Victory

John Huston, Oscar winning director of The Treasure of Sierra Madre, gives us an entertaining film about a football match between The Germand and Allied POWs during WWII. Until the actual game, this was just a routine POW movie with the usual obnoxious British Officers, and the one that thinks outside the box (Michael Caine) and makes it interesting. The actual football match was held in Paris and the Germans fielded their National Team (actors) against a collection of real players from Belgium, England, Poland, Holland, Scotland, Argentina, Ireland, and the great Pele from Brazil. The field judges were, of course, bought off by the Germans. An escape was planned for halftime, but the game continued and escape occurred later. Like I said, except for the football, this was a routine POW film. Sly Stallone played an American in the camp that met with the French Resistance to set up the escape. He was actually rather good.

This is the antithesis to the "chick-flick" and up there with the great "male bonding" cameraderie movies such as "great Escape" and "The Man Who Would Be King", and let's not exclude "The Longest Yard". Best scene by far in the movie is Pele's jaw-dropping upside-down kick, followed by Max Von Sydow's sportsmanlike and awestruck applause, followed by glares of hatred from his German brethren. I can guarantee you that that scene is worth the price of the admission(video rental) alone. As far as the non-soccer star cast goes, Michael Caine more than compensates for Sylvester Stallone, and the rest do a credible job, with highest marks to Von Sydow as a 'good guy' on the other side.

This movie is part of my childhood. My older brother was obsessed - to say the least - with this movie, and we used to watch it every week or so. I must have seen it about a hundred times. Pelé, Ardiles, Bob Moore... No football fan can miss this movie. Is it any good? I don't think it's very good, but this is one of those movies that really made part of my life and i can never forget it. Until today - i haven't seen the movie in several years - i can recall many of the dialogs, and a lot of the situations of the game. Brazil was eliminated in 1982's world cup after an epic game against Italy - one of the most profound traumas in Brazilian football history, an event that made Brazil to change it's game style - the art football - to a more pragmatic and tactical style. Somehow this movie reminds me of that golden period of Brazilian football.

Many people have passed negative comments about this film.If you study it closely, though, you will notice many positive and original scenes. The football is not exaggerated like many other sporting Movies. I first saw it when it was released in 1981/82 and thought it was very good. As a War film it is only average, but as a Football spectacle it is very interesting. The fact that the makers used real life footballers, including the great man himself "Pele" is original. We are actually seeing first class football players do their stuff in a controlled Movie enviroment... Heck some of them even try to act! I think Michael Caine and Sly would have enjoyed making this Movie. The message from the Movie is that Football is a game which is understood by everyone and will always be played under any circumstances. It is the Universal game and always will be!