This movie has fine soccer action on the field and fine acting, I can see a bit of why so many people like 'Hoosiers' a lot...
The real victory that took place at Belo Horizonte merits that story being retold to us without any embellishments.
Okay, first things first, in 1950, we the US were a real backwater of soccer, plain and simple and we were still far behind other countries at the 1990 World Cup though our LA Olympics performance in 1984 was very scrappy, so you can talk about other victories by other countries being as great and indeed, I would not argue about that but the facts still are that when countries such as Algeria, North Korea, Cameroon or Senegal defeated major soccer powers, these countries I mentioned have soccer as one of their major sports if not the main one. We were a blooming "minnow" like Faroe Islands or something and everyone and their dog knew it, low men on the totem pole, perhaps a bit the way Canada is today in soccer. So yes, this is one of the greatest international upsets of all time and merited a movie being made about it ( and for the record, yes, there is another film, sounds like a documentary out there called "The game of their lives", it's about North Korea team in 1966 and yes, that was another great upset so I don't call one upset greater than another). There is a book, "soccer in a football world" that details the development of US soccer. Sure, from time to time, we may have had some glimpses of potential and accomplishments in the sport like being a 1930 semifinalist in the first World Cup ever held but times were different and the tournament much smaller. So, what these guys did was totally out of the blue. Since so many stats are being tossed up, less than a year earlier, Ireland defeated England 2-0 in what I believe is the first time a none-UK ever won on English soil. The UK teams battled each other often over there such as England vs. Wales, etc. All of these stats can be checked out at Elo ratings. Indeed, the US' win was a staggering result all the same.
I think this film is quite a revision of the book it is based on by Geoffrey Douglas, it leans a lot on the St. Louis end, that is fair but that should be acknowledged. I really don't think that is as central to the original book except that by the way, St. Louis was the base for a long time of the US Soccer Federation. I believe the screen writer had an agenda with this point of view and that it may not be totally accurate. The Brits I must say are shown as arrogant but back then, their players worked hard for their wages and were not payed high amounts of money, their wages were really not much higher than that of other occupations. I've read Sir Stanley Matthews book "The way it was" and the 1950 World Cup and this game are spoken about and it is quite a bit different than the way we are told the details of the game. I seriously find this to be a flaw in the movie and I wonder about some other possible historical inaccuracies too. After all, this is a "feel good" Rah-Rah type of movie but it should not be playing fast and loose with the facts either. For historical accuracy, this is more like a six star movie though this would be a matter of research. I'm not positive the depiction of Joseph Gaetjens is accurate and compare it to how the others are portrayed. Perhaps we understand that when we find out the screen play writer's name is Angelo Pizzo.
For soccer action it is excellent, I believe only 'Escape to victory' is as close with soccer greats like Pele, Bobby Moore and Osvaldo Ardiles lighting up the screen. The 'Goal' movies and 'A shot at glory' are good in that vein as well. The story moves along very smoothly and is exciting, clearly, the producers had a good understanding of soccer, the sport itself. As a soccer movie, this is close to 10 stars.
South Africa 2010, these two teams meet again!
The real victory that took place at Belo Horizonte merits that story being retold to us without any embellishments.
Okay, first things first, in 1950, we the US were a real backwater of soccer, plain and simple and we were still far behind other countries at the 1990 World Cup though our LA Olympics performance in 1984 was very scrappy, so you can talk about other victories by other countries being as great and indeed, I would not argue about that but the facts still are that when countries such as Algeria, North Korea, Cameroon or Senegal defeated major soccer powers, these countries I mentioned have soccer as one of their major sports if not the main one. We were a blooming "minnow" like Faroe Islands or something and everyone and their dog knew it, low men on the totem pole, perhaps a bit the way Canada is today in soccer. So yes, this is one of the greatest international upsets of all time and merited a movie being made about it ( and for the record, yes, there is another film, sounds like a documentary out there called "The game of their lives", it's about North Korea team in 1966 and yes, that was another great upset so I don't call one upset greater than another). There is a book, "soccer in a football world" that details the development of US soccer. Sure, from time to time, we may have had some glimpses of potential and accomplishments in the sport like being a 1930 semifinalist in the first World Cup ever held but times were different and the tournament much smaller. So, what these guys did was totally out of the blue. Since so many stats are being tossed up, less than a year earlier, Ireland defeated England 2-0 in what I believe is the first time a none-UK ever won on English soil. The UK teams battled each other often over there such as England vs. Wales, etc. All of these stats can be checked out at Elo ratings. Indeed, the US' win was a staggering result all the same.
I think this film is quite a revision of the book it is based on by Geoffrey Douglas, it leans a lot on the St. Louis end, that is fair but that should be acknowledged. I really don't think that is as central to the original book except that by the way, St. Louis was the base for a long time of the US Soccer Federation. I believe the screen writer had an agenda with this point of view and that it may not be totally accurate. The Brits I must say are shown as arrogant but back then, their players worked hard for their wages and were not payed high amounts of money, their wages were really not much higher than that of other occupations. I've read Sir Stanley Matthews book "The way it was" and the 1950 World Cup and this game are spoken about and it is quite a bit different than the way we are told the details of the game. I seriously find this to be a flaw in the movie and I wonder about some other possible historical inaccuracies too. After all, this is a "feel good" Rah-Rah type of movie but it should not be playing fast and loose with the facts either. For historical accuracy, this is more like a six star movie though this would be a matter of research. I'm not positive the depiction of Joseph Gaetjens is accurate and compare it to how the others are portrayed. Perhaps we understand that when we find out the screen play writer's name is Angelo Pizzo.
For soccer action it is excellent, I believe only 'Escape to victory' is as close with soccer greats like Pele, Bobby Moore and Osvaldo Ardiles lighting up the screen. The 'Goal' movies and 'A shot at glory' are good in that vein as well. The story moves along very smoothly and is exciting, clearly, the producers had a good understanding of soccer, the sport itself. As a soccer movie, this is close to 10 stars.
South Africa 2010, these two teams meet again!