CLASSIC CATCH

The 2024 Summer Olympic Games begin Friday, and ahead of that major international sporting event, Turner Classic Movies is airing two acclaimed historical dramas based on notable real-life Olympic athletes. Up first is 1981’s Chariots of Fire (pictured), which dramatizes the story of two British runners at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris: Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross), an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice. The film was nominated for seven Oscars and won four, including Best Picture and for Vangelis’ iconic and stirring musical score. Tonight’s second film is Jim Thorpe — All American (1951), led by Burt Lancaster as the titular Native American athlete who won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm and also excelled at a variety of other sports, including football and baseball. Parts of the film, which was directed by Michael Curtiz, use archival footage featuring the real Thorpe at the 1912 Games as well as at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.