The Game of Their Lives
April. 22,2005 PGBased on a true story, this film tells the tale of the 1950 US soccer team who, against all odds, beat England 1 - 0 in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Although no US team has yet won a World Cup title, this story is about the family traditions and passions which shaped the lives of the players who made up this team of underdogs.
Similar titles
Reviews
Very Cool!!!
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.
Take every sports movie cliché, add a whole lot of annoying, pounding music, and finish it off with some nice depraved Americanisms. Patriotism? Nonsense about "honor" and "respect" (we're talking about a bunch of guys who're playing football here)? Arrogant, haughty stereotypical English? Hilarious comparisons between athletes and state-empowered murderers ("soldiers")? Predictable outcome? No mention of what happened afterwards (US lost remaining games and Korean War)?Even worse is the constant repetition of how great football is. From the very first dialogue to the last, a constant reminder that football is awesome, great, fantastic and the most democratic sport.It's just a crappy sports movie with Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Captain Vasco Rodrigues making some easy money. Please, waste your time on something else.
I had troubles watching this movie from the beginning to the end. For anyone that knows a thing or two about soccer, it's so mindbogglingly idiotic that there is no way in hell to appreciate it. They call free kicks penalties, illegal tackles are called fair and the other way around, the sports part of the movie is beyond horrible. I doubt the makers of the movie watched more than say... two soccer games in all their lives. And even if they did, they definitely didn't understand it. Which, for a soccer movie, is a fatal flaw.But even ignoring the sports part, the movie is still very bad. Even making a movie about a rather unimportant game (they didn't win anything, didn't reach any final... they just won a game against the odds, happens all the time). Trying to display that as a heroic deed is rather hilarious... Any soccer fan knows that a very bad team can sometimes cause problems to a strong team, due to excessive enthusiasm (usually translated into aggressiveness) and the tendency to destroy the play.Also, the movie is one big cliché, a sports team nobody knew about rising above its status to defeat the main contenders for the title. And there were some movies based on the same structure, which I happened to enjoy. But everything about this specific movie is so irrational and / or meaningless that there's simply no way someone with a bit of movie and sports culture could enjoy it.A total failure, both from a cinematic point of view, and a sportive one.Gave it 2, because i've seen worse movies. Not many though.
this is a good movie for football fans to watch just before the biggest show in football kicks off, i.e. the 2006 World Cup.. no stars in this movie apart from Patrick Stewart but it bodes p well.. v similar to World's Fastest Indian if not as good but it does give ya a glimpse of the perceptions of football in those days when England still considered themselves to be the masters of the game they invented..in fact, the original result hardly made headlines back in England.. the English just didn't care about the World Cup until 1962, the last tournament before they would host it.. to the English, the World Cup was a joke as they still thought themselves to be the undisputed World Champions of the world..of course, history tells us that England has only won the World Cup once when they were hosts in 1966 with a team as talented but more adept to the changes in world football than the one which lost to the USA in 1950.. as for the USA, they only made the World Cup again in 1990 before they hosted the tournament in 1994..in the movie there is no mention about how the Americans had to qualify for the World Cup beating the likes of Guatemala and Mexico, nor about how they had to beat Spain to progress to the second round of the tournament.. but i guess the one result that everyone remembers is that game against England in beautiful Belo Horizonte and how they beat the team that called themselves the World Champions before a ball had been kicked.hopefully in a couple of years time, they might make a movie about another shock win by the Americans at a World Cup tournament 52 years later, when they beat a Portugal team full of stars 3-2..
I'm sure the producers were hoping for "MIRACLE" on a soccer field- but a dream is only a dream. After viewing this film you will find soccer less exciting than golf. The director spends an hour introducing the characters many of whom are underdeveloped and others who are unlikeable. They introduce a negro player who the coach insists can't join the team but the next day he joins and no one offers an explanation as to why it was so easy for him to join but that's o.k. since the coach never explained why he couldn't join in the first place. John Rhys Davies plays the coach and if you find Davies a fairly lame actor you won't be disappointed he is dry and flat here as well. On to the big tune up game- well it was kind of quick and for some reason in the 2 minutes they show of the game they decide the center "must go!!". The audience knows not why since we never saw him play in those 2 minutes nor does the director show/ explain the importance of his role on the team (11 players on the field the center is the reason the team sucks you'd think this would be a nice time to touch on a few points about the role of center in soccer). On to the big game. The first half is 4 minutes then the coach comes in for a lame-o speech proving him the least inspiring leader written for the silver screen(kind of sad when you consider they had days into the shoot for dramatic rewrite- way to go MR. Director) the second half is 3 minutes and the film ends without the audience being lifted by the event! Perhaps the director should have spent less time under developing unlikeable characters and more time on the heart and soul of the game because there was no drama!!! no sign of exhaustion by the players no sacrifice on the field no sign of I assure you this director had no game plan taking on this project!! In fact he had less than that since the 1950 U.S. World Cup team had no game plan but walked away with a victory!! Not even worth a $5.50 walmart dump bin purchase. I gave it a 4 since I could at least see an effort- but it was a bad movie.