I think it’s safe to say that Chariots of Fire (1981, Enigma Productions Limited; The Ladd Company/Warner Bros.) is a pretty rare film in our stack of Best Picture winners—and it’s one of the biggest reasons I’ve been looking forward to getting to the movies of the 1980s. After a steady stream of violent, provocative, and disturbing winners, this BP, while undoubtedly viewed as ultra-conservative by some critics, is a glorious celebration of integrity. How refreshing!

Boasting one of the most recognizable soundtracks of all time with Vangelis’s iconic score, along with one of the most unforgettable opening scenes ever, Chariots of Fire is an altogether lovely film—though not necessarily the favorite at the 1982 Academy Awards, where it only received the fifth highest total number of nominations (after Ragtime and Raiders of the Lost Ark with 8 each, On Golden Pond with 10, and Reds with 12). Out of its seven nominations, Chariots of Fire took home four Oscars: Costume Design, Music (Original Score), Writing (Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen), and Best Picture. It did not win in the following categories for which it was nominated: Film Editing, Directing for Hugh Hudson, and Actor in a Supporting Role for Ian Holm as Sam Mussabini. Here’s a fun and random fact: Holm also appeared in another BP winner some 20-odd years after his Chariots of Fire nomination. He plays Bilbo in Peter Jackson’s iconic Lord of the Rings series, the last installment of which (The Return of the King) won BP for 2003 and remains tied with Ben-Hur (1959) and Titanic (1997) for most Oscars won. Sounds like a pretty successful career…

A shot from the famous opening scene of Chariots of Fire.

Sometime in 1978, a young British producer named David Puttnam was stuck in his rented Hollywood house dealing with illness. He yanked a book off a shelf—the history of the Olympics up to 1948—and while perusing it, came across a paragraph about a Scottish sprinter named Eric Liddell who had refused to compete on Sundays as this conflicted with his Christian convictions. Ironically, Puttnam, who had already experienced mild success as a producer in the U.S., had been wrestling with his soul, so to speak, regarding just what exactly he wanted to accomplish in the movie industry. He had concluded that he wanted to move and inspire people—in fact, he was looking to make a motion picture similar to 1966’s BP A Man for All Seasons, a film which focuses on someone choosing to do the right thing in a very difficult situation. Puttnam saw the potential for the story of Liddell to convey the exact meaning he wanted. Further research revealed to Puttnam the parallel story of British runner Harold Abrahams, a contemporary of Liddell’s who also competed in the 1924 Olympic Games, and who was, incidentally, Jewish. Thus, the basis was laid for the film Chariots of Fire, which develops both an athletic conflict between Liddell and Abrahams, as well as a religious one.

Ready for the Olympics: the cinematic representations of Abrahams (left) and Liddell (right).

Of course, the film takes a bit of an artistic license with the true stories of Liddell and Abrahams (by the way, it is well worth one’s time to look up biographical info on both of these real-life guys). Yet, in their native U.K., the film was well-received and very much needed in the early 1980s when Britain was stumbling under the weight of economic disaster, a plethora of racially fueled riots, and unrest in Northern Ireland (among other disasters)—all while the nation attempted to adjust to the policies of its newest (and first female) prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. Oh, and they were prepping for another royal wedding, this one between Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. Anyhow, Chariots of Fire accomplished in 1981 what David Puttnam originally intended for it to do—and still today the film continues to inspire and motivate its viewers to examine what is most important in one’s life and to stick to one’s convictions even when doing so doesn’t make one popular.

Want to read more about the creation of Chariots of Fire? Check out this article that was written around the time of the thirtieth anniversary of the film: https://rw.runnersworld.com/selects/in-chariots-they-ran.html. And, for more thoughts on Chariots of Fire and its significance, please check out the full post this weekend!