| CLOSE WINDOW |
|
FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Chariots of Fire (Vangelis)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only if you specifically appreciated the short, but
incredibly obvious contributions by Vangelis in the disparate context of
this overrated film.
Avoid it... if you expect anything more substantive than the catchy title theme, for Vangelis' score as a whole is ridiculously undeveloped for the plot and doesn't even make for an engaging or coherent new age listening experience on album.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Chariots of Fire: (Vangelis) Throughout the history
of film, there have been popular productions that have defined
themselves as proven classics and those that expose themselves as
temporary fads, and one of the more interesting and contested examples
of the latter category is the 1981 oddity Chariots of Fire.
Coming from Great Britain and eventually storming through the Academy
Awards, this depiction of the British running team's preparation for and
participation in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris concentrated on two,
specific real-life characters. The stories of Harold Abrahams and Eric
Liddell were compelling in their original forms, though screenwriter
Colin Welland, who won an Oscar for his work here, took substantial
liberties with the exact circumstances of those and other characters, as
well as the games themselves. A heavy religious hand held Chariots of
Fire in place, for the substance of the plot dealt with the effects
that the two men's religions had on their running and placement on the
team. Tackling anti-Semitism, devoted religious practices, and various
prejudices, the film had a progressive message to go along with its
nearly G-rated inspirational tone. Being that it was set in 1924, the
film's period sensibilities were notable, including much praise for the
costumes and art direction. One awkward but ultimately popularly
successful aspect of Chariots of Fire was its music, perhaps the
most memorable part of the production in hindsight. Director Hugh Hudson
used a combination of church choir music, traditional anthems, and
Gilbert and Sullivan showtunes all in source-like contexts, each seen
performed on screen extensively. A fair amount of the conversational
scenes would either be addressed by the peripheries of these pieces or
receive silence. It's not uncommon for some of the most engaging moments
of Chariots of Fire to feature no music at all. For the remainder
of the scenes, Hudson hired Greek electronic composer Evangelos Odyssey
Papathanassiou to provide a low-budget solution for his inexpensive
production. The director had been impressed with the composer's music
for other small projects of the 1970's, but little did he know that
Chariots of Fire would turn the composer's mainstream name of
Vangelis into a chart-topping sensation. Vangelis' music for the film,
while short in length, was destined for the level of hype and album
sales that few soundtracks ever achieve, despite the plethora of
problems that the score posed in context.
Recorded by Vangelis in his newly established London studio, Chariots of Fire amazed in its ability to lure the mainstream. It remained on America's Top 200 Billboard charts for 97 weeks and the U.K. charts for 107. It reached the #1 overall position for four weeks in America and several other countries, selling three million copies of its album in the first year of release. The title theme became the identity for the BBC's coverage of the Olympics in 1984 and 1988 and, over the following thirty years, has been the subject of countless parodies (usually involving slow-motion photography). All of this success is proof, once again, that mainstream popularity doesn't always indicate artistic superiority, however, and although the title theme for Chariots of Fire is certainly a remarkable new age achievement, the remainder of Vangelis' music for this project remains one of the most overrated film scores in the history of cinema. Much discussion was carried on at the time about Vangelis' technique of handling the 1924 setting with such a blatantly synthetic sound. The composer responded immediately by stating, "I didn't want to do period music. I tried to compose a score which was contemporary and still compatible with the time of the film. But I also didn't want to go for a completely electronic sound." He came to this conclusion after many discussions with the story's writer and waiting until production of the film's other elements had been completed. The challenge Vangelis faced was in the choice of where to position his original material, and this was eventually one of the major downfalls of his endeavor. He wrote three major themes for Chariots of Fire, one for the general concept of running and one apiece for the two primary characters. Unfortunately, as is a problem in many Vangelis scores, development and placement of these themes is marginal at best, hindered even more in this case by the extensive employment of source music. It is the collection of source cues in Chariots of Fire that gives it the connection necessary to the period, addressing the religious aspects of the story along the way. The use of five Gilbert and Sullivan tunes in the film is highlighted by the song "For He is an Englishman" from "H.M.S. Pinafore," heard during Abrahams' training scene and making a socio-political statement in the process. More important is the choral performance (by the Ambrosian Singers) of Sir Hubert Parry's 1916 hymn "Jerusalem," with lyrics that inspired the title of the film. This piece bookends the film during the 1978 scenes of Abrahams' funeral. By contrast to the extensively appropriate source music for Chariots of Fire, Vangelis' rolls in periodically through the film and immediately causes discord. Few scores are so incredibly inappropriate and/or obnoxious in the context of a subject matter and the other music in a soundtrack. The composer was an ensemble of one, performing all the roles on piano, synthesizers, and percussion (cymbals and timpani). His title theme, heard over the famous running scene on the beach that accompanies the opening and closing of the film, is the piece that inspired so many sales of this score. It is an essential Vangelis theme, repetitive but romantic, embellished in simplistic ways but still elegant enough on piano to sway the heart. The rhythmic synthetic effects in this theme are as famous at the dominant progression itself, instantly recognizable with its pulsating echoes. Vangelis was accused of plagiarism by Greek composer Stavros Logarides in regards to this theme, but the challenge was eventually thrown out in court. As with all of Vangelis' work, the recording heard in the film is different than that on album, and in no place is this more obvious than in the title theme. The version on screen is far more raw in its electronic textures; Vangelis softened the accompaniment and gave the piano greater depth in his various album recordings of the theme. The two other themes that Vangelis wrote for Chariots of Fire are opposites in terms of tone, though both would prove to be distracting and ineffective in the film. The theme for Abrahams is so slight in its rendering, deliberately revealed in almost hypnotic xylophone-like tones, that it is never given a chance to have an impact. A descending, crying seagull sound effect behind this theme is, for instance, all that the listener really hears when Abrahams wins the 100 meter race, extending a water-like environment where inappropriate. Much more redemptive is the theme for Liddell ("Eric's Theme"), an uplifting if not basic idea with some grossly British self-importance built into its major-key structures. This theme makes a notable, but rather disjointed appearance near the end of the final race in the film, very awkwardly following several minutes without any music at all. This editing technique also ruined the 100 meter race that Abrahams won as well, with awkward shifts in the application of crowd noise, the sounds of the runners themselves, and poorly positioned musical fragments. While these two themes are heard several times in the film, they are not very well integrated into either surrounding music or, more problematically, with the famous title theme for the film. Outside of the three major themes heard in the score, Vangelis offers little more than singular new age concert pieces or ambient environment. He uses extensive wind effects to emulate, perhaps, a beach setting, aided by metallic tingling in the highest treble regions. The "Five Circles" piece is as generic as Vangelis gets, repeating a basic melodic idea endlessly for five minutes and frustrating fans by offering an album recording that completely abandons the piano version heard in the film. The "100 Metres" cue is among the worst single pieces of film music ever placed on screen. The largely dissonant piece replaces crowd noise in this preparation scene and accompanies the runners' personal sounds in such an awkward way that the scene loses all of its dramatic impact. It reminds of the other-worldly music that was originally heard in the Space Mountain amusement park ride at Disneyland; such sounds might have worked in Blade Runner, but in Chariots of Fire they're an embarrassment. As usual, Vangelis recorded an extensive "inspired by" suite for the LP (and later CD) albums of the score, and only in this 21-minute piece does he offer any reprises of the three major themes in the score. A slight, rambling, and mostly fragmented piano treatment of the title theme is a disappointment here, as are the extensive wind-like sound effects that occupy entire two-minute periods in the suite. Overall, this score is ridiculously overrated, incompetent in its treatment of the subject. Many used the unexpected application of new age music into a period film to applaud Vangelis on the whole, but just because a score is different doesn't make it effective. Imagine what Jerry Goldsmith could have done (budget permitting, of course) with a sports topic as inspiring as this. The fact that Vangelis won the Oscar that year over John Williams' Raiders of the Lost Ark remains among the biggest travesties in AMPAS history. Even Vangelis, in hindsight, doesn't consider the score to be among his most compelling works. That didn't stop him from including the title theme as an encore to his famed Mythodea concert at the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens on June 28, 2001, complete with The London Metropolitan Orchestra's fuller accompaniment to the composer's slightly out of synch keyboarding. If you seek the original recording of Chariots of Fire as heard in film, your choices are limited. Vangelis has remastered his album version a few times, most notably in 2000, though all of the CD versions released during subsequent years are essentially the same. A rare, 24 karat gold CD offered by Mobile Fidelity in 1995 (with black cover) has sound quality arguably worse than the regular commercial products. In the end, unless you're a Vangelis devotee, find a beach and run, run, run away. **
TRACK LISTINGS:
All Albums:
Total Time: 41:56
* written by Sir Hubert Parry and performed by the Ambrosian Singers
NOTES & QUOTES:
The inserts typically include a short note from Vangelis about the production.
On all versions of the product, Abrahams' name is misspelled as part of the title of
the third track.
Copyright ©
2009-2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Chariots of Fire are Copyright © 1990, 1995, 2000, 2006, Polydor Ltd, Polydor Ltd, Polydor Ltd, Polydor Ltd and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 9/30/09 (and not updated significantly since). |
