Chariots of Fire by Hugh Hudson

Chariots of Fire by Hugh Hudson is another inspiring movie which talks about the motivation and how two men fight for their own glory in the 1924 Olympics. The movie focuses on two main character, Eric Liddel, a Scottish Christian and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew. Both are runners and the movie portrays the way both runners train themselves to achieve their goals in Olympics.

Let’s talk about both main characters. Liddel’s parents are Scottish missionary who based in China. His sister always not agree of what he’s doing, competitive running. However, what Liddel thinks is, he thinks that running is a way of glorifying God, he wishes to run in Olympics before he back to China. On the other hand, Abrahams, who is a Jewish Englishman, desperately wish to prove himself to the world, to overcome prejudice towards Jewish. Both of them run not only for their dignity, but also for their religions.

Abrahams once run with Liddel and Liddel beats him. Abrahams is very upset till he met Mussabini, a professional trainer. In this movie, it shows the equal stories of how Liddel and Abrahams train themselves for the coming Olympics. What I found out is their training methods are totally different. Liddel is trained by himself, he simply use up his entire strength and passion and run, without any assist. Whereas Abrahams is trained by Mussabini, he taught him on how to run with tactics.

Though both of the main characters have met the difficulties during the training period for Olympics. Abrahams is being questioned of using professional coach, as it is not a right thing to employ a professional coach to train him for the run. Abrahams argues his points that this has to be changed. Meanwhile, Liddel who is putting all his efforts on the coming run for Olympics, is being doubted by his sister. His sister thinks that he has changed and he is no longer has passion on his mission. Liddel confronts his sister that this is the only way he could feel the God. He says, “I believe that God made me for a purpose. But He also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure.”

Both runners have place their commitment, devotion, sacrifice throughout the movie and I am being motivated by their passion.