Les Ailes de la Victoire

I bought this movie with great excitement. Having read much on Liddell and sharing his Christian faith I was hopeful of a movie telling of his faith and endurance and life as a missionary in China. Alas this was beyond disappointing. The depiction of Liddell was simply pathetic. His faith was barely mentioned and the accounts of his life in China I have read were not well presented. A better effort by more informed film makers will hopefully be made one day. This was not that movie.

We had to drive 1.5 hours to see this film, as it was only in one theater in our state. The drive was totally worth it!!! On Wings of Eagles is a very high quality film, with production value, sets, acting, and special effects that could compare to most Hollywood flicks. Joseph Fiennes' performance was very strong and believable. His acting talent carried this film, just as it did in Risen. The story is very moving and inspiring, and is a great sequel to Chariots of Fire. I was very excited to see this on the big screen and hope that many people will be inspired by it. Several scenes with blood give it its' PG-13 rating, but the violence is not disturbing or overly graphic. This is a great film that is worth watching! My rating: Excellent!!!

A good, if not great film. Could have been a lot better but some great scenes and glimpses of a wonderful man with a faith lived very well. So many Christians give Jesus a bad name but Eric Liddell lives with compassion, sacrifice and courage. Well worth a watch.

The drama was moving. Hard not to tear up at a few scenes. The story follows the latter years of the real - life character Eric Liddlel (Liddell?), the world-famous Olympian runner many know by the "Chariots of Fire" movie. After winning the gold for his native Scotland, he gave up fame/fortune to move to the China he was born in to serve there.

Eric Liddel was an amazing man and I've read several books on him. He stands out not only for his athletic feats but for his exemplary character. He truly lived to serve and had a rare humility, especially rare given the fact that he accomplished feats that earned world recognition. For conveying a remarkable and humble man, I'd give the story 10/10.

Where this fell short for me was more in what this DIDN'T show - it was as if some one took the core of who Eric Liddel was and shoved that to the side, focusing on some of the externals but missing almost entirely what motivated this great man. Yes, Eric was humble, yes, he was self-sacrificing, yes he cared deeply for others. But when one reads about him, one gets the very strong sense that Eric's humility, self-sacrificing character and deep care all stemmed from his knowledge of One with even greater humility, self-sacrifice and love. This movie in my view only gave the barest glance at Eric's faith rendering it mostly rituals.

Again, the drama was moving and it is worth seeing,but hopefully spurs one to probe deeper into the life and motivation of the man it depicts.

My wife and I watched this movie at home on DVD from our public library.

In 1981 was a movie "Chariots of Fire". The IMDb synopsis is "Two British track athletes, one a determined Jew, and the other a devout Christian, compete in the 1924 Olympics." That Christian athlete was Eric Liddell (lid-uhl) who set a record but refused to compete in trials scheduled on a Sunday.

This movie "Wings" is a continuation of that story some years later as Liddell has returned to China, where he was born to British missionaries, to teach. Joseph Fiennes plays the role of Eric Liddell and most of the movie is during WW2 when the Japanese have imprisoned many of them.

It is a good study of who Liddell was and how he likely sacrificed himself to provide freedom for others. Not a pleasant movie but a meaningful one.