Chariots of Fire

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

Paul & Amy run through 1981’s Olympic track drama Chariots of Fire! They learn why this is Joe Biden’s favorite film, ask if this thoroughly British story was at all jazzed up for American audiences, and compare the arcs of individual sports like running to the team sports they’ve covered so far. Plus: How composer Vangelis fought to get his iconic theme in the film.
This is the fourth episode of our Underdogs series; next week’s film is A League Of Their Own! Learn more about the show at unspooledpod.com, follow us on Twitter @unspooled and Instagram @unspooledpod, and don’t forget to rate, review & subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify. You can also listen to our Stitcher Premium game show Screen Test right now at https://www.stitcher.com/show/unspooled-screen-test, and apply to be a contestant at unspooledpod@gmail.com! Photo credit: Kim Troxall

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

i have no idea how to vote. i thought it was a terrific film, looks good, poetic, unique use of music, important to British culture. but it is also a little boring, right? i rated it highly as a film for my own purposes, but not sure about for the Unspooled Spaceship. stumped on that. i guess i should listen to the episode.

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

I think it's fine, I'm not mad at it, but I don't think it would be all that memorable if not for the Vangelis score, which is doing a lot of work to help set it apart from all the other stiff-upper-lip British historical dramas. Otherwise it's well-done, hits its marks and all that, but I don't feel strongly about it one way or the other.

It does seem weird to me that American audiences flipped for this back in the day. I fully understand it if British audiences did, but outside of that . . . it seems to me the movie is really leaning heavily on assumed British patriotism to make any of the emotional stuff land. This as opposed to a real classic like Lawrence of Arabia, which really goes out and shows you why this story is important. Chariots of Fire seems to just kind of assume you already know.

[FictionIsntReal 79]

I preferred this to the earlier sports movies. But merely being better than them, or even better than Amy & Paul claim it to be, isn't enough to go in the space capsule, or the AFI list.

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

It's weird, Paul & Amy seem to not like the movie so much, but the way they talk about it are all the things that are great about it. Meditative, tampered-down drama, not explosive, British stoicness. Those things are why it works, and feels different.