Never Stop Believing in Yourself

Erik Gray's Journals

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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.