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The film opens in 1978 London. A speaker is eulogizing someone and in doing so, remarks about two men. This leads us to a flashback for the remainder of the film, where the actual story will be told.
In 1919, Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) begins studies at Cambridge University. Harold is Jewish, and unfortunately he experiences some anti-Semitism from the staff as a result. Nonetheless, he makes many friends, especially upon joining a club that contains fans of Gilbert and Sullivan, the theater pairing from the 1800's. In time, Harold decides to take up a Cambridge challenge known as the Trinity Great Court Run, which is successfully running a lap around the college courtyard at noon between when the first clock bell sounds and the twelfth bell sounds. It has never been successfully completed to this point, but Harold makes history and does so, crossing the finish line just before the twelfth toll. The college masters (John Gielgud and Lindsay Anderson) witness the feat from their office and are impressed as well.
Buoyed by this success, Harold then competes in numerous national running competitions, and he wins them all. At one competition in Scotland, he witnesses Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) win his respective race, despite bad weather and even falling down early on. Afterwards, Harold finds Sam Mussabini (Ian Holm), a professional trainer, and he asks Sam to become his coach. Sam respectfully declines.
Eric is a devout Christian, along with his entire family. His parents were missionaries, and his sister Jennie (Cheryl Campbell) lives every moment for her religion. Jennie disapproves of Eric's running competitively, but Eric believes he is running for the glory of God and he will do so until he returns to China (where he was born) to work as a missionary just like their parents had.
Back at Cambridge, Harold attends a G&S play and makes long eye contact with one of the singers on stage, Sybil Gordon (Alice Krige). They go to dinner later that night and a romance blossoms.
At the 1923 AAA Championship competition in London, Eric and Harold are racing each other for the first time, amongst others. Eric wins the race. Harold is upset with himself for his first competitive loss. As luck would have it, Sam witnessed the race and approaches Harold afterwards, offering to coach him as he's seen where there can be improvements to subtract a couple of seconds to his race time. The training commences, including physical exercises and slideshow presentations of how to improve one's run, including stretching the body at the finish properly.
Back in Scotland, Eric accidentally misses a church prayer meeting due to his running. Jennie confronts Eric, concerned that he's losing sight of the church. Eric puts her at ease somewhat, saying this was simply a mistake and to not run would be to dishonor God, as Eric feels he's been given this gift of speed in God's name.
Meanwhile, the Cambridge college masters meet with Harold and express concern and displeasure about him taking on a coach, saying that it isn't gentlemanly for an amateur athlete to take on a professional coach. Harold dismisses this as just more anti-Semitism and social class snobbery from the elders, and he leaves vowing to keep Sam as his coach.
Both Eric and Harold are among the British athletes that will represent their homeland in the 1924 Paris Summer Olympics. Several of Harold's friends from Cambridge will also compete. Harold is told that he will possibly race Eric once again during the Olympics, and Harold is chomping at the bit for the opportunity to avenge his loss to him the previous year.
As he is boarding the ship to Paris, a reporter asks Eric if the fact that the qualifying heats for the 100-meter race will be on a Sunday affects him due to his Christian beliefs. Eric is stunned to learn the heats will be on Sunday, and ultimately decides he'll have to forfeit as he remembers what his sister told him about her concerns that he was forgetting the church in favor of racing. In Paris, the British Olympic Committee and even Prince Edward VIII meet with Eric to try and change his mind to no avail. However, one of Eric's teammates arrives and, since he has already won a medal at the Games, offers to give up his spot in the 400-meters race on Thursday. Eric accepts the offer, everyone's happy, and newspapers around the world trumpet Eric's moral fiber.
Sam shows film to Harold, including clips of the heavily-favored American runners Charles Paddock (Dennis Christopher) and Jackson Scholz (Brad Davis). During the Games, Harold struggles in his qualifying heats and has already lost out on a medal in the 200-meter race. He has one last shot in the 100-meter race, which despite no longer being able to avenge his loss to Eric in it, Harold desperately desires to win both for him and for Sam, who has never coached anyone to Olympic gold.
On the day of the race, Sam writes a note to Harold, telling him that he'll watch the race from a distance since he feels it will be good luck. Harold does indeed win, stretching his body as Sam taught him to eke out a victory over the favored Americans. Sam is overcome with emotion in his room. Eric has witnessed the race and is among the first to congratulate Harold, who graciously shakes his hand. Harold now feels he can move on from competitive running, finish his schooling and marry Sybil.
Eric is ready for his race next, the 400-meters. The American coach tells his charges that Eric, despite being great at sprints, has no chance in this far-longer distance. Just before the race, Scholz hands Eric a note that says how much he admires Eric's convictions for sacrificing his initial race in the name of God. Bolstered by this, as well as his sister Jennie cheering vociferously from the stands, Eric wins the 400-meters to claim a gold medal as well.
We return to the funeral scene in 1978, and the speaker finishes the story that we've just seen unfold. The speaker is Lord Andrew Lindsay, the last surviving member of the 1924 British Olympic team, and he is speaking at the funeral for Harold. An onscreen text epilogue explains that Harold did marry Sybil and became an elder statesman for British athletics. Eric spent the rest of his life as a missionary in China until his untimely death in 1945, after which all of Scotland mourned their hero.
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While Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams were indeed real people who accomplished what they did in running and in life as the story is told on screen, there were many liberties taken for the purposes of creative license. For instance, Sam was actually introduced to Harold by Eric, as opposed to Harold seeking Sam out. Harold also never actually attempted the Trinity Great Court Run. One odd liberty probably wasn't a liberty at all, but simply a mistake. Sybil Gordon's name wasn't Sybil Gordon, it was Sybil Evers, and she and Harold didn't meet until 1934. Other liberties were taken in regards to the Olympics. Eric actually knew well in advance about the qualifying heats being on a Sunday, and plans were made for Eric to race the 400-meters instead. Eric and Harold competed in several races apiece at the Olympics that were not shown in the film, but alluded to. One of those races was the 200-meters race, which Eric Liddell finished third in to win a bronze medal (Paddock and Scholz were the top two). Guess who else ran in that race? Yep, Harold Abrahams. This was the only time in reality that Eric and Harold competed in the same race. Their meeting in the 1923 AAA Championship in the film was fictitious, though Liddell did compete in and win the event, and that win did inspire Harold to ramp us his own training.
Creative license notwithstanding, Chariots of Fire is a nice little film. Unfortunately, that's about all I can say about it. There isn't anyone or anything in the world that will convince me it should have won Best Picture over Atlantic City, On Golden Pond, Raiders of the Lost Ark or Reds, all of which I think are better films. As it turns out, the Best Picture win for Chariots was considered an upset. The film won 4 Oscars in total, also garnering gold for Original Screenplay (Colin Welland), Costume Design (Milena Canonero) and Original Score (Vangelis). 3 other nominations were earned for Director (Hugh Hudson), Supporting Actor (Holm) and Film Editing (Terry Rawlings). There's nothing wrong with Chariots of Fire, but to me it doesn't stand tall amongst the cumulative list of Best Picture-winning movies. That theme song, though? Still awesome today.
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