Review of Chariots of Fire (1981) by Andrea M — 10 Jan 2012

Chariots of Fire has depth and can be seen as an inspiring film on different accounts, yet I was never able to connect with this slow, occasionally even sluggish, picture. I will not deny the beauty and artistic importance of the film, and I do think, to some extent, that it deserves the credit that it gets, yet I never found it an enjoyable viewing experience. I stopped halfway the first time I watched it, and only after sheer determination was I able to view the whole thing another time, not that I think I will want to see it again in the near future. I found it quite sad actually, as I can see that the film's meaning is strong and that it does try to get the message across, yet, I was never truly touched by this picture.

On the positive side, praise has to go to the spectacular score, as well as the film's layers of depth, which, f, lift it above several other similar pictures. Chariots of Fire, however flawed, is a classic, and it deserves to be so.

Weighing everything up, however, I can't ignore the film's defects. I'm never one who judges a film's quality by its pace and 'catchiness' (a lot of my favourite pictures are quite long and slow-moving), yet there's a difference between the pleasantly idyll slow, and the plain dull slow. At least as I see it, Chariots of Fire falls into the latter category. Maybe one day I'll watch this film again, and maybe its quality will be able to trascend its pace, and perhaps I'll truly be able to appreciate this picture for what it is. Yet at the moment, my opinion stands firm.