A true waste of a fine story

Rating: 1/10 (9 November 2004)

I love sports films. They sometimes have that clichéd quality to them that makes them watchable, which is why there are very few ever made anymore. Sadly, the only way to make a good sports film is to find something that actually happened or possibly shoot the film in a way that is unfamiliar in its context. FNL failed on both accounts. Not only was this film a blatant rip-off of Michael Mann's visual acuity, this film also failed to mention the 'Based on a True Story' tag was utterly false. There were many little details that were in the film that actually happened in the book, but the racism, the separation of the classes, and the economic strife that was in the book didn't come to life on the screen. Instead, the over used story lines that were portrayed in the film became something of a bore, and the nice cinematography couldn't save this film. I found it rather dull and a sad betrayal of the truth. And what is even sadder, Buzz Bissinger has sold his soul just to make a buck off the book by calling the movie accurate. So who cares if Odessa can't acknowledge it's racist past? Can we ever not acknowledge the Germans were Nazis? The tinkering of the truth was the real issue for me in why I despised this film, because let's face it, the truth would have been a lot more interesting. Read the book and you'll find out why.