If the wars were defined in a soccer field

Rating: 8/10 (9 April 2020)

The scarcity of films dealing with football is noteworthy, considering that it is the king of sports, at least in a Europe that is increasingly important when evaluating whether a film ends up being viable or not. The "Goal" trilogy, "Kicking & Screaming", "The Damned United", "Mean Machine" or "Bend It Like Beckham" are some of the examples of feature films about soccer. Possibly the most remembered is Victory, which dates back to 1981, one of the last projects of the double Oscar winner, John Huston (1906-1987), one of the best directors in film history ("The Maltese Falcon", "The African Queen") at a time in his life when he was filming whatever he wanted, hence he dared with the psychological thriller "Phobia" (1980), the musical "Annie" (1982), and in between with this light sports tape which worked, unsurprisingly, better in Europe than in the USA.
Striking is the cast of "Victory", it features a budding American star -Sylvester Stallone-, reputed players -Michael Caine, Max Von Sydow - and retired professional soccer players - Pelé (Brazil), Bobby Moore (England), Osvaldo Ardiles (Argentina), Paul Van Himst (Belgium), Kazimierz Deyna (Poland), among others.
A Nazi prisoner of war camp, the place where Major Karl Von Steiner (Sydow) arrives, looking at the detail of the prisoners' control of the ball. He has an occurrence as the coach incarnates Michael Caine, a football match between the German national team and a combined ally of players who find themselves as prisoners of war. To the Germans the party serves as propaganda, to the allied selection as a possible escape route. By the way, for those who are interested, Stallone is the goalkeeper of the team.
The Great Escape + Rocky + Soccer = Victory. From the first he takes the entire plot and copies the music - from Bill Conti - from the second he has the main actor and an exciting sporting event on which the entire film revolves. The result is a first-rate diversion, a simple story, well told, with a familiar and certainly childish touch - the Nazis are not very bad to say, nor do I know anyone in their right mind who prefers to play the second part of a game football before escaping from a prison camp.
The game, which at the end of the day is what justifies the viewing, belongs to those impossible feats in which everything goes against - the result, the referee -, based on overcoming and teamwork to turn the scoreboard and come out as victorious as can be expected. Achieved, vibrant and well captured by the camera, the rest is the technique and talent of Pelé - great! - and company. Of the worst cast, Sylvester Stallone's footballing skills.
As a curiosity, although it is more a tragedy, Victory is a real fact that has no happy ending at all like the one on the film, quite the contrary, in 1942 part of the Dynamo Kiev team was executed for not letting themselves win against the German team.