The 'Chariots of fire' was first made as a movie and the story was then adapted into a novel and it was this very novel that i happened to read. It's a very small book which i mentally compared with a '40 page' notebook that i had used in my 5th grade. Leave alone this absurd comparison and lets see what this book had to offer me, the reader.
I am not sure of the number of movies that have been later written as a novel, though the other way round is very much common. This is my first experience of reading such a book. I had tried reading 'fountainhead' quite a few times and was always disappointed at not having been able to cross even a 100 pages everytime i laid my hands on it. This forced me to read something 'small in size' and hence 'Chariots of Fire'.
But now i'd like to watch the movie ;-)
Its always difficult to make a movie out of a novel and i've had my share of nasty experiences with 'The da vinci code' and more recently, yesterday, with the 'jumper'; probably because the imaginary visions associated with book-reading is more powerful than the moving images in a theatre & that leaves us feeling dissatisfied & sometimes desparate. This, therefore, provides the film-maker with a great challenge and greater responsibilities to take care of. But it would be inappropriate to leave out one another movie which can provide complete justification to this case. The 'perfume' had capturing images. I have'nt read this book but i could imagine myself reading the book while watching the film. Magical feelings which 'The alchemist' as a book provided me provided by the film 'Perfume'. Thats what you call 'credit'.
Coming back to 'Chariots of fire' ; i could imagine the way the athletes Harold and Eric would have run. The way that Eric used to keep his head back and his shoulders front might be funny but is far from being comical. I will and need to watch the movie to compare feelings.
Whenever we have stories with twin heroes, its a problem; because one of them might get your favour. But in the case of these two heroes it was never going to be easy. Each had made their impact on the reader. What gave these guys the drive to run so fast? One was so technical and the other had raw power. Its natural for the reader to start imagining how Eric would have run if he had sam's guidance. But the kind of coach that he had, reminded me of young 'budhia's coach :-(
You feel like hitting him, although he was the one to persuade eric to take up athletics !
The reader would be expecting, & i can imagine similar feelings of the movie-watcher , a duel between the supremely contrasting harold and eric for the second time.
That it did'nt happen again definitely gives a hopeless feeling for the reader. I would love to have atleast a 'best of seven' between these two. If only it was easy to come to a conclusion about the winner, i would'nt keep pondering over this question again and again ;-)
Harold has a very good chance because he is technically sound. Eric is an unpredictable animal although technically unorthodox.
Can someone who possesses natural talents be changed technically and get moulded into a fantastic gizmo ?
Or is the natural talent best be left untouched as long as it provides the desired results. Its never easy to conclude. But that was in 1928. Today, every young chap who takes up running will be scientifically trained to compete with maurice green and Asafa powell. Nothing to complain here, except an ending question. Will any athlete of today, who's generally a 100 m runner, be able to recover after a trip during a 400 m race and still manage to get the first position ? Forget the first position. Lets talk about recovery alone.
You cant be an asafa powell or a maurice green to achieve that. You need to be Eric Liddell. & Finally i dont think even Harold could have done that. Ah, i gave away my feelings here :-)
