‘Chariots’ a big winner
• • •
‘Chariots of Fire’
Ian Charleson, Ben Cross
Cinema World
"Chariots of Fire" is not a "sports”
movie. Although it tells the story of two
Olympic runners, it deals with much
more Much, much more
Ian Charleson is Eric Liddell, a Scot
tish missionary who devotes himself
whole-heartedly to his beliefs “God
made me to be a missionary," he says,
“but he also made me fast." So fast, in
fact, that he becomes a member of the
1924 British Olympic team
By doing the best he can on the
track, Liddell feels, he gives glory to
God He gives every race his all, result
ing in a dedication that makes him get
up and continue a race after he falls,
resulting in collapse after he wins In
spite of his worldly glories, he is more
concerned with the race for the crown
of glory in heaven, which he preaches
about as he goes from meet to meet
Ben Cross is Harold Abrahams, a Jew
who feels he has to excel on the track to
prove his competence to class-cons
cious British society His sense of per
sonal worth depends on winning, and
he becomes despondent and uncon
solable after losses
For Abrahams, competition is all-im
portant, and victory becomes his god
He hires a professional coach (well
portrayed by Ian Holm) to help him
achieve his goals, and he finds himself
Liddell's competitor, and then his
teammate
“Chariots of Fire" is an extraordinary
film, quite possibly the best of the year
Director Hugh Hudson, producer David
Puttnam and screenwriter Colin Wel
land have managed to tell a story of
such humanity and feeling that the
audience is swept into the story without
knowing it
Rather than showing Liddell as a
straight-laced saint, he is shown to be
totally human, with human frailties,
facing struggles of faith Instead of
showing Abrahams as an unlikeable.
arrogant S O B , he is portrayed as a
man who is sure of himself, but needs
the acknowledgement of the world to
justify his life He doesn't know what it
means to be satisfied He takes an
overly great deal of pride in his victor
ies, but he is still a child, desperately
needing attention
As a result, the audience finds itself
unconsciously relating to the char
acters, but the movie does not become
a parade or a pep rally We are made to
root for the characters, but not cons
ciously
At no point does this become more
apparent than in the final scene, in
which Liddell races for victory against a
field of the best runners in the world
The audience runs each step of the
race with him, feels the knives of pain
when the runner can't get enough air
and feels the “joy of God" rushing
through the athlete s body as he nears
the tape
Ian Charleson is magnificent as a
Scottish missionary who becomes an
Olympic runner In “Chariots of Fire.”
This thrill is made more intense by
cinematographer David Watkm and
Hudson's impeccable choice of
camera shots and effects Slow motion
is used to show the runners' grace,
continued on page 8B
...while ‘Personal Best’
trips over a few hurdles
‘Personal Best'
Mariel Hemingway
Patrice Donnelly
"Personal Best" isn't a totally
bad movie, but enough things
go wrong that even
the tact that some of it was
filmed in Eugene can't save it
Robert Towne wrote, directed
and produced the film, a story of
two women athletes who
"become friends, lovers, and
eventually competitors "
Mariel ("Manhattan")
Hemingway plays Chris Cahill,
the underdog hero of the film
Unfortunately, the film rests
heavily on her performance,
and she underplays her role so
badly that her track shoe some
times shows more emotion
To counteract this, Towne did
three things. One of them
worked
He cast Patrice Donnelly, a
newcomer to the screen, oppo
site Hemingway as her lover
competitor-roommate Donnelly
is superb, showing a sincerity
and natural athletic grace that
makes Hemingway's perfor
mance look even worse
Towne then decided to throw
in all sorts of nifty filmic devices
in an attempt to inject some
feeling back into the picture
Surprisingly enough most of
them work A wide variety of
camera angles are used, creat
ing interesting and exciting vi
sual images. Unfortunately, he
and cinematographer Michael
Chapman got carried away with
slow motion, and the audience
is subjected to shot after shot of
slow motion everything Al
though it gives the feeling of
graceful movement Towne in
tended, it also makes for a
tediously plodding film
Lastly, Towne threw in lots of
nudity to keep the audience's
attention Although the explicit
love scenes between Heming
way and Donnelly are surpris
ingly sensitive and effective, he
adds shots of athlete s well
tuned bods as if they came
cheaper in large quantites The
audience soon gets bored by
shot after shot of the naked
team in the steam bath and
tightly-clad crotches flying over
the high jump bar
If that wasn t bad enough, the
film got tripped up by a number
of little nasties, which nailed
down the lid on its coffin Per
sonal Best' tells the story of
athletes preparing for the 1980
Moscow Olympics, which the
U S boycotted This was a
tragic turn of events for many
athletes who, like the char
acters in the film, spent years of
their lives preparing themselves
continued on page 7B
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