I finally went ahead and watched this last night after getting it out of the 'brary. I know the movie holds a pretty important place in pop culture but all the same for years it's be stuck on my "to be watched" list. I don't know why I'd waited so long, but I think perhaps it had to do with the high level of cultural saturation the film had reached. Years before I'd seen frame one of the film, I'd seen countless parodies of the slow mo running and Vangelis music.
The film itself was pretty good, and I was entertained by the strong performances and a few of the race sequences. I guess though it was hard to not be slightly disappointed that it didn't live up to it's status as a near perfect classic film (IMHO). Aside from the music I'm not sure there is anything I saw last night that will really stick with me after all is said and done. Is that due to the fact that I saw the big moments of the movie parodied before I saw them play out for real? Maybe. It's impossible to know
If I had but one little comment to make though I'd be remiss to not mention the self righteous holier than thou attitude of the christian runner. I know that the film was selling his story as one that should be looked on as an example of sticking to your principals even at great cost, but to this 'Religulous' fan, it was hard not to scoff. So, he thinks god made him fast so he could run.. but he doesn't credit the fact that the race was scheduled on a Sunday as perhaps a signal that god is cool with running on the weekend?
It seems rude, quite frankly, to refuse to run. You're saying that all the other runners are disobeying gods laws and you're the only one moral enough to care. Plus, it's the Olympics, it's supposed to be international. People from many different religions are represented at the games, and as far as I know no one else threw a hissy fit over the issue of "holy days".
It was self satisfied grand standing passed off as a principled self sacrifice, and it irked me
Anyway, that was, in the scheme of things, a minor complaint and I spent a few paragraphs talking about it just now only so that I could make my position and thoughts clear. The issues I discussed did not swamp my enjoyment of the film, but they did prevent it from becoming one of my all time classics.
