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YMMV / Chariots of Fire

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  • Awesome Music: The score by Vangelis used a late 20th century electronic instrument and made it work in a film in the 1920s. To this day, the song can turn any emotional moment in slow motion into a much stronger moment.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: Nicholas Farrell as Aubrey Montague, Nigel Havers as Andrew Lindsay, Ian Charleson as Eric Liddell, Ian Holm as Sam Mussabini, Nigel Davenport as Birkenhead, Patrick Magee as Cadogan, Struan Rodger, Benny Young as Rob Liddell, Peter Cellier as Savoy, Patrick Doyle as Jimmie... Most of the cast really.
  • Funny Moments: The film starts with a somber funeral in the 1970s. A very elder Lord Lindsay is giving a speech about their younger exploits, and describes the similarly-elder Montague as "Young Aubrey Montague."
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • The opening scene with Andrew Lindsay claiming he and Aubrey Montague are the only two survivors of the team. As Ian Charleston (Eric Liddell) died in 1990, and Ben Cross (Harold Abrahams) died in 2020, Nicholas Farrell and Nigel Havers are the two survivors of the four main runners.
    • The real Eric Liddell passed away in a Japanese civilian internment camp in 1945 at age 43, due to a brain tumor, as well as overwork and undernourishment, which likely made the tumor worse. The actor who portrayed him, Ian Charleson, himself passed away in 1990 at the age of 40, three years younger than Liddell, due to AIDS-related causes.
  • Heartwarming Moments:
    "It says in the Old Book, 'He that honors me I will honor.' Good luck. Jackson Scholz."
    • Liddell's arc in the movie has lots of these. During a visit in Scotland a young boy asks if he'd like to play a game of football, but Liddell has to decline because it's the Sabbath day. So instead he offers to play a match with the kid and his family the next morning before his train leaves, because he doesn't want the boy to grow up thinking the Lord is a spoil-sport.
    • Abrahams considers himself rivals with Liddell, and sorely wishes to best him. That said, when he sees Liddell get knocked over during a sprint, he's urging him to get up and finish the race. Liddell wins despite the setback, running so hard that he passes out with exhaustion once he finishes.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Richard Griffiths has a brief appearance in which he introduces a Mr. Radcliffe.
  • Mainstream Obscurity: Both iconic theme and premise are still recognized today by the masses, though very few people have ever actually seen the film.
  • Memetic Mutation: The theme music, which is often used for triumphant and inspirational moments in Parodies of Fire.
  • Nightmare Fuel: 100 Metres from the soundtrack. A tense and even eerie piece reminiscent of György Ligeti.note 
  • Retroactive Recognition:
    • Stephen Fry was attending Cambridge during filming and appears as an extra; he goes into detail about it in The Fry Chronicles.
    • Richard Griffiths as Caius College's head porter.
    • Kenneth Branagh was a "gofer" for the shoot, and is also in one scene as an extra. He is a Cambridge student in the "Society Day" crowds, wearing a grey knit vest with dark trim, a white shirt, and a dark tie. He's on-screen for twenty seconds, starting at about eleven minutes.
    • Ruby Wax was an extra in shots of the crowd at the Olympics.note  She originally had a larger role, but it was cut during post-production.
    • Trekkies will notice that Sarek dated the Borg Queen when he was in college.
  • Signature Scene: The title sequence featuring the training run on the beach, accompanied by that music cue.
  • Suspiciously Similar Song: The piano in the famous theme song almost sounds like "On Top of Old Smokey." Actually, the piece as a whole is very similar to "L'Enfant" from Vangelis's 1979 album Opéra sauvage, as director Hugh Hudson originally wanted to use it for the opening scenes but the composer decided it was a better idea to use an original composition using the same tempo.
  • Tear Jerker:
    • When the welcome dinner for the new Cambridge students shows a plaque for all the students who died in World War I. The size of the plaque and the dean's words really strike that home.
    • Abrahams's funeral, especially when it's returned to at the end of the film.
    • The "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue's reveal of Eric Liddell's eventual fate - he died in a prison camp in occupied China.
  • Values Dissonance: One of Aubrey's letters is him apologizing for athletics getting in the way of his shorthand.
  • The Woobie: Harold Abrahams, who also happens to be The Ace, making him out to be quite the Byronic Hero.

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