Today’s film is a period comedy-drama
with a scene that happens on March 25. Watch this film tonight and enjoy.
THE FIRST OLYMPICS: ATHENS 1896
Baron Pierre de
Coubertin starts an effort to revive the Olympic games. We follow some of the
participants. Edwin Flack is an Australian runner who goes to Oxford to the
delight of his mother and the disdain of his father, only to be refused entry on
the English team of the Pan Britannic games since he’s not ‘English’. Spiridon
Louis is a Greek peasant who is drafted into the army and runs a long distance
every night from base to his home to see his girlfriend. Robert Garret is a
Princeton student who does not know what career he wants to pursue. James
Connelly is a lower class Irish-American who wins a scholarship to Harvard
where he meets Arthur Blake. Dr. Sloane, a Princeton professor agrees to help
organize an American team and recruits John Graham, a coach at Harvard to help.
They have to make their own equipment and find their own practice sites, as no
official body will help. Finally they leave for the games, but find that due to
confusion over the Gregorian and Julian calendars, their ship will arrive one
day before the end of the games. They jump ship in Naples and barely reach
Athens just as the games begin on March 25, 1896(o.s.). [2:07:33 to 2:33:42] The Americans with their newly devised four
point running start and steeplechase hurdles technique dominate the track
events. Flack does mange to beat an injured Blake. When their practice
equipment turns out to be heavier than the regulation items the Americans win
the discus and shot put also. Garret has to deal with fabricated anti-Greek quotes
in the press. At the end Spiridon wins the marathon race for Greece.
A fun movie. Doesn’t take itself
(or the facts) too seriously. Holds your interest for four hours though.
The Complete Book of the
Olympics ed. by David Wallechinsky and Jaime Loucky (Aurum Press, Ltd.,
London, 2012) at page 11 gives this as the starting date.There is an error in
the film. The games began on Monday April 6th, not Sunday, April 5th
Producer - William Hill Director- Alan
Rakoff
Screenplay - Charles Gary Allison
and William Bast
Awards - Won an Emmy for
Outstanding Achievement in Musical Composition for a Limited Series. It was
also nominated for Outstanding Art Direction for a Limited Series and
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series (Stiers) Emmys.
Runtime- 3 hours 57 minutes
Released- May 20, 1984
Starring - Louis Jourdan as
Pierre de Coubertin, David Ogden Stiers as William Milligan Sloane, Hunt Block
as Robert Garrett, David Caruso as James Brendan Connolly, Alex Hyde-White as
Arthur Blake, Hutton Cobb as Thomas Burke, Jason Connery as Thomas Curtis, Ian
Morton as Ellery Harding Clark, William Armstrong as William Hoyt, Aaron Swartz
as Herbert Jamison, Keith Edwards as Albert Tyler, Terrance Conder as Sumner
Paine, Peter Merrill as John Paine, Matt Frewer as Francis Lane, Robert Addie
as Grantley Goulding, Benedict Taylor as Edwin Flack, Angela Lansbury as Alice
Garrett
Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2015
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