Chariots of Fire ***** (1981, Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Ian Holm, Nigel Havers, Nicholas Farrell, John Gielgud, Lindsay Anderson) – Classic Movie Review 1399

Director Hugh Hudson’s four-Oscar-winning 1981 triumph Chariots of Fire tells the real-life story of two athletes, Scottish missionary Eric Liddell and Jewish Cambridge University undergraduate Harold Abrahams, who ran for Britain in the 1924 Olympics. Liddell was a devout Scots Christian who runs for the glory of God and Abrahams was an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice.

Ben Cross and the late Ian Charleson play them to the hilt in their career highlights, there are rewarding roles for Oscar-nominated Ian Holm as their coach, Nigel Havers as Lord Lindsay and Nicholas Farrell as Montague, as well as amusing cameos from John Gielgud and Lindsay Anderson as the disapproving Masters of Trinity and Caius at Cambridge.

Screenwriter Colin Welland’s script is particularly probing and even sometimes challenging, while never neglecting the entertainment and emotional and spiritual uplift.

Director Hudson keeps it all on the right track and was Oscar nominated for Best Director in his début feature film, which was conceived and produced by David Puttnam. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four Oscars – for Best Film (producer Puttnam), Welland’s Best Screenplay, Vangelis’s notable Best Original Score (with its memorable electronic instrumental theme tune) and Milena Canonero’s Best Costumes, including of course those famous baggy shorts.

Daniel Gerroll, Cheryl Campbell as Jennie Liddell,, Alice Krige, Nigel Davenport, Patrick Magee, Dennis Christopher, Brad Davis, Peter Egan, David Yelland, Richard Griffiths and Peter Cellier are also in the cast.

Kenneth Branagh, who worked as a set gofer, makes his debut as an extra in the Cambridge Society Day sequence.

Patrick Doyle appears as Jimmie, Ruby Wax as Bunty and Stephen Fry as a Gilbert-and-Sullivan Club singer.

The film’s title is inspired by the line ‘Bring me my chariot of fire’ from the William Blake poem adapted into the popular British hymn Jerusalem, heard at the end of the film. The original phrase ‘chariot of fire’ is from 2 Kings 2:11 and 6:17 in the Bible.

The beach scenes associated with Vangelis’s theme tune were filmed at West Sands, St Andrews, Scotland, where a plaque commemorating the filming can be found. The Cambridge scenes were filmed at Hudson’s old school of Eton College, because Cambridge refused filming rights, fearing depictions of anti-Semitism, a decision it later regretted.

Liverpool Town Hall depicts the British Embassy in Paris; the Oval Sports Centre, Bebington, Merseyside, represents the Colombes Olympic Stadium in Paris; the Merseyside Woodside ferry terminal represents Dover for the embarkation scenes; the railway station scenes are filmed in York with National Railway Museum locomotives; The Mikado performance is filmed in the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company.

David Puttnam discovered Eric Liddell’s story by chance in 1977 when he came across a reference book on the Olympics while housebound with flu in a rented house in Los Angeles. He then commissioned Colin Welland to write the screenplay.

Hudson and Puttnam saw Scottish stage actor Ian Charleson as Pierre in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Piaf, and knew they had found their Eric Liddell. Ben Cross was discovered while playing Billy Flynn in Chicago.

The running actors underwent a gruelling three-month training intensive with coach Tom McNab.

The film was selected for the 1981 Royal Film Performance on 30 March 1981 at the Odeon Haymarket before its release the next day.

20th Century Fox put up half the production budget and insisted on a couple of notable American names, so Brad Davis from Midnight Express and Dennis Christopher from Breaking Away were cast.

The cast are Ben Cross as Harold Abrahams, Ian Charleson as Eric Liddell, Nigel Havers as Lord Andrew Lindsay, Nicholas Farrell as Aubrey Montague, Ian Holm as Sam Mussabini, John Gielgud as Master of Trinity College, Lindsay Anderson as Master of Caius College, Cheryl Campbell as Jennie Liddell,  Alice Krige as soprano Sybil Gordon, Struan Rodger as Sandy McGrath, Nigel Davenport as Lord Birkenhead, Patrick Magee as Lord Cadogan, ,David Yelland as the Prince of Wales, Peter Egan as the Duke of Sutherland, Daniel Gerroll as Henry Stallard, Brad Davis as Jackson Scholz, Dennis Christopher as Charley Paddock, Richard Griffiths as Head Porter Mr Rogers, John Young as the Reverend J.D. Liddell, Yvonne Gilan as Mary Liddell, Benny Young as Rob Liddell, Yves Beneyton as French runner Géo André, Philip O’Brien as American coach George Collins, Patrick Doyle as Jimmie, Ruby Wax as Bunty, Kenneth Branagh, and Stephen Fry.

Ian Charleson as Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire.

Tragically, Ian Charleson died of AIDS on January 6 1990, age 40, seven weeks after playing Hamlet in Richard Eyre’s production at London’s Olivier Theatre. In preparing to play Liddell, he read the Bible from beginning to end. He wrote Eric Liddell’s speech to the post-race workingmen’s crowd at the Scotland v Ireland races, feeling his scripted speech was neither authentic nor inspiring.

The following year Charleson played the Reverend Charlie Andrews in the 1982 Oscar-winning Gandhi. He acted with Julie Walters on stage in London with the play Fool for Love (1984–85) and in the 1986 film Car Trouble. His film debut was the punk-era Angel in Derek Jarman’s Jubilee (1977).

Greek musician Vangelis (29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022).

Greek musician Vangelis [Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou] (29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022) was a composer and producer of electronic, progressive, ambient and classical orchestral music. He is best known for his Chariots of Fire Oscar-winning score, and also for Blade Runner (1982), Missing (1982), The Bounty (1984), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), and Alexander (2004).

Hugh Hudson chose Vangelis and a modern electronic score for Chariots of Fire. He recalled: ‘I knew we needed a piece which was anachronistic to the period to give it a feel of modernity. It was a risky idea but we went with it rather than have a period symphonic score.’ Vangelis told Puttnam: ‘My father is a runner and this is an anthem to him.’ Hudson had worked with Vangelis on documentaries and commercials, and Puttnam had used his compositions on Midnight Express.

Hugh Hudson (born 25 August 1936) married actress Maryam d’Abo, who played Kara Milovy in The Living Daylights (1987), In November 2003. Hudson died at Charing Cross Hospital in London on 10 February 2023, aged 86. Chariots of Fire was his first and most successful feature.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1399

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/

Ian Charleson (11 August 1949 – 6 January 1990).