Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent, Inspiring Athlete-Saga Film
Review: This movie was great. Those fellows appeared to run faster than Democrats going to pick up their welfare checks. It HAD to be special effects -- noboby else can run THAT fast.
Rating: 
Summary: Powerful film, better in letterbox
Review: This is a masterpiece from start to finish, and a must for your modern-classics DVD collection. It was one of the earliest films that I managed to see, and Ben Cross still personifies courage under adversity for me. Wonderful to see how two very unlikely individuals became heroes. And the Vangelis score... powerful, even today. Still, I agree with earlier reviewers that a letterbox format would heighten its effect more than the wide-screen. Especially those big-vista scenes when the runners are practicing-- they'd have much more of an impact.
Rating: 
Summary: Essential in Letterbox
Review: It is inexcusable that a film such as this was released in full-screen format. The cinematography in the letterbox version of this movie is simply incredible, along with some excellent dialogue shots. The effect of this 4:3 pan and scan release is to distract you from the beauty of the heather and the majesty of the scenes captured in the original release.
As for the movie, it is an exceptional tale of two men and how they approach their time in the Olympic games. One sees his running as an extension of his faith, the other as a vehicle for his consuming need to win. It is truly a great movie!
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing Format
Review: This is a great film, but I cannot recommend it on DVD until it is re-released in letterbox (hence the 2 stars). Full format destroys the look of the film by blurring the races and jerking the viewer back and forth between the characters. Hopefully this will be corrected soon and I can buy it!
Rating: 
Summary: chariots of fire
Review: I don't understand why a studio would release any film
(especially one like this) in standard format. It was so
beautiful in wide screen. I was very disappointed. I
would rather remember my theater experience and pass on
watching a compromised version.
Rating:
Summary: One of the top 5 movies ever filmed
Review: What a fantastic and inspirational movie this is. Great acting, music, scenery and messages. A film that should be shown to all young people. Ian Charleson and Ben Cross, as Eric Liddle and Harold Abrahams, respectively, both deserved Oscars for the magnificent portrayals.
One aspect of the film that most people don't recognize is that although Harold Abrahams was born and raised Jewish, and he defended that faith zealously as the movie progresses, he actually converted to Christianity later in his life. This can be seen by the location of the services at the beginning and end of the film.
People are bored by this movie??? Since this story (modified from the total truth of what happened) has great appeal to those of faith, morals, dedication and decency, what does that say about those who are bored?
Yes, the movie MUST be redistributed in wide screen! And I will buy it again when it is. When that happens, I'll give it not 5 stars, but 10.
This is probably my favorite movie.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the other half of this movie?
Review: This is such a lovely film, beautifully written and acted, with exceptional direction and production values. With all of the attention being paid to cinema arts in this country, with the billions of dollars being spent by American consumers on fancy home theaters, we must ask why the heck are movie-lovers only being offered this truncated version for purchase? Where is the wide-screen DVD? For a movie so highly esteemed for its sweeping cinematography, this format is a desecration, and we deserve better!
Rating:
Summary: WHAT MAKES LIDDELL AND ABRAHAMS RUN...
Review: This is a beautiful film, well directed by Hugh Hudson in his theatrical film debut. It features the true life story of two Olympic runners, Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) and Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross), who ran for Great Britain in the 1924 Olympic Games and brought home the Gold.The film tells the story of these two individuals, who are as different from each other as different can be, and explores their personal drive and reasons for running. Eric Liddell is a staunch Scot and a fervid Presbyterian (He would put John Knox to shame!). The son of a missionary and himself a missionary by avocation, he runs because "God made him fast for a reason". His running is a reconciliation of his faith and his passion, which is running. He runs for the glory of God. His faith always remains constant and pre-eminent in his life. His devotion to it causes some controversy during the Olympics, as a consequence of the stance he takes when he discovers that the preliminary mete for the 200 metre race would be held on a Sunday. Liddell simply refuses to run on the Sabbath! Luckily for Great Britain, Lord Andrew Lindsay (Nigel Havers), a gentleman and fellow competitor, graciously steps in and, as he had already won a gold medal in the hurdles, gives him his place in the 400 metre dash, which would take place on a Thursday. This would never happen today in the dog eat dog world of competetive sports, much less in the Olympics of today! Harold Abrahams is completely different. A secular Jew and Cambridge scholar, he studies in the bastion of upper crust British society, struggling to fit in but always remaining the proverbial outsider. He has a passion for running that is motivated by his passion for winning. In his world, God has nothing to do with it. Winning is merely an affirmation of himself in a world that he believes thinks less of him because he is a Jew. Consequently, his desire to win is superceded only by his fear of losing. When two Cambridge dons, the Master of Trinity, played by the late John Gielgud, along with the Master of Caius, meet with Abrahams, they are concerned that his hiring of a personal professional trainer, Sam Mussabini (Ian Holm), to help him with his running is not quite in keeping with the amateur tradition of the Cambridge gentleman. Implicit in their criticism is an undercurrent of anti-Semitism, one to which Abrahams does not take kindly. It is that moment that defines what makes Abrahams run. This is ultimately a story about faith. With Liddell, it is about his faith in God. With Abrahams, it is about his faith in himself. Both were propelled to Olympic glory by it. It is a story sublimely told, though a little slow at times. It is not an action type of sports movie. It speaks gently of a time long passed, when the Olympics was truly the bastion of amateurs. It is amazing to see track events of the Olympics of 1924 depicted in all their simplicity...no flash, no glitz, no gimmicks. The runners ran on dirt tracks. They all carried spades in which to dig their footholds for their starting "blocks", something that surprised me. This attention to detail permeates the entire film, and its evocation of a bygone era makes the film linger in one's memory long after it has ended. Ian Charleson gives a notable performances as Eric Liddell, infusing him with a gentleness and purity of spirit that is compelling, while Ben Cross plays Harold Abrahams with an intensity and singularity of purpose that is riveting. Their stellar performances, as well as those given by the excellent supporting cast, coupled with exquisite cinematography and the excellent direction of Hugh Hudson, make this film worthy of its 1981 Academy Award for Best Picture. The beautiful and soaring, synthesized music of Vangelis also won an Academy Award and went on to become a number one hit in the pop charts in 1982.
Rating:
Summary: Not brainless entertainment
Review: It's great to see a movie with so many subtle but relavent points that make you sit up and pay close attention. You must watch this movie a number of times to truely appreciate it.
Rating:
Summary: Sheer Beauty
Review: I was a student at Edinburgh University in 1981 and was actually lodging with one branch of Eric Liddell's family. My friends and I all went to see this movie repeatedly -- and I mean five, six, or seven paid entrances. Why? Personally, I don't think it had anything to do with the plot, character development, the music, or moral virtue. It was simply that the film was so utterly beautiful. The men were beautiful in a clean, non-glamorous way that we had never seen before. Not in British films, and certainly not in Hollywood movies. The social and educational expectations shared by all were beautiful. I know it is fashionable to decry the British class system, and in principle I agree with all the criticisms. But it also seems that erasing class-by-birth leaves little else but crass meritocracy and the sheer vulgarity of the uneducated masses. Abraham's fellow students at Cambridge and Liddell's at Edinburgh participated in a social and educational system not driven by concerns about jobs, and not pathetically challenged by students who saw themselves as consumers and professors as entertainers. Britain was beautiful. Of course some parts still are, but Nazi bombs, post-war architecture, and modern cars have destroyed much. This was a Britain where people at the time might have decried "Victorian" architecture, but we in 1981 were just coming to realize how great it was. And this was a Britain where, for good or ill, middle class people kept their houses tasteful, and working-class door-steps were white-stoned each week. In all this movie was a connection to the beautiful aspects of the British past. That past might never have existed in reality, but in 1981 we could just about touch it, above all in Edinburgh, spared by German bombs and still one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
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