The Talkies/Much Ado About Macho

...The opprobrium which men receive in the press (and, I assume, at home, although I have no immediate experience of this) if they express any view, or perform any action, which is not in concert with the current, Enlightened view of proper behavior-an egalitarian sort of behavior which, at the very least, focuses entirely upon just in what ways any action taken would be offensive to particularly political and vociferous women-is indiscriminate...

...This is, quite simply, a gorgeous, powerfully affecting movie...

...To be sure, women are slighted in the film...

...The veneer of the very Anglo-Saxon Caius College of Cambridge University is cracked by the enrollment of the Jewish Abrahams...

...It tells the true story of Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell, who at those games became, respectively, the fastest 100-meter and 400-meter runners in the world...

...Chariots of Fire gives one joy not only in its very subtle, quiet rendering of England after the first War, but in its profound evocation of a time forever lost-a time when England was still grand, before the Depression and before the youth of that country fell into the vague radicalism and pacifism most notoriously expressed in the Oxford Pledge of 1934, by John Podhoretz when thousands of the "bright young men'' vowed never to die for king or country...

...MUCH ADO ABOUT MACHO Perhaps there is no dirtier word in present-day discourse than the Spanish term "macho," deriving from machismo, which I suppose would be rather inadequately translated as "manliness...

...These uncommonly intense, beautiful young men, desiring greatness, seem the embodiment of those now nearly vanished qualities of manliness that are today so reviled...

...Adolf Hitler's crimes can similarly be attributed to machismo...

...W hen the movie is released, it will, no doubt, be met with the enthusiastic response that greets any sign of life from the dormant United Kingdom...

...They and their friends, Andrew Lindsay and Aubrey Montague, become entranced by the sport of running-the lesser two characters for reasons not specified, Eric because of religious devotion ("God put me here for a purpose...

...She comes around in the end, of course...

...It evokes not only a place, and a time, but a spirit...

...It was a time of manners, and style (as beautifully caught in the scenes at Cambridge, at which dinners were attended in evening dress, and where students were at all times told that their position as the "elite" required a certain assumption of responsibility to their fellow men and their country...

...Hugh Hudson, who has directed it in what I can only think of a state of grace, and Colin Welland, who has contributed a creditable, intelligent screenplay, will be saluted for their British civility and charm, while the cast-including Ben Cross and Ian Charleson who are extraordinary as Harold and Eric, respectively, and John Gielgud and Lindsay Anderson as the arch Masters of Cambridge-will be commended for that quiet and undemonstrative style that itself means "culture" for those of our elite who are devoted to watching British reruns on public television...

...anyone who suggests rather carelessly that women should do the dishes, or make dinner, or raise the children, is called "macho...

...Harold drives himself to prove that a Jew can better other men, while Eric sees his gift for running as God-given and, thus, his success as an expression of his faith...

...And while Lord Andrew Lindsay manages only a silver medal at the Olympics, both Liddell and Abrahams take the gold-no longer will the cream of England be found on the playing fields of Eton...

...but he also made me fast,'' he tells his missionary sister), Harold because running is his way of proving himself an Englishman, and a man, in spite of his Jewishness...

...And this spirit it portrays peerlessly...

...The team that gathers for the Olympics is in itself a sign of the democratic spirit which would begin to suffuse England at just about this time: It includes a nobleman (Andrew Lindsay is a Lord), a Jew, a Scot (Eric), and a very middle-class, self-effacing fellow (Montague...

...A violent man, who likes to hit women, is called "macho" '; Alexander Haig, who wishes to face the Soviet Union from a position of strength, is called "macho...

...And, at the Olympics, the lowly Liddell, born in China of missionary parents of the Church of Scotland, sits in a room with the Prince of Wales, a Duke, and two Lords, and is able to stare them down as they attempt to sway him from his decision not to enter a race on the Sabbath...

...It buries itself in the England directly following the First World War, a country full of will and self-possession...

...it is the manly spirit which finds its apotheosis in the Greek ideal of beauty and strength...

...Then, it will be criticized, as was The Deer Hunter before it, for its emphasis on the relations between man and man (what is now called, in psychobabblical terms, "male bonding...

...They wish to persevere because they wish to ennoble themselves...

...The rivalry established between Eric and Harold early in the movie turns into comradeship by the end, and this sort of comradeship is expressed by their teammates throughout: Montague listens attentively as Harold speaks of his fears and desires, and Andrew gives up his place in the 400meter run so that Eric can participate in a race which is not run on a Sunday...

...Quite simply, it draws us in and makes us wish we were there...

...These thoughts have been prompted by a new British movie, Chariots of Fire, which portrays four Englishmen as they pursue gold medals at the 1924 Olympics...

...But it is not chivalry the movie attempts to portray...

...Tarnower seems, if we take Anne Bernay's word in the New Republic, to have been murdered because of his machismo, perhaps even rightly so...

...Harold's liaison with a beautiful actress is studied only perfunctorily, and the only other woman of note in the film is Eric's disapproving sister, who fears that her brother is leaving the sacred for the profane through his running...

...and the movie succeeds where most other historical dramas fail...

...And, perhaps, when better days are upon us, the real virtues of Chariots of Fire will be recognized and appreciated: its depiction of human strength, and its evocation of a time when the British could still think it was in their power to rebuild Jerusalem on England's green and pleasant land...

...In short, any expression of what used to be considered the "manly" virtues-bravery in combat, excellence in physical pursuits, the protection of women and children-has become a rhetorical crime...