Chariots of Fire

"Like every element in this picture, the actors look right; they seem to emerge from the past, instead of being pasted on to it, as so many characters in historical movies seem to be."

"[An] airless saga of university toffs building themselves up to run for God and country at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris."

"Really this is an overblown piece of self-congratulatory emotional manipulation perfectly suited for Thatcherite liberals."

"An exceptional film, about some exceptional people."

"A bold, intelligent, romantic film with all the lineaments of a classic, and a score by Vangelis as instantly hummable as the music for Jaws."

"This is strange. I have no interest in running and am not a partisan in the British class system. Then why should I have been so deeply moved by Chariots of Fire?"

"An odd, malformed antique that still manages to retain a certain surface-level charm."

"Now, 20 years later, it's dated. In some ways that actually benefits the film as its true age somehow helps its 1920s setting but other aspects suffer."