‘Chariots of Fire’ immortalized the 1924 Paris Olympics. Decades since its release, the film has taken on ‘a life of its own’
By George Ramsay, CNN
(CNN) — Almost everyone knows the opening sequence, film buff or not: the windswept beach, the foaming waves, the soaring, triumphant music against the sound of runners’ feet patting on wet sand.
So begins the 1981 Oscar-winning film “Chariots of Fire,” introducing a group of British athletes as they train for the Olympic Games.
The runners – whose t-shirts and shorts are muddied with sand and sea – splash through shallow water towards the Scottish coastal town of St Andrews, which slowly appears as a series of spires and rooftops on the horizon.
The scene is embedded in cinema history, memorably capturing the quiet beauty of striding across a deserted beach. The simple joy of running will become a central theme of the film, even though the athletes’ faces are now a mixture of hardship, happiness and gritty determination.
“What’s beautiful about athletics as opposed to almost any other sport is its lack of complexity,” David Puttnam, the producer of “Chariots of Fire,” tells CNN Sport. “You’re throwing something, you’re jumping over something or you’re running. It’s a quintessence, really, of human effort.”
It’s perhaps for this reason that the film, more than four decades after its release, remains as popular and relatable as ever.
Based on the lives and gold-medal-winning performances of sprinters Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams ahead of the 1924 Paris Olympics, “Chariots of Fire” won four Oscars – including Best Picture. It has been ranked among the greatest British films of all time, and was a favorite of former and current US presidents Ronald Reagan and Joe Biden.
As the Olympics return to Paris this year, public viewings have been held in several countries, offering a timely reminder of how “Chariots of Fire” still carries a charming appeal and uplifting – even life-saving – message.
“After the film came out, I must have got – and this is not an exaggeration – at least half a dozen letters from people who said that the film had made them decide not to commit suicide, that life was worth living,” says Puttnam.
“The film has got a way of really, really speaking to people … something much more than we envisaged or probably had been put into it. It’s got a life of its own.”
“Chariots of Fire” charts the athletic careers of Liddell and Abrahams – both talented sprinters – in the years leading up to the 1924 Olympics.
Liddell is a kindly figure with fierce religious beliefs, a missionary in his native Scotland who withdraws from the 100 meters at the Olympics because the heats are held on a Sunday. Instead, he enters – and wins – the 400 meters, despite having limited experience of running the longer distance.
This moment forms the emotional climax of “Chariots of Fire,” as Liddell, played by Ian Charleson, describes how his running has become bound up with religion: “God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure.”
A Scottish rugby international before he was an Olympic champion, Liddell has been celebrated for his selflessness as well as his sporting feats. He was born in China and returned there to serve as a missionary teacher after the Olympics, mostly remaining in the Asia until his death in a Japanese internment camp 20 years later.
“I had a lot of room in my heart for him,” former Scottish sprinter Allan Wells, who won 100m gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, tells CNN Sport. “He’s a very special person and put himself out there big-time, really. It’s a huge legacy and we should remember him.”
Wells recalls being asked after his race in Moscow if he’d like to dedicate the victory to Abrahams, Liddell’s counterpart in “Chariots of Fire” and, until then, the last British man to win 100m gold.
“It was basically throwing it down my throat,” he says. “I thought for two or three seconds and I said, ‘No, if I did it for anybody, I did it for Eric Liddell.’ Thankfully, there were three Scottish reporters at the back of the room and they all had their thumbs up for me.
“I think there is an attachment, but he [Liddell] was much more special than I was … Maybe 20, 30, 40 years after I’ve gone, they’ll still be remembering Eric Liddell before they remember Allan Wells.”
Liddell’s philanthropic legacy lives on through The Eric Liddell Community, a dementia care charity based in Edinburgh with a focus on the elderly, loneliness and isolation.
This year, the organization has launched The Eric Liddell 100 initiative, intended to make Liddell’s life better known among younger generations while recognizing his acts of heroism after Japan’s invasion of China in 1931.
“When he was in China, apparently he told people to pray for the Japanese – and they were the people who were holding them in the internment camp,” Sue Caton, Liddell’s niece and a patron of the Eric Liddell Community, tells CNN Sport.
“He thought everybody was important. He’d never have dismissed anybody, no matter who they were or what they had done because he felt that’s what we should do.”
John MacMillan, chair of the Eric Liddell Community, concurs, even noting how some people in China have embraced Liddell as their first unofficial Olympic gold medalist.
“He was obviously a determined individual, he was a committed individual, and he clearly put the needs of others before his own,” says MacMillan. “He’s remembered as a bit of a Robin Hood figure.”
Abrahams makes a striking counterpoint to Liddell in “Chariots of Fire,” his conviction and strength of personality no less forceful.
The film also presents Abrahams’ faith as a motivating factor in his running career. Antisemitism forms the backdrop of his time as a Cambridge student and his athletic ability is described as “a weapon … against being Jewish.”
“I attached so much importance to my athletics as a means of demonstrating that I wasn’t inferior,” Abrahams, who died three years before the release of the film, once said in an interview with the BBC in the 1960s.
“This played a very big part in my life. I think one exaggerates it – there was a certain amount of antisemitism when I was a young man, there’s a certain amount now. But I was so bent on demonstrating my superiority that I banked everything on athletics.”
Running, for Abrahams, was all-consuming, so much so that he frequently became anxious and obsessive about his performances – a detail captured by actor Ben Cross in “Chariots of Fire.” He tells coach Sam Mussabini on the eve of the Olympic 100m final: “I’ve known the fear of losing, and now I’m almost too frightened to win.”
Abrahams’ nervous, uneasy relationship with racing was almost self-destructive.
“Harold Abrahams was an extremely neurotic man, and to say he was highly strung is almost an understatement,” author Mark Ryan, whose book “Chariots Return” charts the lives and influence of Liddell and Abrahams, tells CNN Sport.
“He went through absolute hell before races, borderline full-on nervous breakdowns. The fear was expectation, that people had come there to see him win, but they would also laugh if he lost.”
Liddell’s early-career nerves, on the other hand, disappeared over time.
“He quickly got over that when he realized that he could connect his running to his Christianity in his mind,” adds Ryan, “and then just all the pressure fell away. He still hated losing, but if it was God’s will that he didn’t win, he didn’t win. It was all for the glory of God, and what will be will be. That was a wonderful mindset to take into any race, I think.”
Abrahams badly injured his leg doing the long jump the year after the Paris Olympics, forcing him to retire from athletics. He went on to become an influential journalist, broadcaster and athletics administrator, and he remains one of only three British men to win the Olympic 100m title.
“Chariots of Fire” has prevented the achievements of Liddell and Abrahams from being lost in time, but the film is not a precise portrayal of their lives.
Liddell, for instance, decided not to run the 100m long before the Games, unlike the 11th-hour decision presented in the film. His bronze medal in the 200 meters is also passed over, while the athletes’ training in the opening scene happened not in St Andrews but Broadstairs, a town in the south of England.
Puttnam, who has acknowledged the film’s artistic license, says that he never foresaw its success, not least because of the budget constraints – he had $6 million at his disposal – and many logistical hurdles.
When it came to the Oscars, he was indifferent about attending and never expected that he’d walk on the stage to collect the award for Best Picture.
“I remember getting up, my knees going all wobbly and going down [to the stage],” he says. “I hadn’t had my hair cut – it’s this shot of me trying to push my hair into some sort order because if I thought I was going to win, I probably would have got my hair cut.”
The filming of “Chariots of Fire,” much like preparing for the Olympics, was an arduous process. The actors trained for six weeks under veteran Olympic coach Tom McNab just to be in shape to film the running scenes, while Nigel Havers – who plays Lord Andrew Lindsey – fell and broke his wrist while learning to hurdle.
“If you ever meet him, his wrist is on the wonk,” says Puttnam. “He knew if he went to a doctor, we’d have to recast the film, so he didn’t tell anyone … I’ve always been in awe of his courage.”
Courage, fittingly, is central to “Chariots of Fire” – be it Liddell’s decision not to bow to the pressure of running on a Sunday or Abrahams’ conquering of his pre-race nerves ahead of the 100m final. And while the film is about devotion, commitment and an unbridled love of running, it is also, somewhat cynically, about winning.
“Would I have done it if Liddell won a silver medal? The answer’s no, I wouldn’t,” muses Puttnam. “It wouldn’t be the point.”
History, so the saying goes, is written by the victors – and that seems an apt message for one of the most iconic sports films ever made.
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