Think about it. Think about this film without the music. Would it have still won? I think the music, particularly the theme song, was the major attraction to this film back in '81. I think it's a good film, don't get me wrong, just maybe not Best Picture worthy. Reds or Raiders was far more deserving and important films.
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Yes.
shareThis film is greater than the sum of its parts. To claim that it only won Best Picture because of the score is silly.
shareWhat I'm arguing though is would it have made the same impact? The theme music was on the radio constantly during this period of time. I really think the film would have been a minor blip on the radar had it not been for Vangelis' score.
Conquer your fear, and I promise you, you will conquer death.
So the question is, was the song popular because of the movie, or was the movie popular because of the song?
To put it another way, if Vangelis' music had been associated with a terrible movie, would it have reached the same level of public consciousness?
Yes, but the converse is also true, I believe.
A mediocre score would have severely crippled this film in my opinion. Enough to perhaps remove it from the Academy's watch list.
Conquer your fear, and I promise you, you will conquer death.
Like I said, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It's a good movie with a good script, good director, good actors, good performances, good editing, good score, etc. To try and separate out any one thing and suggest that this one element is greater than the rest is rather silly.
shareThe Best Directed film of 1981 was "Reds" and obviously based on the scale, reach and visual techniques "Reds" was the best film of the year. The controversy of basing a film on the true story of an American journalist / communist was very likely the deciding factor for many voters who swung from "Reds" the "Chariots of Fire." Politics in most cases determins the outcome when the voting is close. Of course, mediocre films also win (Braveheart & The Last Emperor). But Hollywood loves a sprawling epic whether it's "Ben-Hur" or "Gandhi" or "Out of Africa" or "Gone with the Wind."
shareNo.
The opening credits with the theme and the runners is a mini-movie all by itself. It could have been entered as a short film and would have had a good chance of winning. Without it I think many viewers would have fallen asleep during the opening sermon and missed the whole film.
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Of course if they had a really bad soundtrack it would have sunk its chances altogether, but there were plenty of competent musicians working in movies then, and I am sure one of them would have made an equally powerful soundtrack that would have not detracted from the other appealing merits of this film that garnered the attention of AMPAS in the first place. Its difficult to say whether it would have won, or if Vangelis music was the part that sent the voting in favor here....
I would agree that Vangelis soundtrack was a major attraction to this film, as you mentioned, and I would definitely agree it played a large part in making this film into the $50+ million success story it was, rather than allowing it to languish as a mere $5-10 million "break-even" proposition that most films like CoF typically become. But financial success and popularity rarely play any role in Oscar contention.
In fact, its often quite the opposite: a film's (and its theme song's) popularity is often largely the result of the nomination, rather than the other way around. I would argue that if AMPAS had never given CoF a nod in the first place by nominating it first, its fairly likely this Vangelis soundtrack wouldn't have played on the radio at all, this movie would have flopped at the box office, and this soundtrack could have easily slipped unnoticed into obscurity like so many other (far better) Vangelis soundtracks have done over the decades. I think one can successfully argue Vangelis may have made this movie a financial success (when it may not have otherwise been one), but to argue that the big-V may have made the difference between winning and losing Best Picture may be a difficult position to fully support.
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Would Chariots of Fire have won Best Picture without the theme song?
Ha! I bet it would also have won with the original Vangelis music which became... the love theme for Year of Living Dangerously. The runners in the opening shot even ran to this music before Vangelis decided he wanted to do something entirely new for the film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsBOxDM_Vek
share