At the 54th Academy Awards (1982), the British film "Chariot of Fire" defeated the two fierce rivals of "Atlantic City" and "Gone with the Wind" to win the Best Picture Award. If you look at the traditional American values, "Chariot of Fire" is not the mainstream choice of Hollywood.
The film was released in May 1981, and its typical British style, Britain's own national pride, and confrontation with American athletics may have depressed its probability of winning the award.
However, in addition to the Oscar judges' tolerance for the above elements of resistance, the universal spirit shown in the film has become the biggest chip to defeat its opponents.
While the judges tolerate the above elements of non-mainstream American values, the film presents a profound ideology and a detached spirituality for the outside of sports competition, which together constitute the biggest spiritual connotation of "Chariot of Fire".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" > duo of the protagonist</h1>
Maybe many people enter this movie because of the classic soundtrack, but if we want to talk about Chariot of Fire, we inevitably have to talk about the meaning of faith and love.
In terms of the spiritual values presented in the film, the principle of faith is further universalized and noble, and when this characteristic is projected onto the character, it shows the character's detachment from the existing world.
Of course, as far as the layout of "Chariot of Fire" is concerned, a single spiritual direction obviously cannot quickly resonate with the audience, and the collision between the characters highlights the tension of the story.
The film, directed by Hugh Hudson, gives the two protagonists plenty of room for self-expression, with Ericeyd's warm tolerance and Alaborham's cold stubbornness forming a stark contrast.
During this period, the external performance of the different forms of the role in the body language of the athletics competition further enriches the inner diversity and complexity.
In the course of athletics, Ericid's temperament is presented as the enjoyment, pleasure and satisfaction of the entire sports process, and the external state of extreme relaxation is the true projection of his inner world.
Compared with the first protagonist, the second protagonist shows the complexity and contradiction of the personality, which is extremely rare in literary discourse. And his inner struggle can be seen as a word of special identity environment, which is caused by the deviation of the two protagonists to the spiritual understanding of sportsmanship.
The fear of failure constituted Alabham's fear of the game, and fear prevented him from improving his competitive state, which further constituted an outward manifestation of the negative energy in his personality.
These include confrontation with the jury, anger at lovers, and so on. But in the end, the film offers the possibility of third-party intervention, which stems from Alaborhan's spiritual gap.
The appearance of the coach allowed Alaborhan to complete the concentration on the body itself, and through asceticism and high-intensity discipline, Alaborhan resolved the spiritual confusion with powerful physical discourse and completed the transcendence of the self.
Cleverly, the film does not escalate the vibrations of the two protagonists into direct discourse or physical conflict, and under the reasonable and meticulous distribution of the shots, the two form a clever camera reflection and a sharp comparison of values.
Through language skills, the dialogue between the two across time and space is completed, which enhances their own artistic level, and makes the British elegance appropriately reflected in competitive sports.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="31" > the inner battle between love and fear</h1>
In "Chariot of Fire", we see a rich local cultural connotation, the British 20s style elements, the era of clothing, clothing and accents, gentleman's elegance and other cultural characteristics, perfecting the authenticity and historicity of the core of the story.
But we see the entanglement and struggle of the human heart under the fine appearance, and behind the British sense of the times is the investigation and dissection of the commonality of human belief.
During the special period of the 1924 Paris Olympic Games, the typical presentation of personality and the daily spiritual confusion merged into one.
As a devout Christian, Eric puts Christianity in the first place; especially when the belief in God collides with the actual rights system such as politics and home country, Eric's initial and ultimate obedience to faith perfects his noble personality.
It is undeniable that Eric also struggled in the process of choice, and in the face of the absolute power of the royal family, Eric withstood the test of divinity, for which he gave up the concept of personal honor, which was his obedience to his inner true nature.
After all, in the Olympic games, personal honor and home country honor have produced a deep value binding. Between Eric's long-lived love and short-lived interests, a rich dialogue of big and small, strong and weak, light and dark.
Compared with ordinary competitive films, the greatness of this film lies in the bias towards the spiritual value of love in the broad sense; even in the face of the royal family, Eric's love has not weakened, but has gained a strong increase through dramatic tension.
In the end, love triumphed over interest, faith triumphed over kingship, and divinity triumphed over the home-state community. After the return of faith to the individual, power recedes to the second place.
In traditional Western values, love is matched by fear. The destruction of fear is the driving force of Alabham's heart. Love and fear are placed in the hearts of the two protagonists, constituting the inner driving force behind their path choice.
Alabham's talent and energy are beyond doubt. But initially, because of the failure of the game, he trapped himself in a mental realm of frustration and fear. Fear gradually overwhelmed his self-confidence, until the timely appearance of external forces broke the original closed state inside him.
The first layer of external force comes from the girlfriends we know in the dance hall, and the love for the lover stimulates her inner instinct for love; but in the verbal conflict with the lover, we find that the love related to the instinct cannot break through Alaborham's inner barrier.
Until the appearance of the coach, the combined effect of the two external forces was completed, because it touched the origin of Alabham's fear of sports competition. Compared with the decent coach, he completed the removal of the inner barrier of the target of the behavior with the posture of a division commander.
During this time, the methodology solved Alabham's technical troubles and shackles about competition; Ian Home's spiritual inspiration once again broke his inner obsession.
When Abraham was no longer obsessed with winning or losing, athletics became his physical and mental enjoyment.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="84" > the spiritual height of the competitive subject</h1>
"Chariot of Fire" is not an Olympic film in the typical sense, but its transcendence of the original theme has completed its artistic transformation; compared with the later single value-oriented competitive films such as "Kill Munich", its significance lies in the obedience to humanitarianism.
In addition, Chariot of Fire is not a typical biographical film, although the story unfolds from the perspective of legendary narrative and heroism, but the expression does not indulge in a well-set legendary narrative. Instead, the hero has become the best spokesperson for the anti-heroism routine of the movie.
Universal values run through the film, and tolerance for human nature has been further expanded in the concept of movement. The tolerance and fraternity revealed by the image can be compared with more ordinary genre films.
To talk about dramatic conflict, the concept of the two protagonists from front to back collides from the inside out, which constitutes the hidden sword and light sword shadow of the film. Athletes sacrificed themselves and won the Olympic championship, so that the concept of tolerance was completely inherited on the field.
Since the inception of the modern Olympics in 1904, one of the principles has been "mutual understanding, friendship, solidarity and fair competition", and love is the richest spiritual connotation of the Olympic Games than the "external appearance" of competition and confrontation.
"Chariot of Fire" enriches the original form of love, and achieves commonality and integration with the spirit of competition, and love is fully conveyed in the image.