sit in the stomach like a chunk of indigestible matter. So it's refreshing to look back at an era when victory didn't demand isolation, bitterness, and hatred of one's rivals. Chariots of Fire, the Oscar-winning 1981 film, transports us to the 1924 Olympics, and, in the process, highlights such commendable qualities as commitment, perseverance, and fraternity...There's barely a whiff of melodrama in Chariots of Fire, which makes the film-watching experience all the more effective -- director Hugh Hudson shows respect for the integrity of his material and the intelligence of his audience. The absence of mawkish moments provides the narrative with a genuine quality that supports its factual background. Not only do we care about the characters, but we accept that they really existed. In fact, the entire production claims that same sense of verisimilitude. Most sports movies rely on nostalgia and adrenaline -- Chariots of Fire stands on strong writing, direction, and acting. Appreciation of this picture doesn't demand a love of sports, merely an understanding of human nature. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
This is strange. I have no interest in running and am not a partisan in the British class system. Then why should I have been so deeply moved by Chariots of Fire, a British film that has running and class as its subjects? I've toyed with that question since I first saw this remarkable film in May 1981 at the Cannes Film Festival, and I believe the answer is rather simple: Like many great films, Chariots of Fire takes its nominal subjects as occasions for much larger statements about human nature...This is a movie that has a great many running scenes. It is also a movie about British class distinctions in the years after World War I, years in which the establishment was trying to piece itself back together after the carnage in France. It is about two outsiders, a Scot who is the son of missionaries in China, and a Jew whose father is an immigrant from Lithuania. And it is about how both of them use running as a means of asserting their dignity. But it is about more than them, and a lot of this film's greatness is hard to put into words. Chariots of Fire creates deep feelings among many members of its audiences, and it does that not so much with its story or even its characters as with particular moments that are very sharply seen and heard. - Roger Ebert
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