|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Product details
|
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The come-from-behind winner of the 1981 Oscar for Best Picture, Chariots of Fire either strikes you as either a cold exercise in mechanical manipulation or as a tale of true determination and inspiration. The heroes are an unlikely pair of young athletes who ran for Great Britain in the 1924 Paris Olympics: devout Protestant Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), a divinity student whose running makes him feel closer to God, and Jewish Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross), a highly competitive Cambridge student who has to surmount the institutional hurdles of class prejudice and anti-Semitism. There's delicious support from Ian Holm (as Abrahams's coach) and John Gielgud and Lindsay Anderson as a couple of Cambridge fogies. Vangelis's soaring synthesised score, which seemed to be everywhere in the early 1980s, also won an Oscar. Chariots of Fire was the debut film of British television commercial director Hugh Hudson (Greystoke) and was produced by David Puttnam. --Jim Emerson
Amazon.co.uk Review
The come-from-behind winner of the 1981 Oscar for best picture, Chariots of Fire either strikes you as either a cold exercise in mechanical manipulation or as a tale of true determination and inspiration. The heroes are an unlikely pair of young athletes who ran for Great Britain in the 1924 Paris Olympics: devout Protestant Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), a divinity student whose running makes him feel closer to God, and Jewish Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross), a highly competitive Cambridge student who has to surmount the institutional hurdles of class prejudice and anti-Semitism. There's delicious support from Ian Holm (as Abrahams's coach) and John Gielgud and Lindsay Anderson as a couple of Cambridge fogies. Vangelis's soaring synthesized score, which seemed to be everywhere in the early 1980s, also won an Oscar. Chariots of Fire was the debut film of British television commercial director Hugh Hudson (Greystoke) and was produced by David Puttnam. --Jim Emerson
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
43 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Film: 5
DVD: 0
DVD: 0
The film is, of course wonderful. I will not go over ground covered in the other reviews here, except to say that this is a beautiful, moving and inspiring film. I remember seeing it in my school hall when I was 9 years old and hadn't seen it again until I viewed this DVD. The years have only sderved to improve the film; comparing it to modern movies is a bit like comparing the 1924 Olympiad to Athens 2004- we seem to have lost something wonderful in the interim.
The DVD, however, is terrible. Others have mentioned the sound: this is not an isolated problem. Throughout the film the speech is muddy, the music harsh and distorted. Often there is mismatch between speech and film- an unforgivable offence. For such a beautiful film the picture itself is grainy; although this may be a deliberate cinematic effect (I can't quite believe that!), given that the sound is so bad it is more likely just poor transfer. As for extras, erm... what extras? I'm not usually too bothered but in a film like this, a Best Picture Oscar winner and a historical tale to boot, I would expect a little more, even a short documentary of the true facts, pictures of the athletes or brief biographies of the protagonists would be nice. Particularly galling as that this is billed as a "Special Commemorative Edition" yet is identical to the previous edition bar a cardboard slipcase bearing the words "Commemorative Edition"!; commemorative of what, exactly? 80 years since the events shown? Then why no documentary abut the 1924 Olympics or the development of the Olympic movement? Or perhaps commemorative of this year's (Athens) olympics? I suspect the words "cash" and "in" are involved here.
I can't help but feel that the producers of this DVD have betrayed the ideals which they promote so highly in this film.
34 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Probably one of my favourite films of all time and the film deserves 6 stars!! The cast, acting, filming and music are all superb. Of course there is a lot of 'poetic license' in the content but it captures the spirit of the age beautifully. I must have seen it dozens of times but a tear still comes to the eye when Sam hears the national anthem following Abrahams' victory in the 100 yards dash final and also when Eric breaks the world record in the 400 yards final, a discipline he didn't specialise in.
An interesting fact (not mentioned in the film) is that Harold Abrahams also set the British long jump record which stood for 30 years !!
I already had it on VHS where the sound quality was somewhat iffy (even in a NICAM player) so I splashed out on the DVD. The sound quality if anything is even worse. You have to crank up the volume to hear the dialogue to the point where there is an annoyingly audible hiss, and then the music deafens you when it comes in.
As has been stated before there are no extras (apart from subtitles)
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This DVD is awful. I watch on a portable player with headphones and the sound was so bad it made the movie unwatchable. A pity as the film itself is one of the greatest made in britain post sixties (the academy award winning soundtrack it's centrepiece) and certainly a favourite of mine. The picture was a little better but the dark tones are extremely grainy (would definitely benefit from an anamorphic release) and the picture at the start of the film is full of scratches and marks. Is this supposed to replicate a cinema going experience? I have serious doubts about some of the colour values too. This is just laziness by 20th century fox. Other films of this era have been successfully transferred to 5.1 sound and if this was an example of the best film negative they could find to transfer onto DVD then a full digital restoration is urgently called for. Until then, you'll enjoy this movie more on VHS.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Poor quality
I already knew about this film, so didn't bother reading the reviews - mistake - This is not a good quality DVD. Picture and sound well below standard I was expecting.
Published 18 days ago by Occasional shopper
Sounds Awful
I dont normally do reviews about the DVD quality itself but I have to agree with others that the sound on this masterpiece is awful, practically inaudable at times. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Barry Wom
great!!
I thoroughly enjoyed it. A great classic. Can beat any of the new stuff around. A harty story with unashamed true life values.
Published 7 months ago by Mlima
Sublime Englishness
This is film bundles up all sorts of English virtues - persistence, principle, self-sacrifice - even though it's about a Scot and a Jew. Read more
Published 9 months ago by William Cohen
Film review only.
If you don't run, you can't win.
Chariots Of Fire charts the path of two young British runners, Eric Liddell & Harold Abrahams, both of whom differ greatly in... Read more
Chariots Of Fire charts the path of two young British runners, Eric Liddell & Harold Abrahams, both of whom differ greatly in... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Spike Owen
A Great representation of Society, Power and Achievements
This is a wonderful film that must be watched with a mind open to enjoy its subtleties. It is hugely enjoyable at the simple its-a-movie level, and is such a rich tapestry of... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Dr John N Sutherland
Great Film
I saw this film when it first came out and felt what a breath of fresh air to have a film so clean wholesome and with a burning message so true and clear.. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mr. K. Griffiths
Chariots of Fire 1
A great flick but for some strange reason one of the 1st scenes was changed, from the original, in the movie. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Keith W. Browb
Botched transfer - the dining hall sequence
Chariots of Fire must have a fresh transfer for the Blu-ray edition as the current one is not just mediocre in terms of sound and picture, but some scenes are incorrectly... Read more
Published 15 months ago by McKnife
Epic (spoiler)
Triumphant sports films have become a popular genre of mine over the years and CHARIOTS OF FIRE (1981) is another example of just how people go the distance to try and claim their... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Mr. S. K. Mackie
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
