'Chariots of Fire' Remastered in Time for London Olympics

An amazing story.

I saw "Chariots of Fire" in Mexico City in 1982. Funny, but it was subtitled in Spanish, which I didn't need, obviously.

At Sky News, "Chariots of Fire Premiered For Re-Released." And at the Daily Mail, "Three decades on and they're still racing down the red carpet! Chariots of Fire stars turn out to celebrate re-release of the 1981 Olympics classic."

And at Telegraph UK, "Chariots of Fire, review":

If the London Olympics inspired the re-release of this lovingly remastered version of a soul-nourishing British classic, they've already been worthwhile. Chariots of Fire covers arduous ground — faith, conviction and history (both the making of it and the living up to it) — but it does so with the same courage and sincerity that drives the two young men at its heart.

They are, of course, Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams, respectively the Scottish evangelical Christian and Cambridge-educated Jew who ran for Great Britain, among other causes, at the 1924 Olympics.

Much has been written about the two extraordinary lead performances, and Ian Charleson and Ben Cross certainly fit the roles as snugly as Lycra does muscle. But director Hugh Hudson and writer Colin Welland invest just as much in the lightly sketched characters on the film’s periphery: I love Patrick Magee’s portrayal of Lord Cadogan, a cabbagey peer of the realm, and Dennis Christopher’s Charles Paddock, an American runner of almost extraterrestrial lissomness.

The opening beach run, set in Broadstairs but filmed in St Andrews – and soundtracked with that anachronistic yet curiously fitting electronic score by Vangelis – has become iconic; but for me the film’s finest sequence is the 100-metre sprint final in Paris.

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