Freddy

Having watched it again last night I realised that the Paris Olympic games were 80 years ago this year, so thought I would compare times

Harold Abrahams 100m 10.6secs O/R
Eric Liddell 400m 47.6secs O/R

eighty years later

Gatlin 100m 9.85
Warriner 400m 44.00

For all the new track surfaces, advanced technology in shoes and starting blocks and training methods the difference in time doesn't seem that much.

Colin Welland didn't know what to call the film until he turned on tv and Songs of Praise were singing Jerusalem so courtesy of google and IMDb I give the full explanation for Blakes poem and from the sheer fact that I love it!


Jerusalem
from Milton
Engraved 1804-1809
by William Blake

Preface

The stolen and perverted writings of Homer and Ovid, of Plato and Cicero, which all men ought to contemn, are set up by artifice against the Sublime of the Bible; but when the New Age is at leisure to pronounce, all will be set right, and those grand works of the more ancient, and consciously and professedly Inspired men will hold their proper rank, and the Daughters of Memory shall become the Daughters of Inspiration. Shakespeare and Milton were both curb'd by the general malady and infection from the silly Greek and Latin slaves of the sword.

Rouse up, O Young Men of the New Age! Set your foreheads against the ignorant hirelings! For we have hirelings in the Camp, the Court, and the University, who would, if they could, for ever depress mental, and prolong corporeal war. Painters! on you I call. Sculptors! Architects! suffer not the fashionable fools to depress your powers by the prices they pretend to give for contemptible works, or the expensive advertising boasts that they make of such works: believe Christ and His Apostles that there is a class of men whose whole delight is in destroying. We do not want either Greek or Roman models if we are but just and true to our own Imaginations, those Worlds of Eternity in which we shall live for ever, in Jesus our Lord.

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!

I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.

Edward Elgar made it into song form in 1922


best wishes
Freddy

The world wags on.

David Brent

"Chariots Of Fire" has always been one of my favourite films.
Recently a two disc DVD special edition of the film was released here.
There are two documentaries included on the one disc. One about the making of the film and the other a reunion of cast and crew.
Other special features include deleted scenes from the film. Most were superficial to the story but I was amazed to see that an essential cricket scene had been deleted from the film - because the American's wouldn't understand it!
God help us!

Dave.

Fellwanderer

B***** H*** - they might as well release the forthcoming Ashes dvd on a floppy then!

I cannot credit the stupidity of people who do that - although they would argue it was a "commercial" decision.

FELL

samkydd

Nothing surprises me anymore, and to think that someone could even bring that up as an argument for deleting the scene is not only silly but also an insult to the Americans! Mind you, ask an American who Noah's wife was and they'd probably say "Joan of Ark!", so I suppose they had a point!

I just wish they'd recipricated and left out all those awful American football and baseball scenes out of the films we've had to endure of theirs over the past few decades "25, 17, left, hutt!" what's that all about?

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

Jim

I watched COF the other afternoon - what a waste! This film should have been shown at peak times, instead of hidden away as filler for afternoon tele! From my lofty perch up here on the scrapheap, I can pick and chose what to watch, and as I have never seen COF before, then I'm glad I did!!

Are the programmers scarred that it would be TOO British, or are they ashamed of being British? (if indeed they are!)

An excellent film which I should have seen when it was first released.

Good morning boys.

arty-dave

A film I have not yet seen

thirdlady

It's a joy to watch!

A.S.Carroll
"Happiness isn't sold in bottles you have to achieve it in your own lifetime!"

DB7

Chariots of Fire won Best Picture at the 1981 Oscars, the year before Gandhi. Producer David Puttnam casts his mind back to a shining moment for the UK film industry

Jason Solomons
Wednesday August 1, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

My face in the Oscar-night photo said it all: I was utterly shocked to win and it took me about a year to recover.

I didn't think we stood a chance, as we were up against Raiders of the Lost Ark, Reds, On Golden Pond and Atlantic City. I'd already been through the experience of losing on Oscar night with Midnight Express. It's not a pleasant feeling and I had no real desire to sit there and applaud someone else again. But my wife Patsy persuaded me - practically ordered me - to get on the plane and in the end, we were quite a clutch of Brits out there, what with [director] Hugh Hudson, [screenwriter] Colin Welland and a few friends among seven nominations.

You have to remember that Brits were outsiders in Hollywood. Nowadays there are far more of us working out there but back in the early Eighties, no Brit had won an Oscar since Oliver! The next day The Hollywood Reporter called us a 'Cinderella movie', one that had come from nowhere to be the belle of the ball, and I've always rather liked that description.

There was quite a fuss over the fact that Loretta Young was presenting the award. She hadn't been to the Oscars for 30 years, despite them trying to persuade her but, she told me afterwards, she finally agreed because she was such a fan of Chariots. She was a well-known Christian and clearly the Eric Liddell strand of the story appealed to her.

She told me about a week later that when she opened the envelope she had to take a deep breath and read the card to herself three times in case she'd willed herself into seeing things, so desperately had she wanted the film to win. She also gave me the card, which is quite rare among winners I'm told, to have both the statue and the card inside with your name on written on it. Do you know, I've even got the envelope. Of course everyone remembers Colin Welland saying: "The British are coming."

Just a year later, I was there at the Oscars again with Dickie Attenborough, who invited me along as a guest, and Gandhi won. That made it two British films in a row after such a drought, which is remarkable. I suppose things were looking good for the British industry, and it was probably silly to think that but it did give us all a morale boost. Not for long, sad to say.

Winning the Oscar, however, was madness. It all got a bit out of control. It made me do something simple: make Local Hero - compared to all the things Hollywood wanted me to do, it was a lovely, gentle way to ease back on things. It turned out to be my favourite of all the films I've ever made, and it actually frames the way I now live my life: by the sea in a small village - although we actually found what we were looking for on the west coast of Ireland, not Scotland. I live in a Local Hero world, I suppose.

I'd been offered jobs in the Hollywood studios before. After Midnight Express, I turned one down at Columbia and then later, before The Mission, I'd been wooed by Paramount, but turned it down again. When The Mission won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in May 1986 and I was coming down the steps afterwards, Patsy whispered to me: 'What are you going to do now?'

The very next week I was in Hollywood, taking up an offer to be head of Columbia. It seemed like a step forward but as I signed the papers, I knew that it was the worst decision of my life. I was brought up thinking that films altered the way people looked at the world, believing in the power of well-told stories to shape people's attitudes to life. It became an article of faith with me, but it just doesn't look that way any more.

I keep an eye on films and the industry, but I don't regret not being involved any more. For the past four months, I've been chairing the parliamentary committee on climate change - that's been a steep learning curve for someone who wasn't even allowed to do a science O level!

TimR

One of my favorite films, beautifully made, thoughtful, unsusual in its treatment of faith, courage and honor.

When it was released, I was very young; I saw it a total of seven times over the course of three months.

I am interested to read here that some scenes were deleted because Americans would not understand them!

(How stupid do they think we are...oh, don't answer that!!)

I am bewildered by this. It seems to me that any Americans who enjoyed the film (and there are many of us - it's a favorite among family and several friends) would not have difficulty grasping aspects or references that are uniquely English or Scottish (and if we do - than a bit of homework will not exhaust us....

It is to be expected - after all, the entire film is set in Britain and deals specifically with the lives of two men whose stories are (I think) uniqely British. That is - the story of Olympians in the US would be quite different. Any American who is going to enjoy the film at all will have to have some very basic understanding of British life. Since that is the case, why bother removing scenes? Interesting.

My point is that the producers were being condescending to the American audience. I am interested to read that there is a version with additional scenes. I will certainly look for it.

TimR

[quote]Hmmm....I thought at first that I agreed with you.....but Joan of Ark....


Baseball is a great game. But that's another story....

TimR

What a pleasure to read this here - I have a copy of that marvelous poem on my office wall.

Freddy

Pleasure. As a little aside In the 90's there was a legendary Wigan and GB international Rugby League player named Martin Offiah. The fans called him 'Chariots'.

Regards

Freddy

Harleybloke

My good lady is an English graduate from Cambridge Uni. Get her going on the 'US ending of, I think P&P............might be S&S..........anyway, said English grad lets rip at classic English lit 'Going Hollywood'............I quietly agree as I resume watching 'Ice Age 2'...............we're an eclectic household.

.....You couldn't hear it, if they were shooting at me with howitzers!

TimR

Very nice piece of information - that is a nickname that is an honor to have.