Films with a Religious Theme

Chariots of Fire

One film that we watch is 'Chariots of Fire', a film based on actual events, in which there is a double religious theme. Eric Liddell, a young Scottish athlete, the son of missionaries to China and determined himself to follow in their footsteps, is selected to represent Great Britain in the 1924 Paris Olympic Games. However, when he discovers, at a very late stage, that the heats for his event are to be run on a Sunday, he refuses to run. Newspaper headlines declare, "Athlete puts God before king." He had trained hard for this event, even at the expense of his university studies, but he would not budge from his firmly held Christian principles that Sunday was the Lord's Day. In fact, Eric's sister was even stricter and had been concerned that his love of sport would interfere with his Bible work. His father, on the other hand, encouraged him to run in God's Name and to let the world stand back in wonder.

A few years earlier, he had pointed out to a youngster, who had been playing football on a Sunday, that he should not be doing that on 'the Sabbath.' In Scotland, Sunday is often referred to by the name of the Jewish holy day, emphasising the idea that it is a day when no work is done. Now he had to stand by those principles himself. In the end, a solution to the problem was found by letting Liddell run in another event, the quarter mile. Just before taking his marks, a piece of paper was thrust into his hand. It was a note from the American athlete, Jackson Schultz. It simply said, "It says in the old Book - Him that honours Me, says God, I will honour." Liddell won his Olympic Gold medal.

Another of the athletes is Harold Abrahams. He is studying at Caius College, Cambridge and has ambitions to become a barrister. He is a promising athlete and proudly English, but he encounters prejudice because he is Jewish (his father is a Lithuanian Jew). He is the first to do the 'College Dash' - running the perimeter of the College quadrangle before the clock finishes chiming twelve at midday - starting on the first chime and finishing before the last. The College Masters make comments about his being a Jew - "moneylenders, as they invariably are" and "God's chosen people." They seem disappointed that it was he, a Jew, who was first in 700 years to achieve the feat and not his fellow competitor.

Harold will not accept defeat, either on the track (seen on the occasion when he was beaten by Eric Liddell), or in his personal life as a Jew. He is aware of their "cold reluctance" when offering a handshake, but he is determined to take 'them' on. He is not devoutly religious, for he chooses a non-Jewish partner and eats pork on a date in a restaurant, but is acutely aware of the anti-Semitism directed against him, not least by the Masters of the Cambridge College itself. In a private meeting they accuse him of disloyalty to the College by employing a foreigner and a professional to be his trainer. The University believes that the true English athlete is an amateur. When he walks out in anger and disgust, the comment is made, "There goes your Semite - a different God, a different mountain top." The irony of the situation is that Harold is fervently English - this is highlighted as he sings a lead role in a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta and we are given a glimpse of the scene where they sing of his character, "For he himself has said it; and it's greatly to his credit, that he is an Englishman... For he might have been a Russian, or French or Turk or Prussian, or perhaps I-tal-i-an..."
He explains to his lady-friend (who later becomes his wife) that his addiction to running is his weapon against being Jewish. He too wins the Gold medal for his event and is duly acknowledged as a Caius College athlete.

The central theme of the film is the commitment of Eric Liddell to his Christian principles and his aim in life to become a missionary. Personal ambition, duty to king and country, all took second place to God. To many such an issue may seem relatively unimportant - indeed, even many Christians may not agree that it is important - but to Liddell it was a test of obedience and priorities. In our present days, when principles are so easily sacrificed for personal gain or glory, the director chose a real life story where a man stood for what he believed and honoured God, and, as far as he was concerned, God honoured him. In the end, the victory was not winning the race but holding fast to principles and giving of one's best.

The film begins and ends with the memorial service, in 1978, of Harold Abrahams. As the service comes to a close, the hymn 'Jerusalem' is sung, the second verse of which provides the title of the film:

Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.

The hymn sums up the single minded and principled commitment of the two heroes of the film. And the idea of the capital of capitals (for a Jewish person), the Holy City, being built in England's green and pleasant land, is, of course, particularly apt in the case of Harold Abrahams.