Eight Great Football Movies
The world’s greatest single-sport’s tournament kicks off in Russia on Friday.
Supporters of 32 nations from around the world (and millions of other “neutral” fans) will then be glued to the television and the internet for a month as one of the globe’s great dramas plays out.
Ahead of the 21st edition of the Fifa World Cup, Stuff picks out an octet of cinematic celebrations of the beautiful game to help get you in the mood.
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BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM
Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley starred in Bend it Like Beckham.
The 2002 film that gave the world Keira Knightley, Parminder Nagra and Jonathan Rhys-Davies, Gurinda Chadha’s multi-ethnic, coming-of-age story also inspired a generation of female footballers. A heady mix of off-field romance, domestic drama and compelling on-field action combined to crowd-pleasing effect.
The masterstroke, though, was probably keeping old Goldenballs (and his multimedia missus) far away from the project.
THE CUP
The Cup demonstrates just what a global game football is.
Rightly highly acclaimed 1999 Bhutanese drama about the efforts of a group of kids at an Indian monastery to try to watch the 1998 World Cup on television. The enterprise becomes a test of solidarity, resourcefulness and friendship.
“A delightful demonstration of how spirituality can co-exist quite happily with an intense desire for France to defeat Brazil, ” wrote the Chicago- Sun Times’s Roger Ebert.
ESCAPE TO VICTORY
As well as well-established actors and international football stars, Escape to Victory also featured players from Ipswich Town.
The plot may be preposterous and the footballers (Pele, Bobby Moore and Ipswich Town’s squad) and actors (Sly Stallone, Michael Caine and Max Von Sydow) mix uneasily, but there’s just something about this 1981 World War II drama that still makes it such a crowd pleaser almost three decades on.
As allied POWs prepare for a soccer game against the German national team to be played in Nazi-occupied Paris, the French Resistance and British officers make plans for the team’s escape.
FEVER PITCH
Colin Firth became a Gooner for Fever Pitch.
A more than solid if not quite spectacular 1997 adaptation of Nick Hornby’s seminal 1992 book about football obsession.
An unkempt Colin Firth stands in for Hornby as the Arsenal saddo who puts Highbury before his homelife, much to his new girlfriend’s chagrin. And then just when he is about to change his ways, along comes the most exciting climax to a season – ever. All together now, “Thomas, it’s up for grabs now!”
MEAN MACHINE
Jason Statham goes goalie in Mean Machine.
A remake of the 1974 Burt Reynolds movie The Longest Yard, this 2001 film has former pro-footballer Vinnie Jones playing England captain Danny Meehan.
After a run-in with the law, he ends up in Longmarsh Prison where the governor wants him to coach the guards’ semi- professional team. By infusing the cliched win-against-the-odds movie with a cast of bizarre and memorable characters (notably Jason Statham’s mad-goalkeeper Monk), terrific football sequences and a jet-black sense of humour, director Barry Skolnick propels the movie into the premier division. It also boasts the best commentary team since Best in Show: “He’s ambidextrous.” “I don’t know about that, Bob, but he can use both feet.”
THE MIRACLE OF BERN
The Miracle of Bern details West Germany’s run to World Cup glory in 1954.
It’s easy to see why this 2003 dramatisation of West Germany’s 1954 World Cup campaign is such a crowd-pleaser, particularly in its native country.
A former second-division footballer, director Sonke Wortmann has created a sometimes compelling, exceedingly charming but slightly cheesy tale of family upheaval and underdog spirit. The pitch action is some of the most realistic committed to celluloid.
ONCE IN A LIFETIME
Once in a Lifetime details the rise and fall of the New York Cosmos.
A quite simply stunning 2006 documentary that chronicles the rise and fall of the New York Cosmos and the North American Soccer League. Gathering some of the world’s best players – Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff – thanks to the millions provided by Warner Brothers president Steve Ross, the Cosmos attracted record crowds for the sport in the US.
However, infighting and a lack of results on the field led to it all falling spectacularly apart.
ONE NIGHT IN TURIN
Gazza’s glory and nightmare is recounted in One Night in Turin.
Gary Oldman-narrated 2010 documentary which recounts England’s run to the semifinals of the 1990 Fifa World Cup. It was a performance that redeemed football in the eyes of a nation.
“Revisit some fond and familiar sights – Gazza’s tears, Lineker’s goals, Bobby Robson’s rueful smile – and a handful we’d rather forget,” wrote The Independent.
– Stuff
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