This is a movie about the British Olympic running team of 1924. Well, mostly it's the story of two of it's members and what drew them to run. Oddly, for a running film, it's largely about religion.
The film opens with the funeral of one of the men, Harold Abrahams, and quickly flashes back to his earlier days. He is a young man at Cambridge in the days after World War One. The film quickly notes that he is Jewish and an outsider. To prove himself he attempts a run through the courtyard, timed by the bells of the clock. No man has accomplished this in 700 years until he does it.
The other runner that the film focuses on is a Scottish rugby player named Eric Liddell who is deeply religious. He was raised in China in a missionary family. And the missionary zeal is strong within him. He sees his running gifts as a way to give glory to God.
One of the conflicts in this movie comes when Liddell refuses to run an Olympic event on Sunday. The obvious anguish is very touching. It's very hard to imagine this same scenario happening today. Has anyone since Sandy Koufax been in this situation?
The music was groundbreaking and enormously popular. To the modern ear it sounds…cheesy. Or maybe just badly mixed. Variations on it are used quite well during some flashback scenes.
I thought this was a great and touching film. (The FP Gal found it long and dull.) I was interested in the characters and what drove them. It was fascinating to see a very old Olympics. I think this movie is much more interesting of a period piece than many Jane Austen-y type ones. Very touching.
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