Rhapsodies

Well, I enjoyed having the  2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on in the background for the past two weeks and in the process thought that this would make a great theme for this week. This led to picking two insperational and very different sports films. (And making it clear to myself that Munich didn’t count)

Chariots of Fire is yet another one of those modern classics that I hadn’t gotten around to seeing until now. Pretty much all I knew about it was what everyone knows (and frequently makes fun of)  the theme music and Brittish Athletes running on the beach. Turns out that’s all in the first five minutes and doesn’t have anything to do with the rest of the film.

Anyway Chariots of Fire tells the story of runners  Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddel and their quest for Olympic Gold. Both have their reasons, For Abrahams running is a way for him to fight against, and rise above, the prevelent anti semitism of the time. For Liddel running is an expression of his Christian faith.

This was a beautifully done film with my biggest problem was the way. Liddel and Abraham’s story run paralel to each other but other than Abrahams being driven to beat Liddel after loosing to him they hardly every interact (in fact I think I can count on my hand the number of times they even meet) and other than Liddel refusing to run his best race on a Sunday, there didn’t seem to be any real conflict. Our heroes winning the final races felt inevitable.

Still the Music was great.

What I’d known about Cool Runnings, when it first came out, was it was very loosely based on the real Jamaican Bobsled Team and was a John Candy vehicle with a lot of Rasta humor.

But despite what any of the trailers tell us this is a relatively serious sports story. It tells the story of Deince Bannock, played by Leon,  a promising sprinter who fails to qualify for the 1988 Summer Olympics when another runner tripping knocks him and another Runner over. Because the summer olympics track and field events are now lost to him he gets the idea that his running ability can be used in the Winter Olympics in Calgary  to  push a bobsled.

Here he recruits (coerces) Irv Blitzer a disgraced American Bobsledder, played by John Candy as their coach, and brings together the other runners who wiped out with him to form a a team.

From here we have an underdog/fish out of water story as our intrepid team tries to come together as an Olympic team in the extremely cold, and extremely white Calgary. But it’s quite uplifting to watch our team develop from a joke to a legitimate wildcard as our film goes on.