Source: CCTV.com

09-01-2008 11:16

The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics fade away, This year's Paralymics are coming down the line. In Spotlight today we'll take a look back at some of the cinema's most famous runners.

Among films that retell tales of running for Olympic glory, the 1981 British film "Chariots of Fire" is perhaps the classic. The film is based on the true story of British athletes as they prepare and then compete in the 1924 Summer Olympics. Two runners feature prominently in the film. They are competitors who finally join together to win for their country. One of the athletes is a Jewish student from Cambridge University. He runs to overcome class prejudice and wins the 100 meter. The other is the famous Flying Scotsman who won the Gold medal in the 400 meter race.

Some run to live. In the 1997 Iranian film "The Children of Heaven", Ali shares his shoes with his little sister. Hers were lost on the way home from the repair shop. Shoes feature in their own relay, passing from sibling to sibling, always on the road, always ready for the hand off. If the shoes are not turned over in time, the sibling who awaits them may be late. Always afraid of being late, brother Ali has to run faster and much faster. Then Ali enters a running competition where one of the prizes is a new pair of shoes. Ali is swept up in the spirit of the competition and wins the race. Alas he does not win the new shoes, they are the prize for the third place finisher.

Some people run for love. In "Run Lola Run", the title character is in a race against time to collect money for her boyfriend. He lost 100-thousand dollars of his boss's money. It could cost him his life.

Lola runs in pursuit of the money to save him. Three sequential alternative realities start to unfold. Scenes from the future are revealed in a series of freeze frames. The future is widely divergent from what seems to be emerging from one encounter to the next. The disparity of images underscores the butterfly quality of life in the way reality changes.