Chariots of Fire

The film focuses on two Olympic runners. Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell. They had won the Olympics 100 meters sprint and 400 meters sprint respectively. It’s easy to dismiss this film as another Christian film but rather, this film portrays both Harold’s and Eris’s motivation to win rather fairly.

Harold, a Cambridge student of Jewish decent struggles to affirm himself as a British. As he faces prejudice throughout his life, he is eager to prove himself. To serve that purpose he uses running as a way to bring himself up beyond prejudice and discrimination. It is interesting to note that, in his pursuit to excellence; Harold had requested the assistance of a coach to help improve himself. The Cambridge Masters had accused Harold of being unsportsmanlike by employing the services of a coach.

Eric on the other hand faces a different kind of challenge. As a son of a missionary he is expected to follow his father’s footsteps into going in missions in China. His sister’s biggest worry is for him to lose his faith when he runs. Prior to the Olympics, he faces his biggest dilemma. On whether to participate in the 100 meter sprint or to skip it all together as the race falls on a Sunday. According to his faith, the day is a sacred day and therefore he should not run on such a day.

Needless to say, both Harold and Eric held on to their beliefs. Harold in continuing the use of a coach and Eric to pursue running and to not run on a Sunday. It is safe to say that they both did win because of their training but to say that it is the only reason they won, would be an insult to their motivations. Their motivations to run and win goes beyond themselves. For Harold, it was to lift himself beyond his heritage and prejudice. For Eric, it was to fulfill a calling that he himself believe in. It was their belief that spur them to devote themselves to be the very best that they can be and beyond. 

Schindler's List

           Made by Steven Spielberg, a film based on the Holocaust in Poland. Oskar Schindler, a recently arrive German decides to make use of the Jews in order to start a factory but eventually saving the Jews instead towards the end of the film.

            The film explores the idea of humanity. Especially the humanities of Germans and Jews. Why Jews? Mainly because the Germans never saw the Jews as human to begin with. We need to remember that it was through propaganda that the Jews were made as the scapegoat. Were the Germans innately cruel and evil? Perhaps we’ll never know but also, we’ll need to remember that the Germans are also humans. Hitler may have genuinely consider that Jews were generally evil as well. Hence the persecution. It is easy to put one party into different camps. Especially if you do not know the person. Had Schindler not interacted closely with the Jews, he might not have chosen to save the Jews while losing his entire wealth in the process. The catalyst may have been when he save his Jew factory supervisor from the train that was going to ship them away.

            It’s interesting to see that the Jews portrayed in the film, despite all forms of persecution and injustice; they still tried their best to reason and talk to the Germans. We may reason it as fear mongering by the Germans but we can also see it as a form of the Jews trying to humanize the Germans. If the Jews had rebelled, it is quite probable that they could have overpowered the Germans stationed Poland. The war was still ongoing. The Germans could not have afford to spare a large amount of soldiers to keep them in check. Hence the fear mongering and swift execution of the Jews. Perhaps the one German that they manage to reach out to was Schindler.

            A recently film that addresses persecution and discrimination was Zootopia. Which featured animals of two camps. Predator and prey. Once it was establish that predators could possible revert to their predatorial primitive forms, discrimination of the predators was swift. They were just short of putting the predators into concentration camps and culling them until the situation was resolved.

              

            Despite all this, the ravages and horrors of war and the effects on people. Best lesson is that we’re all still human.