writing and…RUNNING: CHARIOTS

What else could this be but the beginning and end sequence of Chariots of Fire? It’s a film that might be much parodied and – unfairly, unjustifiably, unconscionably! – maligned, mostly for the slow motion sequences. But as the director, Hugh Hudson, so aptly said: “So what? It works.”

   And he’s right.

   To call the film glorious makes glorious an understatement. My favourite line (of too many to count) is when Harold Abrahams says, after seeing Eric Liddell run for the first time:

   “I’ve never seen such drive, such commitment in a runner…He runs like a wild animal. He unnerves me.”

   It’s likely asking too much to be able to write the way Eric Liddell ran, but I’d settle any day of the week for a bit of Hugh Hudson –

   A bit of:

   So what?

   It works.