Chariots of fire (1981)

So its a Tuesday morning and I'm sat in my college canteen, still sore from last night's Jujitsu lesson and surrounded by a bunch of wannabes and the socially rejected.
So I've decided to review another recent film I've watched and that is the Oscars best picture in 1981- chariots of fire. Not usually a film I'd hold dear in my heart and I was rather jaded in watching this feature, oh how wrong could I have been.
Based on the 1924 Olympics in France, the story is about two British athletes... Eric Liddell, played by Ian  Charleson and Harold Abraham, played by Ben Cross. It must be noted that this film isn't about running, but about representing who they are as a person to the world, Abraham was a proud British Jew who faced anti- Semitism whilst studying in Cambridge, Eric on the other hand was a proud Scott but above that... A proud Christian, his beliefs included not playing sports or training on the Sabbath, which became a huge problem when **spoiler alert** his heat for the 200m dash was on a Sunday. To solve his problem, he ended up taking Lord Lindsay's (Nigel Havers) place in the 400m event on the Thursday. In the end they end up both winning gold in their respective events and were held as Olympic greats.

One known fact about this film is that the Chariots of Fire by Vangelis was specifically composed for this film and the most iconic scene in the film has been re-enacted multiple times in other films and even T.V commercials (the Sun newspaper in the UK especially), we all know it, as we watch the British Olympic team run along the beach in an all white sport kit cover in mud... The nostalgic " do do do do dooo dooo do do do do dooooo" is heard... Bring a tear to any patriotic fan of this film when ever it is heard.
In conclusion, yeah its an alright film.... Its rather long and repetitive, and could be said to be outdated by now, with it being almost 31 years old now but the plot is good and the execution of the characters performance could be highly regarded as great, in truth I am baffled how it won an Oscar in 81' yet Americans (no disrespect) love traditional British tales of power and glory. I would put this film as a low 7/10, maybe a film if you have a lot of time on your hands and feeling all sporty because of the 2012 London Olympics.