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No. 17: Chariots of Fire (70 points)

Year released: 1981.

Cast: Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nigel Havers, Nicholas Farrell.

What we like: The intelligent dissection of what makes a championship athlete tick when it really isn't about the money; the plea for cross-religious understanding and human decency (which would certainly come in handy these days).

What we're willing to overlook: All those years that it took us to get the award-winning theme song out of our heads.

A man with a reason to run is always going to find a way to run just a little bit faster. Great period detail. -- Page 2 columnist Ralph Wiley

"If I can't win, I won't run." "If you don't run, you can't win." There it is. I especially like the race the clock scene, too. -- Page 2 columnist Eric Neel

The "Gandhi" of sports movies. -- Page 2 editor Jay Lovinger

Never saw it. Never will. But it won, like, five Academy Awards, so it must have been pretty good. -- Page 2 columnist Bob Halloran

Click here to go on to our No. 16 sports movie of all-time