Factual obstacles? Pah – they will be hurdled like champagne glasses in 1981's rousing but historically dodgy Olympics drama
Director: Hugh Hudson
Entertainment grade: B+
History grade: C–
British runners won three gold medals at the 1924 Olympics in Paris.
Races
The 1919 Cambridge University freshers' fair teems with eager young chaps signing up for various drinking societies masquerading under the banners of philately, birdwatching or Fabianism. But Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) has eyes only for the athletics club. He challenges for the Great Court Run – a dash around the main quad of Trinity College within the time it takes the clock to strike 12. "In almost 700 years nobody's ever done it," gasps a fellow student. Probably not, for Trinity Great Court was laid out in its current form in the early 17th century, and that's only 300 years before this film is set. It's filmed not in Trinity but in Eton College's School Yard,...
Director: Hugh Hudson
Entertainment grade: B+
History grade: C–
British runners won three gold medals at the 1924 Olympics in Paris.
Races
The 1919 Cambridge University freshers' fair teems with eager young chaps signing up for various drinking societies masquerading under the banners of philately, birdwatching or Fabianism. But Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) has eyes only for the athletics club. He challenges for the Great Court Run – a dash around the main quad of Trinity College within the time it takes the clock to strike 12. "In almost 700 years nobody's ever done it," gasps a fellow student. Probably not, for Trinity Great Court was laid out in its current form in the early 17th century, and that's only 300 years before this film is set. It's filmed not in Trinity but in Eton College's School Yard,...
- 7/19/2012
- by Alex von Tunzelmann
- The Guardian - Film News
'We had to do a running audition. One poor chap bent over and brought up his breakfast'
Hugh Hudson, director
I think David Puttnam [the producer] chose me because he sensed I'd relate to the themes of class and racial prejudice. I'd been sent to Eton because my family had gone there for generations, but I hated all the prejudice. The scriptwriter, Colin Welland, a working-class boy from Merseyside, understood it perfectly, too. So it was a personal story for us.
We cast relative newcomers as we wanted the audience to be with them all equally right from the start, to run with them. Everybody remembers the opening jogging scene along the beach. It was key to establishing character: Harold Abrahams, gaunt and determined; Eric Liddell, Scottish, blond, open and free; Aubrey Montague, the amiable, faithful old dog; Lord Andrew Lindsay, the aristocrat, running for the fun of it.
We'd been filming...
Hugh Hudson, director
I think David Puttnam [the producer] chose me because he sensed I'd relate to the themes of class and racial prejudice. I'd been sent to Eton because my family had gone there for generations, but I hated all the prejudice. The scriptwriter, Colin Welland, a working-class boy from Merseyside, understood it perfectly, too. So it was a personal story for us.
We cast relative newcomers as we wanted the audience to be with them all equally right from the start, to run with them. Everybody remembers the opening jogging scene along the beach. It was key to establishing character: Harold Abrahams, gaunt and determined; Eric Liddell, Scottish, blond, open and free; Aubrey Montague, the amiable, faithful old dog; Lord Andrew Lindsay, the aristocrat, running for the fun of it.
We'd been filming...
- 7/10/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
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