Why is the rating so low for this wonderful movie. I think a lot of Raiders of the Lost Ark (a great movie itself) homers are driving down the score. Or maybe because of the religious overtones. Great movie and great soundtrack. 8.5
shareSpeaking for myself, i like it less than i did since finding out most of it was made up, i feel this is a bit of a swizz, given that it is supposed to be about real people.
shareWell, I could understand if this is the case. Downgrading a movie, though, because you are a fanboy of another movie is pretty dumb, IMO.
What was made up?
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well, harold Abrahams and eric Liddle were not rivals, and never had that big dramatic race with each other, they seem to have been on quite good terms. In fact,it was liddle who introduced abrahams to his coach, Sam Musabini. Harold Abrahams did not succeed in doing the college dash at cambridge(apparently he never even tried) the man who did succeed in doing it was Lord Burghley (on whom Nigel Havers's character was loosely based). think those are the major changes. A minor one is that harold Abrahams did not meet Sibyl until years later, though that isn't really important.
I understand this for a reason not to rate a movie as highly as maybe it could be. I'm like this with the movies Rescue Dawn and Changeling. In Herzog's Rescue Dawn the American prisoner was made to look like a sniveling, backstabber who opposed the escape from the prison camp when in reality he was the one who not only planned most of the escape but when it came time to escape he decided to stay behind with a Chinese prisoner who was to ill to escape. He ended up paying with his life for that decision. In Clint Eastwood's Changeling who left out the important part of the story in how the Chicken Coup killer's mother actually helped him with one of his murders, maybe even more, and spent time in prison for her role.
shareThose kind of changes are very annoying. Bound to affect how you feel,about a film I think. Rescue Dawn sounds particularly unfair in besmirching the memory of a brave man.
Hiwever, i don't know how many people have rated Chariots of fire a bit lower because of the inaccuracies. It could be that it simply isn't to the taste of some. I imagine some people might find it a bit slow for instance.
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They were indeed rivals, and they did race against each other. Abrahams was afraid of Liddell and avoided competing against him as much as possible.
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That seems very unlikely. Liddel was the one who introduced Abrahams to his coach, Sam Mussabini, and he would hardly have done that if he had been afraid of him. When i said they never raced against each other,mi meant they didn't have that big dramatic race that is depicted in the film, that was made up, i should have made that clearer. And in the race they booth took part in at the 1924 Opympics, Liddle finished third and Abrahams sixth, so it seems Liddle had no reason to fear Abrahams.
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Read the Harold Abrahams biography by Mark Ryan.
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I probably won't, i'm not interesred enough in sports to read a whole biography of an athlete. however, if Liddle was indeed frightened of Abrahams, he clearly had no reason to be, since he beat him in the race they both competed in at the olympics.
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You've got it backwards. Read what I wrote -- Abrahams was afraid of competing with Liddell.
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Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams were definitely rivals, except it was one-sided. It was Abrahams who was obsessed with Liddell . . . he continuously dismissed Liddell's records, and he consistently avoided competing against him because he was afraid he would get beaten again; yet Liddell was the runner he always focused on and dreamed of beating. Even when he was older, Abrahams pondered in interviews whether he could have beaten Liddell in the 100 meters in Paris, and then he concludes by claiming he would have beaten Liddell.
sharenah, this movie was nothing special
no memorable lines or scenes, only the soundtrack was good
so many movies, so little time
Mind boggling. Just shows the only reason to come to these boards is to find out 1. Who someone looks like and 2. Who the guy in the basement wants to bonk. I know these things are subjective but this is a brilliant film.
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