b'Verdicts onCHARIOTS OF FIRESome Year 8 boys and some teachersgive their opinions on the Oscar-winning classic, and that famous theme music!Chariots of Fire: THE MIND OF SPEED & GRACEThis is, at its heart, a film about performanceAbrahams uses sport to bite back atinner child. Learning that participation is the and performance mindset. The mindset itthe underhand and casual racism hefirst step to any victory. Realising that though explores is one close to a great many of usexperiences. When he races, he races forsomeone else may be more marvellous than here at HGS: spirituality and faith. The filmJudea and his speed is his weapon foryou are on the day, that doesnt mean your presents religion as a core driver for the twocarving out a place amongst the corridorscompetitor has taken any of your own light. main characters, who are both elite athletesof power, which he regards as lined withEric Liddell does all of these things. Sprinting and competitors. Harold Abrahams is aAnglo-Saxons, and Christian at that. Fortakes him within himself, and there he taps Jewish sprinter who carries the weight ofhim, racing is an all-or-nothing, winner-takes- into his personal spirituality. Like Abrahams, his fathers dream to raise English sons.all, sudden-death scrap to carve a place forhe is a religious man. Unlike Abrahams, Liddell Eric Liddell is a devoutly Christian Scottishhimself as a second generation immigrantdoesnt define his faith through opposition and missionary. Abrahams and Liddell admitand Englishman. To race and to win is tocompetition. He doesnt need to fight for a unabashedly that they are fast and that theirtriumph. To race and come any slower thanplace if God will provide one. Liddell runs the speed is a particularly powerful spiritual gift.first is worse than defeat.race and God provides the win:Their shared gift, however, goes beyond theBut herein lies the lesson: limits of individual sport. It ties together aonly small children view group of four friends, their college communitylife in such narrow, winner at Cambridge, England, Scotland and,takes all terms. AndI want you to do more than just run a race. ultimately, the United Kingdom. Abrahams does loseI want you to take part in it. I want you to Harold Abrahams takes Caius College,when he comes head to Cambridge by storm by being the first manhead with Eric Liddell,compare faith to running in a race; its hard, to attempt and win the Trinity College Greatdown from Edinburgh,it requires concentration of will and energy of Court Run, running the 130-yard perimeterScotland for the British 100 of the college yard within the 12 strikes ofmetres championships.soul. You experience elation when you break the college clocks noon toll. His challenger,Liddell soundly outpacesthe tape Everyone runs in their own way. Lord Andrew Lindsay, sparks an immediateAbrahams by two yardsAnd where does the power come from, to see friendship under the banner of school,(just under two metres). university and college, when he insists onUtterly dismayed,the race to the end? From within. racing beside my friend for Repton, Eton,Abrahams learns his all-and Caius!, a dedication which Lindsayor-nothing approach could exclaims to raucous applause; and somehave fatal consequences 11 seconds later, the two collapse intofor his aspiration to join the athletics eliteNo sprinter ever won by walking. No one the arms of their respective best friends,before he even begins. If I cant win, then Iever reached a goal simply by thinking about Aubrey Montague and Henry Stallard. Thewont race, he declares. His partner Sybilit. One must take action. One must run the quartet remain fast friends, together takinggives him the needed kick up the backsiderace. But do it in your own way, lads! Thats the university athletics circuit by storm,with her response: If you wont race, Harold,the message here. Stick with the people who crushing opposition in long distance, thethen you cant win. When Abrahams loseshelp you find the way you run. Make them sprints, and the steeplechase. Sport andto Liddell his ego falls flat on its face and heyour best friends. Know that whether you the shared mindset of high performancefalls into a child-like tantrum. Hes barely ablewin, achieve second, or come in third place, and deep performance prove to be social,to leave the stadium hours after the race hasyou have still attained excellence. Attaining ethnic and national levellers. Abrahams,finished! Hes a classic sprinter, all nervesvictory, true victory, doesnt cost anyone son of an immigrant Lithuanian Jew, makeswhile Liddell, a longer distance man, racesanything, because the effort, the power, the it to Cambridge on brains; Lindsay hasfrom the heart.energy, the spirit comes from within.aristocratic connections; Aubrey Montague and Henry Stallard are more conventionalFinding the resilience to respond to crushingDr Tepeundergraduates.defeat. Finding the maturity to tame your 12'