*Victory* is a loser

Rating: 4/10 (12 January 2003)

Sylvester Stallone plays Steve McQueen in John Huston's answer to *The Great Escape* (listen for Bill Conti's rinky-dink knockoff of Elmer Bernstein's *Great Escape* theme during the stretching sequence).
Unfortunately, Huston obviously had no idea what made *The Great Escape* so compelling. There, we were presented with ordinary guys and gradually convinced that they were heroes. Here, we're presented with ordinary guys, told they're heroes, but end up believing that they're idiots.
(SPOILER WARNING)
The ending is atrocious. Huston's apparent faith that the audience would take it as some sort of life-affirming heroic moment is a sad comment on Huston's own moral compass. Actually, the players' big decision at the end of the film is grotesquely stupid. It is also gross dereliction of duty and should result in each and every one of them being court-martialed after the war. In fact, it's borderline treasonous.
Of course Huston tries desperately at the end to say that it's all right because everything works out anyway. Unfortunately, the ending is so contrived and unbelievable that it is more likely to provoke laughter than cheers.
If the idiocy and moral obtuseness are too much for you, then watch it as a pure sports movie. That way, it's merely derivative, boring, and clichéd.