Victory: A review

Please do not confuse me with Siskel and Ebert or Ebert and Roeper or any actual movie critic. Well, maybe Mark S. Allen because he seems to like every movie that comes out, especially if it gets his name on the ads. Seriously, that dude has liked more movies in the last 2 years than I have liked in my lifetime. Either he needs better taste in movies or he needs to just stop pimping the movies.

However, here I go with my first movie review: Victory. In some places, it is called Escape to Victory. I may have seen this movie more than any other living human being. Its a favorite. (In the interest of full disclosure, I knew one of the guys in the movie from the time I was 7 and he was friends with my dad.)

It is a World War II soccer movie. Here is the plot: there is a group of POWs. The Nazis want to get some good PR so they set up a soccer game between the POWs and the German national team. The POWs want to escape during the soccer game. Simple enough concept.

This may be one of the best sports movies - ever. Raging Bull is on the list. But none of this Rudy nonsense or Hoosiers or Rocky. Okay, so Rocky was a lot of fun and Hoosiers was a good movie. But Rudy stunk the place up. Seriously. Could it have been any more predictable? Hey, the kid gets in for a play. YAY! Such great folks at Notre Dame. (Sadly, parts of the story are just not true. I hate to ruin your joy of that movie.)

Here is my problem with sports movies: we know the ending. Hoosiers they win. Rudy plays football. Miracle they win. Win, win, win, win, win. Victory: they don't win. Nope, they don't. That is what makes it so great. The end of the movie is a compelling soccer game with actual soccer. There is a rainbow, crossing, shots that miss the goal, and the most amazing bicycle kick you will ever see. (Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCJBXfKtOiM) There is also the less pretty side of soccer. The late challenges, the dirty slide tackle, the shirt grabbing and even a punch.

But they dont win the game. Its not the "Oh yay, the good guys win. I feel so good about myself." Skillwise the good guys could have won. But it wasnt about that. It was about taking the Eastern Europeans and bringing them into the team so they could get a meal, a shower, a trip. It was about the teamwork. It was about coming together. It wasn't about winning.

This is simply a great movie. You should go take a shot at it. Its not always easy to find, but if you can, spend 90 minutes of your life enjoying it.