Escape to Victory

Rating: 5/10 (7 May 2008)

I really like POW war films, e.g. The Great Escape, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and this one from director John Huston (The African Queen) is quite an alright one. It is World War II, and the Nazi officers are sure they could win a football (soccer for Americans) against the many prisoners, and they accept the challenge. The prisoners/players in the team include leader English John Colby (Sir Michael Caine), American Robert Hatch (Sylvester Stallone), Trinidad's Luis Fernandez (Pelé), English Terry Brady (Bobby Moore), Argentina's Carlos Rey (Osvaldo Ardiles), Belguim Michel Fileu (Paul Van Himst), Polish Paul Wolchek (Kazimierz Deyna), Norway's Gunnar Hilsson (Hallvar Thorensen), English Sid Harmor (Mike Summerbee), Holland's Pieter Van Beck (Co Prins), English Doug Clure (Russell Osman), Scotland's Arthur Hayes (John Wark), Denmark' Erik Borge (Søren Lindsted) and Irish Tony Lewis (Kevin O'Calloghan). The opposition (all Germans) includes Major Karl Von Steiner (Max Von Sydow), Coach Mueller (Gary Waldhorn) and Team captain Baumann (Werner Roth). The prisoners see this game as a getaway, i.e. with a hole in the locker/shower room, but in the end they still carry on and defeat the Nazis, and as far as I could make out, escaped in the charging crowd. Also starring Daniel Massey as Colonel Waldron, Tim Pigott-Smith as Rose, Julian Curry as Sherlock, Clive Merrison as Forger, Maurice Roëves as Pyrie and Anton Diffring as the German Commentator. The POW camp moments are good, the one or two escape attempts (including one by Stallone) are good, and the game is engaging. Worth watching!