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73 comments in total

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21 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
Once again, you can't trust the critics., 3 February 2002

Author: wgfinley from Chicago, Illinois

John Huston's Victory has probably seen so much critical scorn it's mind boggling. Is this movie Oscar material? Certainly not, but it's a great film in many ways.

First of all, Bill Conti offers up a first rate uplifting musical score. It's outstanding work and you hear a bit of resemblence to the score he wrote for a 1982 film that received a little bit of notoriety -- The Right Stuff.

Next, the cinematography is simply gorgeous. Soccer is not an easy sport to film and I think this film was done wonderfully. I thought the choice of film stock, a certain amount of grain to make it almost like you're watching a documentary was a nice touch. Some of the action shots and slow-mos are absolutely wonderful to behold.

Finally, we have a nice plot with a couple of surprises, a great cast, and an auteur director. Certainly, Huston was in failing health and not at the top of his game by this time but his work on this film was still memorable. For me I will always remember the wonderful line with "The Forger" asking Hatch "You don't want to get shot as a spy do you?" And the quick reply, "No, I don't want to get shot as anything." Simple one liner, uncomplicated, yet funny.

Victory is a great inspirational film, a sure hit for soccer fans (of course he wasn't offside - he was behind the ball when it was struck!) and a nice film for war buffs. Just ignore Maltin et al and spend the time watching it, widescreen DVD recommended, you won't be sorry.

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18 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Great movie, 27 April 2005

Author: dantt777 from United States

This a great movie for any football fan. A great set of stars from the 70's, Pele and Stallone as a funny goalkeeper. This is one of my favorite soccer movies. The storyline is not the best, but it is catchy. Now the way the stadium was set up, the noise, it feel really real. I would love to see a similar movie remade. Maybe a victory 2 with todays's stars. Some people do not like the idea of sly as a football player, I disagree, I think he playing the "football-ignorant"american is good. Now I also think that the way the soccer players acted was very realistic. In special Pele was good. I know many friends in many countries outside the USA who just love this film.

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14 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
"Take me out from the ball game", 1 September 2006

Author: benbrae76

The script of this unusual war/escape movie was nothing special, and neither was the acting. Not surprising about the latter since half the performers weren't actually experienced actors. However I loved every minute of it, and thought it was great fun and terrific entertainment. Of course there are those who won't quite see it that way and will dismiss it out of hand. And they'd be perfectly sane to do so. Everything about "Victory" (aka "Escape to Victory" in the UK) says it's one to leave well alone.

Even if you disregard the lack of aesthetic qualities, and tut-tut over the reality of it all, it's worth watching if only to see again a few of the great past-masters of what the Brits like to call "the beautiful game" (i.e. soccer). And Sylvester Stallone as a goalkeeper is something to behold.

As far as escape stories go this is about as original as they get, but even here it's possible to see plundering from other story lines, i.e "The Great Escape", "The Password is Courage", "Albert RN", to name but three, and as at least one reviewer has pointed out, the music is extremely reminiscent of the first one.

One of my favourites snippets is that of the Nazi sports commentator, portrayed by Anton Diffring, that stalwart of war movies, broadcasting his gramophone record of enthusiastic crowd applause, when in "reality" the whole stadium was as quiet as the grave.

I think this is one of those rare occasions, if taken in the right vein, when a bad movie can be a crowd pleaser. Forget the war pundits, the realists and the purists. Just enjoy the movie for what it is. Tremendous fun!

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15 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Escape is a Winner., 29 December 2004

Author: Born2BeMild from United Kingdom

Any football fans out there? If you haven't seen Escape To Victory either at Christmas, when it is usually on at a ridiculous time of the morning, or hired/bought it on DVD then you are really missing out.

There is a fair amount of disbelief suspending that needs to take place before you settle down. But, if you can numb your brain to the idea of Micheal Caine playing professional football or indeed, Sylvester Stallone doing the same in goal, you're in for a treat.

As a football fan, it was a real thrill to see the great Bobby Moore kicking a ball in anger and, against the Germans too (remember what I said about suspending disbelief).

OK, it isn't the greatest film ever made. But it isn't supposed to be. It's a bit of bubblegum that is just supposed to kill a couple of hours. A feat the movie accomplishes handsomely.

I defy any football fan not to cheer when the goals go in or to curse when the Germans do well. Similarly, try and stifle your guffaws when you see Mr Caine trying to look like he knows what he's supposed to be doing. Is it just me or does he become more cockney when he tries to convey excitement in any of his roles?? Probably one of England's more one dimensional acting talents.

If you don't enjoy it, you're missing the point of it. Nobody will ever forget horror of war, it's ingrained. That isn't what this film is about although it does have a stab at giving the viewer a clue about the life of a POW in WWII.

No, the film is about entertainment. And, on that level, it's one of the good ones.

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13 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Silly rip off but passable to watch, 13 November 2003
Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK

When Major Karl Von Steiner sees POW's playing football he suggests a friendly match between the guards and a select 11 of the prisoners. However as word of the match spreads, the German high command seize on it as a chance to publicly show the strength of the Germans to the world, while the escape committee within the POW camp start planning for a major escape to humiliate the Germans on their big day.

Well worth seeing simply because of the range of `famous' footballers in the cast and the fact that it is one of a select few films that is based around football. That is not to mean it is any good – because of course it simply isn't. The film is a strange mix of POW movie and sports movie. The POW side of it is full of cliché and rip offs of better films, the music itself sounds like a watered down version of The Great Escape. The football action itself is saved for the final third. I think the film would have worked better if it had focused more on training (al la Dirty Dozen) rather than opening up the stuff around Hatch's escape. As it stands the game is actually quite enjoyable, of course it doesn't really play out like a real football match, but it's very hard to get that in a film.

For all those who say that coming back from 4-1 down at halftime is unrealistic and laughable, I say HA! A few seasons ago I watched Man United win 5-3 over Spurs despite losing 3-0 at halftime. Even in the past 3 weeks I have seen both Wolves and West Brom come back from a 3-0 halftime loss to win 4-3 against Leicester and West Ham respectively. Of course the long midfield runs etc are a little unrealistic but the game itself is the more enjoyable aspect of the film.

The cast are not that great. Caine does almost nothing and seems to have just been interested in playing football alongside Pele and Moore (who wouldn't!). Pele, Moore and the other footballers all do OK and seem happy to play (but have major problems with delivering their lines without sounding a little wooden). However, Stallone is probably the best of the cast. For the most part his performance is pretty weak and he is forced to be a strong chin in an escape plot, however he also does well with some comic stuff and seems to enjoy being a footballer!

Overall the film is a very strange hybrid, none of which really works very well. It is best viewed as a bit of fantasy football where the `Brits' beat the Germans at football (and everything else) mainly worth watching because they can't do it in real life! The sub-par rip offs of other films keep reminding us that this is not as good as it's peers, but it is worth seeing if you are a football fan – even if it's a pretty poor product as a film.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the best "male bonding" cameraderie movies ever, 3 February 2000
Author: Len Helfgott (lhelfgott@carroll.com) from USA

This is the antithesis to the "chick-flick" and up there with the great "male bonding" cameraderie movies such as "great Escape" and "The Man Who Would Be King", and let's not exclude "The Longest Yard". Best scene by far in the movie is Pele's jaw-dropping upside-down kick, followed by Max Von Sydow's sportsmanlike and awestruck applause, followed by glares of hatred from his German brethren. I can guarantee you that that scene is worth the price of the admission(video rental) alone. As far as the non-soccer star cast goes, Michael Caine more than compensates for Sylvester Stallone, and the rest do a credible job, with highest marks to Von Sydow as a 'good guy' on the other side.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Motivating Movie, 15 July 2003
Author: p_empi from Melbourne Australia

Many people have passed negative comments about this film.If you study it closely, though, you will notice many positive and original scenes.

The football is not exaggerated like many other sporting Movies.

I first saw it when it was released in 1981/82 and thought it was very good. As a War film it is only average, but as a Football spectacle it is very interesting. The fact that the makers used real life footballers, including the great man himself "Pele" is original. We are actually seeing first class football players do their stuff in a controlled Movie enviroment... Heck some of them even try to act!

I think Michael Caine and Sly would have enjoyed making this Movie.

The message from the Movie is that Football is a game which is understood by everyone and will always be played under any circumstances. It is the Universal game and always will be!

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6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Decent Movie Featuring Terrific Football, 22 October 2005

Author: jcanettis from Athens, Greece

If the part where the football match takes place was omitted, "Victory" would be a "5 stars out of 10" film. The reason is that although it features two very good actors (Michael Caine - Max von Sydow), there is not much to stand out: A rather incredulous WW2 plot, an average acting (what could you expect from professional footballers or from Stallone?), and a simply decent direction, produce an average result. Thankfully, there is more than that, as I will explain in more detail later.

"Victory" is about some inmates in a WW2 prison camp, who have a passion for soccer. Captain J. Colby (Caine), a former footballer, is the leading figure in the camp matches that take place. One day, he is spotted by football-fan Major Steiner (Max von Sydow) who proposes him the idea of organizing a match between allied POWs vs. Germans. Colby agrees, as he believes this will be a great morale-booster and a chance for better prison conditions for those involved; however, more senior inmates are skeptical, as they believe this will be a propaganda stunt for the Germans. In the end, they also concur but only after they have convinced the team's goalie Capt. Hatch (Stallone) to arrange the team's escape during the match. The difficulty is that both Colby and his team are more interested in this game than in their freedom, so they are hesitant on what they should finally do...

As I said, the movie is just watchable during its first part. And yet, when we start to watch the Allied - Germans match, things get much better: We watch terrific football from stars such as Pele, Ardiles, and Bobby Moore, with scenes such as Pele's goal being memorable to all sports fans. Of course, if you are not into soccer, then perhaps you won't get that excited (although the spectacle can be exciting for non-fans, too). But if you like the King of Sports, then you will certainly enjoy this film. 7/10.

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6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Not really a winner - but not a loser., 25 April 2002

Author: Robert Clarke from Wrexham, North Wales

Totally over the top, intended feel good movie about a group of allied WW2 prisoners of war who are `invited' to take part in a `friendly' against the German national football team. Its stereotypes galore here as Michael Caine leads the pack as the former England soccer captain who organises and trains his fellow players (Ozzie Ardiles, Pele, and Bobby Moore included) to take on the Nazis. Sylvester Stallone is also involved - as the teams goalkeeper, Hatch - who has his own plans about using the team to play an away fixture - for good. Very corny, but harmless enough and I always find myself watching it everytime its on TV!!

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Implausible but enjoyable, 7 July 2000

Author: aegm from Arlington, VA

I was looking through the action collection at the video store and trying to find something that might interest my husband and myself, a daunting task. When I picked up Victory, I thought 'why not?' as it has Max Von Sydow who we both enjoy. The fact that it had Michael Caine was an added bonus. Besides I wanted to know what kind of film could have those two AND Sylvester Stallone. Somehow I couldn't picture Stallone playing football with the Europeans, at least not doing it well. I was right. Stallone couldn't play, but it didn't matter because that was part of the shtick for the character.

I'll admit that there were a couple of places where the plot was rather predictable and places where I simply thought it was completely unbelievable. However, all in all I would recommend this movie. It's fun and, at times, touching.

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