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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Chariots of Fire (1981)

Chariots of Fire (1981)

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Released 5-Mar-2003

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Drama None
Rating Rated G
Year Of Production 1981
Running Time 118:41
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (69:26) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Hugh Hudson
Studio
Distributor

Twentieth Century Fox
Starring Ben Cross
Ian Charleson
Nigel Havers
Cheryl Campbell
lice Krige
Lindsay Anderson
Dennis Christopher
Nigel Davenport
Brad Davis
Peter Egan
Sir John Gielgud
Ian Holm
Patrick Magee
Case ?
RPI $36.95 Music Vangelis


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.75:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles Czech
Danish
English
Finnish
Hebrew
Hungarian
Icelandic
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Swedish
Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Chariots of Fire will always have a special place in my heart, but probably not for the reason you think. I have never seen this film theatrically, but have seen it numerous times on television. In fact, Ten used to play it every four years or so back when they had the screening rights to the Olympics Games, and stopped right after Seven took over the Olympics coverage.

    No, the reason why this film is special for me is because it introduced me to the wonderful music of Vangelis. I first picked up a copy of the soundtrack album at a record store and remember being intrigued by the album cover. However, I didn't buy it because I hadn't seen the film. Then, later on, many people urged me to listen to Vangelis and I finally bought the album. I remember that the music really moved me, even though I knew nothing about the film's plot. Of course, those were the days when the theme song wasn't as overplayed as it eventually became, so I was fortunate to listen to the opening haunting strains without associating it with commercials or the Olympics.

    Later on, when I finally watched the film, I was struck by how incongruous the music seemed to be with the overall period of the film. Here we had a film focusing on some of the British track athletes competing in the 1924 Summer Olympics, and yet the music is Byzantine and ... electronic. And yet the combination worked really well and I can't imagine watching the film today with an orchestral soundtrack.

    The film has an ostensibly simple storyline, but at the same time explores many issues including anti-Semitic prejudices amongst the English upper classes, professionalism versus amateurism in sports, religious convictions, friendship, rivalry and love. And, of course, "the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat."

    The film starts with the death of Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross). We are at a memorial service held in his honour and listening to a eulogy delivered by one of his old friends, Lord Andrew Lindsay (Nigel Havers), with another old friend, Aubrey Montague (Nicholas Farrell), amongst those attending the service. Then the film shifts to the glory days of their youth during their Olympic training at a beach in Broadstairs, Kent. We hear the voice-over of young Aubrey as he writes a letter to his mother.

    The film goes backwards in time to an even earlier period, as young Harold and Aubrey share a taxi to their new lodgings at Caius College, Cambridge for their first year at university. Harold makes an instant name for himself by winning the College Dash - a race around the quadrangle as the clock chimes 12 noon. He becomes the first man in over 700 years to complete the dash within the twelve strikes of the clock. However, Harold believes the whole world is against him because he is Jewish.

    Meanwhile, Eric Liddell is also building a reputation as a runner in Scotland after a career playing rugby and prior to becoming a missionary in China (where he was born) and following his parents' footsteps. His friend and manager Sandy McGrath (Struan Rodger) is urging him along, but his sister Jennie (Cheryl Campbell) is worried that he is becoming distracted from his true calling.

    So, both men are constrained by their religion and yet both become successful athletes. The film contrasts between the two men: the urbane, sophisticated and yet neurotic Harold and his scientific approach to training, versus Eric's inner courage, determination and trust in God.

    Harold is the more competitive, and is determined to beat Eric - so much so that he engages the services of professional coach Sam Mussabini (Ian Holm), much to the displeasure of his Cambridge dons, the Master of Trinity (Sir John Gielgud) and the Master of Caius (Lindsay Anderson). In between, he has the time to fall in love with beautiful opera singer Sybil Gordon (Alice Krige).

    However, as they embark on the boat to Paris for the Olympic Games, Eric discovers that the 100m heats which he was planning to participate in run on a Sunday. So he is faced with a difficult dilemma: stick to his religious convictions and refuse to run on a Sunday, or fulfil his duty to his country and everything he has planned and trained for.

    This is a wonderful film that is worth watching again and again. It won 4 Academy Awards in 1982, including Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Original Music Score and Best Costume, and was nominated for three others. The executive producer was the late Dodi Fayed.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    This is a widescreen 1.75:1 transfer, 16x9 enhanced, which is close enough to the intended aspect ratio of 1.85:1 based on a 35mm film print.

    I was really worried whilst watching the beginning of this film. The opening credits had some telecine wobble, and the opening scene was extremely grainy and suffered from excessive edge enhancement. The famous scene of the athletes running on the beach was also very grainy and in addition seemed to be rather dull and lacking in contrast.

    Fortunately, the transfer "improves" markedly after that. I use quotation marks because it is quite clear that edge enhancement is not the only thing that has been liberally and aggressively applied to this transfer. It seems that whoever was responsible for the telecine transfer loves a high contrast look, because it seems like the picture has been digitally sharpened and contrast enhanced.

    Hence, there are lots of haloes from edge enhancement, but also a very "video"-like look, with saturated highlights, and reduced shadow detail. The end result should be pleasing on a small TV, but rather annoying on a large screen display.

    There were a number of film artefacts present, including a few rather glaring instances of large white marks.

    There are several subtitle tracks encoded, including English. The dialogue transcription is reasonably good, capturing everything except very low level dialogue below the point of audibility. Some dialogue has been simplified to fit into two lines of subtitle text on screen. There are a number of Hard of Hearing features in the English subtitle track, including dialogue attribution, transcription of Foley effects, lyrics to songs, and song titles.

    This is a single sided dual layered disc (RSDL). The layer change occurs at 69:26 in between two sentences and results in a slight pause on screen.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only one audio track on this disc: English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s).

    If I engaged THX post processing, I seemed to get a very muffled sound and also lost some surround activity, so I mostly listened to this in vanilla Dolby Pro Logic 2 (cinema mode). I suspect the analogue audio master has suffered from some deterioration, or perhaps the soundtrack has been re-equalised for home theatre.

    In any case, I noticed some wow and flutter in the audio during the opening titles, and some analogue tape tracking phase shift errors towards the end.

    This appears to be a surround-encoded audio track. I noticed use of front left and right channels for Foley effects, including left to right pans of a bus moving across the screen. The rear channels are appropriately used for crowd noises and background music ambience.

    Dialogue was reasonably clear and easy to understand throughout, and I did not notice any issues with audio synchronization.

    As mentioned earlier, the background music features the wonderful original music score by Vangelis. Interestingly, the film soundtrack features several music pieces (particularly during the Olympic training scenes) not included on the soundtrack album, as well as a different arrangement of Hymne from Opera Sauvage (also not included on the soundtrack album).

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

    There are no extras on this disc. The menu is 16x9 enhanced but static.

Censorship

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 4 version (which by the way appears to be identical to my Region 2 copy) of this disc misses out on;

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

    There is no contest: give me the 16x9 enhanced version any day, even with edge enhancement.

Summary

    Chariots Of Fire is a wonderful film about the Olympic spirit and the lives of two British athletes that competed in the 1924 summer games. It also features the wonderful music of Vangelis.

    The video quality is acceptable, but suffers from excessive edge and contrast enhancement.

    The audio quality is mediocre, and suffer from some analogue tape deterioration.

    There are no extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Christine Tham (read my biography)
Wednesday, February 19, 2003
Review Equipment
DVDPanasonic DVD-RP82, using Component output
DisplaySony VPL-VW11HT LCD Projector, ScreenTechnics 16x9 matte white screen (254cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum.
AmplificationDenon AVC-A1SE (upgraded)
SpeakersFront and rears: B&W CDM7NT; centre: B&W CDMCNT; subwoofer: B&W ASW2500

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