How Come There Are No Great Soccer Films?
Filed under: Sports, Fandom, Newsstand
If soccer movies were as exciting as sportscaster Andrés Cantor makes scoring in real-life soccer matches sound ("GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!'), we wouldn't be asking this question. But even die-hard fans of both cinema and soccer must ask, Why have there been no great movies about the most popular sport in the world?
You might easily dismiss my thinking since I'm an American and I live in a city where (American) football is considered a religion, so why not listen to more informed opinions? Simon Clifford, team owner and manager, trained players for soccer film The Damned United, which opens in the UK tomorrow. He told Glenn Moore of The Independent UK: "If the football doesn't look right the whole film can fall flat."
Director Alan Parker (Midnight Express, Fame, Angela's Ashes) observed: "It's an impossibly difficult sport to replicate because football is seen primarily in wide-shot. The excitement unfolds seeing at least four players in one shot. This is very difficult to cheat. The illusion of film is about editing and close-ups." Parker notes that boxing, baseball, and American football lend themselves much more easily to film adaptations. "Most importantly, the skills cannot be replicated by actors as they can in boxing or baseball."
Is this all hogwash to cover up for the Brits' inability to make a great soccer movie? Bend It Like Beckham was pretty good, but not really great, was it? Is that the best we can hope for? Do you think John Huston's Victory, with Sylvester Stallone as a goalkeeper (pictured) and Pelé, is a hidden gem? Are we missing some awesome foreign-language flicks that capture the spirit of the sport? How come there are no great soccer movies?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
3-26-2009 @ 1:44PM
Christopher Campbell said...
I bet if anyone can names some, it's former Cinematical writer Martha Fischer.
While I can't think of any great films that are about soccer players, I do love The Cup.
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3-26-2009 @ 1:47PM
jduke said...
Shaolin Soccer
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3-27-2009 @ 1:10AM
YouFaceTheTick said...
shao lin. otherwise soccer is pretty boring
3-26-2009 @ 1:47PM
Deadpan said...
As a lark I have to point out Shaolin Soccer.
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3-26-2009 @ 1:50PM
techstar25 said...
A friend once told me about a movie called "Green Street Hooligans", which is kind of about soccer, but I'm not sure if it counts.
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3-26-2009 @ 2:05PM
Cannen said...
Green Street Hooligans is a fantastic movie. There is a small amount of soccer in it, but the movies isn't really about soccer as much as it is about the "Firms" who support them. Firms are like gangs and at the same time not really. You'll have to see the movie and I highly recommend it.
You can see a trailer here:
http://www.warnervideo.com/greenstreethooligans/
3-26-2009 @ 2:03PM
lw said...
1 because soccer sucks
2 yes Victory is a hidden gem
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3-26-2009 @ 2:07PM
MCW said...
Gracie is great. Why not mention it? Arguably, and I just talked about this the other day with "The Longshots", it's another girl beats the odds to become good at soccer, but the twist on this time-tested tale is different.
Check it out people. I too try to find good soccer movies.
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3-26-2009 @ 2:07PM
MCW said...
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Gracie/70059983
3-26-2009 @ 2:12PM
Ahmed said...
I can name some of my favorite soccer movies, mean machine and goal I and goal II
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3-27-2009 @ 12:03AM
Ethan Stanislawski said...
I was a big fan of the Sixty Six and Goal! Living a Dream, but a) no one saw those movies and b) they were nothing close to Bull Durham, or even the original Bad News Bears.
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3-26-2009 @ 2:21PM
Mike said...
"The skills cannot be replicated by actors"? Come on now. Alan Parker doesn't think actors can run and kick a ball convincingly? Nobody's asking them to be good. You just have to be good at faking it. I'd say it's tougher to portray a convincing baseball player. At the very least, you have to be able to hit a ball thrown at a decent velocity. Unless you wanna work in close-ups and cutaways.
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3-26-2009 @ 2:29PM
Kurt Munro said...
"I'd say it's tougher to portray a convincing baseball player."
Hardly. Get them to swing a bat then add in a little special effect in After Effects of the ball if they suck. All batters have to do is hit a ball.
Soccer players have to have loads of other attributes such as first-touch, pace, crossing ability etc. Faking the physics off a soccer ball with special effects is near impossible. Just look at the Nike ads with Ronaldinho hitting the crossbar etc - they all look fake.
3-26-2009 @ 4:10PM
Mike said...
You still have to look like you know what you're doing, no matter which sport. Whether it's easier to swing a bat or kick a ball is subjective. If they can fake one they can fake the other.
Nobody's asking these actors to compete in an entire game here. They work from shot to shot. Certainly even complicated soccer moves can be faked for such short bursts. That's not to say anyone can do it convincingly, but there are dudes who look like little girls when they swing a bat too.
My point wasn't so much about which is easier, but that it's silly to claim soccer moves cannot be replicated by actors.
3-26-2009 @ 2:35PM
Erich Von Squally said...
Soccer is about teamwork and a crowd mentality. That's difficult to present in a mainstream film, which usually depends on a single protagonist overcoming odds. That said, Victory is indeed a minor masterpiece. Two other good football films which come to mind are The Golden Ball, a great film from Guinea, and Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait.
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3-26-2009 @ 2:48PM
vegimorph said...
I haven't seen Shaolin Soccer yet but I want to because it looks really interesting. Besides Bend it like Beckham though, the only soccer movie I've seen is the Big Green and I know everybody will call me an idiot for saying its great
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3-26-2009 @ 2:56PM
Cory Rivard said...
How dare we forget the "CLASSIC", Ladybugs. Rodney Dangerfield, cross-dressing and soccer; what more can one ask for?
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3-26-2009 @ 2:56PM
SGM said...
There is a German film called "Das Wunder von Bern" ("The Bern Miracle") that follows the 1954 Soccer World Cup in Bern Switzerland from the point of view of a boy who knows one of the players and finally gets his Dad to take him to the final. They used original footage to replicate the soccer scenes and did a pretty good job.
"Goal" and "Goal 2" weren't that bad either. And I really liked "Bend It Like Beckham" although it isn't primarily about the sport but about cultural differences and equal rights for girls.
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3-26-2009 @ 3:02PM
David S said...
There are good movies with soccer in them (Goal I, Bend it like Beckham, green street) but they aren't about the Beautiful Game. The game's merely a backdrop to tell a story about an individual.
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3-26-2009 @ 3:18PM
Wade said...
The original Fever Pitch
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