The Miracle Match
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Movie Reviews of The Miracle Match
Movie Review: A Decent Film, Gerard Butler Is Rather Good.
Summary: 3 Stars
First this is a film, not a documentary.
One could always read Geoffrey Douglass' book to get a more complete picture.
Granted the film could have been longer with some deeper character development.
Second, to this old gal the 1-2 star reviews not only seem overly harsh, but many of this persons reviews
always bash Italy & Germany to cover up the failures of his England lagging well behind these two.
Quote from the London Times after the 2006 world cup. "After 1966 England has continued in having one
glorious failure after another."
Examples: since 1974 of all the European footballing powers{Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Holland & England}
only the latter has missed 3 world cups in 1974, 78, & 94.
This reviewer pushes a paranoid {no proof, just accusation}conspiracy that the Italian referee
{most in the sports media surprisingly including France's Le Monde said the officiating was good,
while the German & Brazilian media stated that Americans Pariani & Gaetjens deserved penalties for
being fouled in the English penalty area} heavily favored the USA because their were two Italian-Americans
on the team & because England won some friendlies vs. Italy in the late 1940's.
News flash, they don't award medals or trophies for friendlies since they are not sanctioned
month long tournaments, just an exhibition game for that 1 day.
Friendlies are meaningless games that are played often to try new players{source-Fifa president
Sepp Blatter}. Anyone who thinks they are equal to winning a world cup is simply bigoted & delusional!
Even so, the fact that the USA beat England who was one of the favorites & almost upset Spain
{who finished the Tournament in 4th place} who was also a favorite as well proves that this rag tag
group of Americans showed a class & grit that their critics have seldom shown.
As former Fifa president J.Havelange stated on Brazilian & Spanish TV this loss was the begining of England
being referred to as excuseland. Check the book "Soccernomics" where there is a whole chapter with an in
depth analysis that proves Mr.Havelange correct.
This is about a very diverse group of men coming together & becoming a united unit in an astonishingly
short period of time to pull the biggest to date upset win in world cup history.
Here in a 90 minute film you see two different groups that had to blend their various styles & often
totally different personalities to form a new whole.
The east coast squad are more educated & the Hill squad is the less skillful but more robust squad
with plenty of heart.
The characters are an interesting mix. There are the finesse style of the east coast players led by
Walter Bahr{Wes Bentley} & those from the Hill section of Saint Louis led by goalee & team leader
Frank Borghi{Gerard Butler}.
Some were WW2 veterans who had very traumatic psychological damage from their experiences.
Harry Keough the mailman, Joe Gaetjens the Haitian immigrant, the glove wearing Charlie Colombo, the afraid
of flying Pee Wallace, & Gino Pariani who were a deadly duo on the field.
On the whole the film was a bit short & I would have liked it more if it delivered more on their
personal lives both before & after their world cup experience ended.
The cinematography & acting were also better than expected.
Lastly, the moments of narration by the always excellent English actor Patrick Stewart
{of I Claudius & Star Trek the Next Generation fame} rounded things out nicely.
Addendum: In the March 8th, 2010 issue of Sports Illustarted they have these statements on
an article about the goal scorer Joe Gaetjens & "whatever happened to him"?
In the British opinion of his goal, the report in the Daily Mirror was typical: Gaetjens
"trying to duck out of the way, felt a stinging blow on his left ear". Bahr & another teamate
Harry Keough, laugh at that characterization.
"Joe made an honest attempt to head the ball in traffic & got apiece of it," Bahr remembers.
The English revisionism may have been a means of coping for a nation so sure of its status as
master of the game it had invented that it hadn't even condescended to compete in the three previous
world cups. It should be noted that these were won by Uruguay in 1930 & Italy in 1934 & 38.
Movie Review: World Cup Saga
Summary: 3 Stars
As a Brazilian I was surprised and delighted with the film. In countries that have a strong football (soccer) tradition and world cup participation, the stories and the successes of their national teams in that championship are ingrained in the national psychic and are the stuff of legend. Aside the many documentary films, movies about world cup stories are rare (although some have the world cup as part of the background, like the new brazilian film "Quando meus pais sairam de férias", which depicts the political repression of the military regime and the 1970 World Cup). To my knowledge there are only two, both with the word miracle and set in the 1950's. The Miracle Match depicts the U.S miracle in the 1950 World Cup and Das Wunder Von Bern (The Miracle of Bern) the german one in the 1954 World Cup. The german film made in 2004 is far superior to the american one and also displays a rare glimpse of post WWII german life and hardship. For me the american film was a complete surprise (americans making an epic film about a word cup event!). Of course the event of the famous and humiliating defeat of the English Team at the hands of the U.S soccer team was already know to me. The fact is that the english generaly think that they are better than they really are, they make a fuss about themselves, and while respected and sometimes feared, they rarely match the 4 greats (Brazil, Germany, Italy and Argentina). The 1950 match against the U.S was the eye opener and from there, with the exeption of 1966, it was, as the London Times once put it, one "glorious" failure after another.
Although the match took place in Belo Horizonte (which by the way is not a "mining town" as described in a review, but the capital of the state of Minas Gerais, which during the 17th'century and up to the middle of the 18th' century, was an important gold mining region) the scenes in brazil are filmed in Rio de Janeiro. The stadion used to film the match itself, is the stadion of the Fluminense Football Club, possibly one of the oldest in Brazil, built in the beggining of the 20th'century (it is funny to see in the film apartment buildings next to the stadion that were only built 10-20 years after the event). The huge Maracana stadion was built specially for the 1950 World Cup and was the scene of the final match of that championship.
As an aside; if ever a brazilian director decides to make a film like this one, as far as drama is concerned, the best choice would be this 1950 Word Cup, but instead of miracle the word to be used would be trauma or shock. As far as brazilian teams go, the 1950 one was great, alongside the world champions of 1958 and 1970, together with the other defeated one of 1982, and superior to the world champions of 1962, 1994 and 2002. The loss of the final match to Uruguai in front of 200,000 spectators, for much of the same reasons that England lost to the U.S, ranks as the worst sport disaster in the history of Brazil.
Movie Review: GREAT TEAM - GOOD FILM, BUT UNDERFINANCED BY STUDIO
Summary: 3 Stars
The same filmmakers who gave us RUDY and HOOSIERS - two outstanding sports films that set the standard for many that followed - were forced to play it safe in this one, due to disagreements with studio executives. The original budget of $65 M was whittled down to $27 M, causing the running time of 130 minutes to be shortened to 101. Scriptwriter Angelo Pizzo, who based his story on the book by Geoffrey Douglas, says that only 45-50% of what he intended to be in the film made it to the final cut. Scenes like Frank "Pee Wee" Wallace as a German POW, and an emotional scene of the players looking up the records of their ancestors on Ellis Island, were dropped. Those were scenes that would have given the characters more depth and made the story more interesting. Instead, we are left with a predictably formulaic sports film about an underdog American soccer team beating the inventors of the sport, Great Britain, in the 1950 Olympic Games. Period. While interesting and likable, it leaves much to be desired as far as drama.
I didn't like the way everything had to be explained by the narrator, reporter Dent McSkimming, played by Patrick Stewart. Perhaps the scenes that would have explained things were part of the film that was cut, and that was the only option left to the filmmakers. I liked Gerard Butler as goalie Frank Borghi, the star of the team, and the player who had been most decorated in WWII; but it wasn't one of his stronger roles. He had plenty to do on the field, but not that much dramatically off. Wes Bentley as Walter Bahr, Jay Rodan as Pee Wee Wallace, Gavin Rossdale as Brit Stanley Mortensen, Costas Mandylor as Charlie "Gloves" Columbo, Louis Mandylor as Gino Pariani, Zachery Ty Bryan as Harry Keough, and especially Jimmy Jean-Louis as Joe Gaetjens were all good. These were good actors playing good characters. It is a shame the studio didn't allow them to show their stuff more.
This is a very likable film that was cheated by the studio. My only hope is that one day someone will finance a director's cut version so we can see what we missed, though that is highly unlikely since I don't think those extra scenes were even shot. If that were to happen, it might turn out that this actually was a great film, worthy of the company of RUDY and HOOSIERS.
By the way: the DVD contains no extras - not one. When was the last time that occurred? So the filmmakers weren't the only ones that were cheated by the studio.
Waitsel Smith
Movie Review: Not for the soccer enthusiast
Summary: 3 Stars
I play, loved, and breath soccer everyday. And I can tell you that this movie is going to disappoint a lot of soccer enthusiasts or players. There's very little glimpse of talent and I saw a lot of the scenes being repeated, but the story line was quite good though there is nothing out of the ordinary. The movie is pretty much an inspirational story about a sports team that had their differences, overcame the differences, and beat the best soccer team in the world, England. The only setback is that the movie was unrealistic. Why? It all went down to the skills that's being shown in the movie. There are plenty of slow motions to make the movement smooth and makes it look like a great pass and what not. But deep down inside I know that I can do better than these guys.Movie Review: Worth the buy, I think...
Summary: 3 Stars
If you want a movie that has a whole american feel about it, I guess you must also have a little love for sports movies as well. I really liked the comadere in this movie a long with the fact that the first american team was made up of italian's germans, but not full blood americans.
I really liked the movie I loved how family-like the team was and how the emotions switched when the leader of the Italian team realized what it was all about and how the team wasn't 100% serious at first. It is a real
time movie about a team that really comes together and how they have to fight to prove themsleves among the best of the best in soccer. It has a league of thier own feel to it so if you liked that, you'll love this one!