Erik Gray's Journals
#journalgems
Written by Erik in February 2011
His Junior Year at Cedar High
CHARIOTS OF FIRE: A MESSAGE BEHIND THE MOVIE
Chariots of
Fire, a movie based on the story of two runners in the 1924
Olympics, is a very inspiring movie. It starts out showing the two stories of
Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell. Harold enters Cambridge University,
interested in competitive running, but experiences racial prejudice from the
staff. Eric Liddell, born in China of Scottish missionary parents, is in Scotland.
His sister disapproves of his plans to pursue competitive running. But Liddell sees
running as a way of glorifying God before returning to China to work as a
missionary.
As the
movie goes on, you see the two runners race against each other, and soon they
both are on the same Olympics track team. When Eric refuses to run his heat on
a Sunday, one of his friends steps in and offers his place in the 400 meter. I
won’t give away what happens, but from the little I’ve explained, I hope you
get a pretty good feel for the movie.
This movie
contains a lot of great messages and holds a lot of inspiration. One message is
that if you believe in yourself and work hard enough, you can achieve anything.
Eric and Harold both showed this from their end result, make the impossible…
well, possible. Another message is to keep the Sabbath day holy. By respecting
this, Eric was able to run in the 400 meter race, and- you’ll see what happens.
Although
this is an old movie, I believe it did very well as far as the settings and
music. The setting of each scene was awesome, and you felt as if you were
actually there. The music was phenomenal. There was intense music at the
intense moments, and of course, who can forget the famous “Chariots of Fire”
song everyone sings when they run, especially in slow motion.
I
definitely recommend this movie. It has a great plot, has intense moments, and
has an unforgettable message: Never stop believing in yourself.
