Few stock scenes in the cinema stir a surge of emotion as reliably as the sight of an underdog winning a race. There is the victor’s ribcage breaking through the ribbon at the finishing line, the runner’s exhausted smile, the arms raised in victory, the quiver rising to a swell of violins and finally, in the viewer, the lump in the throat.
That was where Chariots Of Fire struck gold: it actually did eat your heart out. Zátopek, the International Feature Oscar submission from Czech Republic which was a box office smash at home, and an amiable if rather threadbare biopic of a running legend, is also at its best when our man is on the track.
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