Every now and again, you meet someone you know you?ll remember for the rest of your life.
Ten years ago, I met Colin Welland, screenwriter for the now classic film, Chariots of Fire. We were only together in Hollywood for a few days, but I feel as though I was given a lifetime of memories when in his company.
I have a cherished friend, the gifted producer Ken Wales, to thank for my introduction. Just after Ken and I grabbed a quick, tasty lunch at the In and Out hamburger restaurant, we drove over to LAX to collect Colin. Since he had to go through US Customs, Ken stood ready to meet him at one end of the exit, while I took a perch atop a Smarte-Carte luggage caddy to get the best view of the other side of the gate. I?d been told that Colin?s knees were giving him trouble, and to look for a man in a wheelchair.
After a while, Ken and I came back the same place to wait together for Colin, as there was a bit of a delay. Then, as we were stood waiting, Colin walked up to us from behind. Ken saw him first, and tapped me on the shoulder. I turned round and Ken said, ?Kevin, meet Colin Welland.?
?How do you do?? Colin said with a smile, and we shook hands.
Colin Welland (pic from UK's The Telegraph 1982)
Looking over my diary entries for those days, and for a few days after, I?m deeply grateful that I wrote so many things down about the visits Ken and I had with Colin as we discussed a possible film project.
As we drove around Los Angeles together for a brief tour of places Ken knew well, and wanted us to see, Colin and I found we had something in common in our love of sports. In his younger days, he?d taken part in many a cricket or rugby match, and I had no trouble believing him. Then in his sixties, he still looked as though he could give opposing players a run for their money! He was pleased when I spoke of the great West Indian batsman, Brian Lara, and then proceeded to tell Ken and I several stories about Dickie Bird, the legendary international cricket umpire. It was a great way to begin to get to know one another, and Colin was glad to hear that I was still playing league softball?indeed that we?d just won our league championship. We reminisced some more about matches and games that we?d played, and at one point, Colin quipped, ?the older you get, the better you were!?
A few hours later, we stopped at a restaurant for dinner, and I gave Colin a present to thank him for all that Chariots of Fire had meant to me: a 100-year-old copy of the Oxford University Press edition of William Cowper?s Poems. No sooner did he have it in hand, than he began to sing ?God Moves In A Mysterious Way,? the great hymn that draws on Cowper?s verse. People turned and looked at us, but it seemed the most natural thing in the world for Colin to do. I suppose people might be likely to do any number of things in a Los Angeles restaurant, and I remember thinking, ?even still, I?ll bet this is a new one.?
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What followed over the few days are a series of conversations and moments that I remember fondly as really human things. Colin showed me pictures of his wife Pat, and his grandson. In kind, I showed him a picture of my wife Kelly, at which point he asked, ?When are you coming over to England next?? He had, he said, a great love of The Lake District, country dear to the poet William Wordsworth, and offered to take us there when we were next in England.
Mention of Wordsworth drew forth an impromptu recitation of favourite lines from poetry and plays?Wordsworth and lines from Macbeth from Colin, while I recited lines from the American Robert Coffin?s poem, ?Strange Holiness.?
At lunch one afternoon, the subject of faith came up. Though a self-described agnostic, Colin told Ken and me that he had ?a little flame of faith.? He told us of his great admiration for a Methodist clergyman at whose funeral he?d given the eulogy. Then, with roguish look in his eye, he spoke of his friendship with the Catholic priest who served the church where he dropped his wife off for Mass each week. Each time, the priest strode over to Colin?s car and shook hands, saying, ?We haven?t gotten you yet, but we will??
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Ken Wales with Kevin (scouting locations in York, England & and NYC Amazing Grace premiere)
Shakespeare was a recurring topic of conversation, and I knew I was being treated to a rare privilege when Colin spoke of the great actors and performances he?d known and witnessed.
Fascinating as this was, however, it was Colin?s Shakespearian memories of another sort that I?ll always treasure. He told me that at one point in his younger years, he?d decided to teach Shakespeare to the children who were cruelly called ?thick kids? by some at a local school for the mentally impaired. Derided with comments like ?You?re wasting your time,? or ?they?ll never get it,? Colin and his colleagues persevered. Hearing him speak of performing Shakespeare for these children, and teaching them lines they could retain, was profoundly moving. Somehow, the clouds parted for them, and they experienced a new world through the words and acting that Colin and his colleagues allowed them to experience.
Laughter was never far away during those days. Somehow or other, I thought to mention how much I liked the great British actor Barry Fitzgerald?s performance in the John Ford/John Wayne film The Quiet Man. In a thrice, Ken and I were being regaled with stories that had us wiping tears from our eyes, we?d laughed so hard. We also learned that Colin had a great fondness for Al Jolson songs, and I think he pretty much worked his way through the entire Jolson songbook before we parted company.
And to be sure, Colin spoke often of the screenplays he?d written, or the creation of films that he witnessed first-hand. I heard stories about the 1971 film, Straw Dogs, directed by Sam Peckinpah, and how the film?s star, Dustin Hoffman?and Peckinpah?were in cahoots to generate scared expressions on fellow actors? faces.
Colin spoke of his work on two superb films, Kes and Yanks. He?d acted in Kes, playing the character, Mr. Farthing. Though the film, about a young boy?s training of a pet falcon, was released in 1969, Colin said children still came up to him, recognizing him from that performance.
Yanks was a film for which Colin had written the screenplay. Starring Richard Gere, the film traces the sometimes stormy, sometimes deeply poignant relations that developed between American servicemen and British citizens during the darkest days of World War II.
So much of the script, Colin said, was based on memories of his childhood. One rather dashing young American serviceman had grown close to two little girls he knew, daughters of a local pub owner. He regaled them with stories of America, and they warmed to his kindness and charm. He was larger than life. They treasured his memory, and the many ways this unlikely friend helped them get through the war.
While researching the film, Colin decided to look this man up. Then living in Illinois, drink had tragically robbed this once vibrant man of his youth and strength. He was only a pale shadow of his former self. Colin grieved to see him this way. But then, when he arranged for a call to be put through to the pub owners? daughters, now grown young women, a remarkable transformation took place. Colin grew quiet as he described it.
?So soon as this man heard their voices on the phone, the years fell away. He straitened, and spoke to them as I?d always heard them speak of him in their memory. No ocean stood between them, nor the space of 30 years. Somehow, that broken man became his younger self. Then, as he set the phone down, the magic faded. It was all so fleeting, but it was there.?
Last of all, Colin told us many things about the making of Chariots of Fire. My favourite memory is when Colin spoke of his research for the film, of sitting in a darkened film projection room as grainy old footage from the British sports archives flashed across the screen. Scenes from the 1920s lived again. Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams ran as they had done when the eyes of the world were upon them, and when they had won Olympic gold. ?It was then I heard myself saying,? Colin remembered, ?Don?t worry, lads, I?ll get it right.?
Each time I look at the DVD copy of Chariots that Colin signed for me, I remember that?along with his kindness, singing, and laughter. I always will.[1]
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[1] This picture of Colin Welland is taken from an image accompanying Des Lynam?s article for The Telegraph (a newspaper published in the UK), ?Stage is set for new golden age at London 2012,? posted online at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/8362248/Des-Lynam-Stage-is-set-for-new-golden-age-at-London-2012.html
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- DVD Review ? Chariots of Fire
- The Artist: A Film Review and Reflection
- Red Booth Notes: Keith Green and Dartmouth Thirty Years On
- Red Booth Notes: Two Champions of Truth ? C.S. Lewis and D.L. Moody
- Red Booth Notes: Edmund Burke?s Great Comfort
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