Escape to Victory Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, Max Von Sydow, Pele Director: John Huston We call it 'the beautiful game'. It's the most popular sport in the world, gathering millions around the globe every four years for a month of pure excitement. But for all its popularity, in the world of film, soccer is severely lacking. Granted, the sport is hard to sell, with Hollywood rarely embracing any form of athleticism its own country doesn't excel at. Which, at the very least, means Victory is the sport's finest cinematic two hours. And who can argue with a cast including Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine (right), Max Von Sydow and Pele. The cult classic is a laughable lovefest of a film. Like its obvious inspiration, The Great Escape, it's the ideal Sunday afternoon spent with a heady mix of masculine elements - soccer, war, Stallone. The plot is almost perfunctory, being a mishmash of war film subgenres. Caine, Stallone, Pele and their cohorts are soccer-loving POWs, challenged by kindly Nazi von Sydow to a propaganda match in Paris. But as it is the sworn duty of every Allied officer to escape, a plot to break free during halftime is hatched, and the men are given a life-or-death option: flee from the stadium with their lives or return to the match for their dignity. The film was helmed by John Huston, a director whose career was torn between irrefutable classics (Maltese Falcon) and indisputable wastes of time (pointless to mention), with the odd underrated gem tossed in the mix. Victory is in the latter category, but only in retrospect. The film was ignored upon initial release, but marathon HBO showings forever secured its now-loved status. Its themes of honour, sacrifice and the horrors of war might have been better represented (and crowd-rousing speeches surely better written) 25 years before its release, but it's hard to fault a film that eschewed the decade's greed-is-good attitude and Reaganesque politics. Ignoring the era's machismo, however, was a little tougher - but that's not a bad thing. Stallone was on a career-high, having just come off the first two Rocky films, and their influence is everywhere. From composer Bill Conti's brass-heavy score, to the 'against all odds' build-up, it's nowhere more apparent than in the film's final set-piece: the Allied vs German football match, compressed into a half-hour of Hollywood-style highlights, complete with all the shocks and thrills one would expect from the boxing series. Soccer, as many know, can be quite boring - it's the reason those out West prefer the instant gratification of high-scoring sports. But when it's played well, as it is in Victory's last act, it's a thing of pride. Choreographed by the great man himself, Pele, the match captures all that is beautiful about the game, revealing its intricacies, its tactics and its pure precision. From the excitement behind a well-played pass cleverly converted, to the shocking standstill in the seconds before a penalty kick, it's an exquisite representation, enough to convert even the most die-hard of haters into lifelong fans. And for that is why Victory is the perfect complement to the World Cup final.
