Category: Victory

“Victory” is #1

Craig / / 2005, Honors, Victory

The soccer website Football.co.uk recently conducted a poll in which 4000 soccer fans picked their favorite soccer movie of all time.

As you probably guessed, Victory starring Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, and Pele scored the top spot.

The top 10 soccer movies are:

1. Victory (1981)
2. Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
3. Fever Pitch (1997)
4. When Saturday Comes (1996)
5. Gregory’s Girl (1981)
6. Mike Bassett: England Manager (2001)
7. Mean Machine (2001)
8. The Football Factory (2004)
9. ID (1995)
10. Goal! (2005)

– Craig

3 of Total Films’ 25 Greatest Sports Movies of All Time are Stallone’s!

Craig / / 2004, Honors, Rocky, Rocky IV, Victory

Ernest Jazzman Resendes sent in the following:

This month’s (issue 91) of TOTAL FILM lists The 25 Greatest Sports Movies (voted by filmgoers!) and guess who comes in at #1, #2 and #24?

You guessed it !!!

Here’s a taste of what they had to say…

#1 ROCKY (1976) : A film about a palooka, made by a palooka-but it’s your greatest sports movie of all time. The palooka being Sylvester Stallone, a bit-part guy who, like his character, made the most of his one shot.

“I was as marketable as tear gas, ” recalls Stallone. “Nobody wanted me, but I wasn’t about to let this thing go.” His tenacity paid off — three Oscars, $220-million worldwide and a string of sequels that made him one of Hollywood‘s most bankable stars.

#2 ESCAPE TO VICTORY (1981) : It’s a fairytale football for those who want to believe–in jumpers for goalposts, sudden- death penalty saves and Caine‘s man’s-man persona, epitomized by his advice to the soccer stars nervous about [ “Once I’d said to them:’ Come on, don’t worry about it, just say say the lines!’ ].

#24 ROCKY IV (1985) : It’s the only Rocky movie that doesn’t feature Bill Conti‘s score-it returns in Rocky V -yet, of the four sequels, you voted it the one challenger to the John G. Avildsen‘s big-hitting original.

Someone should send an issue over to MGM ! – Jazzman

Thanks to Jazz for passing along the news! – Craig Zablo

 

“Victory” Named Greatest Soccer Movie of All Time!

Craig / / 2004, Honors, Victory

Escape to Victory thrashes rivals [from Ananova.com, June 20, 2004]

Escape to Victory has been named the greatest football movie of all time.

The 1981 film starred Brazilian football legend Pele, England‘s 1966 World Cup captain Bobby Moore and actors Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone.

They played allied PoWs preparing for a match against a German team in Nazi-occupied Paris while French Resistance and British officers make plans for the team’s escape.

British comedy Bend it Like Beckham, starring Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley, came second in the poll.

The most recent soccer movie Football Factory, about football hooliganism, which was criticised for scenes of explicit violence, came 10th in the UCI Cinema poll with only 1%.

Fever Pitch, based on Nick Hornby‘s best selling semi-autobiography, came third, followed by When Saturday Comes, the 1996 movie starring Sean Bean and Emily Lloyd, about a hard-drinking brewery worker who has a trial at Sheffield United.

Other films in the top 10 include Cup Fever (1965), in sixth place, starring Manchester United manager Matt Busby.

Mean Machine (2001), which starred Vinnie Jones as a soccer star who leads a match against prison guards after being jailed for assault, came ninth.

UCI Cinemas spokeswoman Lianne Butterfield said: “As a nation we love football and films about our favourite passion have always been popular with cinemagoers.

“Escape to Victory and Bend it Like Beckham are great feel-good films that everyone can enjoy, even if they don’t understand the offside rule.”

– Craig

SLY IN ESCAPE TO (AND FROM) VICTORY

Craig / / 2002, Celebs, Victory

Jazzman sent in this pic and the following: Craig, I found a cool article in the current (UK edition Volume 3 Number 1) issue of HOTDOG ‘the movie magazine’ on Stallone’s VICTORY entitled ‘JACKROOTS FOR GOALPOSTS, THE MAKING OF ESCAPE TO VICTORY’. Here are some excerpts…

John Houston has made better films than Escape To Victory: The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, Moby Dick, The African Queen, Fat City.. bit it’s doubtful the writer/actor/director/cinematographer/bullfighter/ Mexican cavalry officer ever made a film that was as much fun as this soccer opus.

That the film still enjoys a cult status can’t be entirely attributed to schoolboy nostalgia, however. Amore probable reason for the public’s sustained affection is the films relationship with the granddaddy of all POW movies, The Great Escape.

 

Caine and co-star Stallone made the most of their weekends off. “We used to get away together when ever we could,” said Caine. “We would race ot the airport on Friday night waving our credit cards and shouting: ‘When’s the next plane out- to anywhere? ‘ Usually it was Paris or London. We’d go eating, drinking and falling down a lot.”

– Craig Zablo (02/03/02)
Thanks to Jazzman for sharing!