Victory

This is the antithesis to the "chick-flick" and up there with the great "male bonding" cameraderie movies such as "great Escape" and "The Man Who Would Be King", and let's not exclude "The Longest Yard". Best scene by far in the movie is Pele's jaw-dropping upside-down kick, followed by Max Von Sydow's sportsmanlike and awestruck applause, followed by glares of hatred from his German brethren. I can guarantee you that that scene is worth the price of the admission(video rental) alone. As far as the non-soccer star cast goes, Michael Caine more than compensates for Sylvester Stallone, and the rest do a credible job, with highest marks to Von Sydow as a 'good guy' on the other side.

Enjoyable warlike movie with memorable images and outstanding acting by well-known faces . It packs crisp performance , intrigue , stirring scenes , suspense ,soccer game , twists and turns . Set in World War II, a group of inmates (Michael Caine , Daniel Massey ,Tim Pigott-Smith , Maurice Roëves) imprisioned at a German concentration camp , there the Prisoners agree a spectacular escape by planning on using the football game as means of escape from the stadium . This is a decent film about a daring breakout from inescapable Nazi concentration camp , a barbed-wired and strongly controlled camp by using a soccer team playing at Paris stadium , being performed by all star cast and professionally directed by John Huston . It deals with Nazi officers (Max Von Sidow , Arthur Brauss ) who come up with a propaganda event in which an all star Nazi team will play a team composed of Allied Prisoners of War in a Soccer or Football game . Following the hard preparatives of a diverse group formed by rebel officers and soldiers mounting a dangerous getaway from a soccer match . Captain Robert Hatch (Sylvester Stallone comes off best among the familiar gallery of prisoners and Nazi stereotypes) is assigned the difficult mission to be in contact with the French freedom fighters . The most part of the film concerns on the elaborated process of scheming the escape ,it includes : secretly digging an underground tunnel to execute a great effort for the groundbreaking breakout throughout the sewers trying to make their bid to freedom . Later on , a football match is set up so that the players flee . As allied POWs prepare for a soccer game against the German National Team to be played in Nazi-occupied Paris, while the French Resistance (Amidou , Carole Laure) are making plans for help them escape through the sewer tunnels of Paris , of course , they want to finish the game first . Now is the time for heroes.Their goal was freedom...

This exciting story contains soccer sports , thrills, intrigue, tension, excitement galore, entertainment and lots of fun . However , being slightly unsatisfactory both for fans of star-studded prison escape sub-genre and for soccer buffs , the latter hoping to watch the best football scenes . This movie results to be a crossover between The great escape (1963) and The longest year (1974), and even Rocky (1976) , taking parts here and there . Although it holds heavily on the barely plausible notion of a squad of Pow soccer stars escaping from Paris stadium . Suspenseful WWII epic packs exceptional plethora of prestigious actors incarnating the motley group of POWs , giving good acting ,along with a great support cast . Stars Sylvester Stallone whose character , Captain Robert Hatch , remains today as charming in his long iconography . Along with the always great Michael Caine as a British official reluctant to participate in the masquerade . Secondary cast includes notorious actors as Carole Laure , Amidou , Arthur Brauss , Tim Pigott-Smith , Maurice Roëves , Anton Driffing ,Michael Wolf and the incombustible Max Von Sidow . In addition , the footballers carry out some cunningly devised games from Pele and his squad of internationals as half the Ipswich team , plus to Ardiles and Moore. For all of the soccer players who had acting parts in this movie, this picture has been their only ever theatrical film acting role.

Colorful, atmospheric cinematography by Gerry Fisher shot in Budapest, Hungary , Paris, France . Excellent production design and art direction with evocative sets by Dennis Washington . Rousing and lively soundtrack , nowadays a classic score , and being constantly reminded , by Bill Conti . The movie was scored by Bill Conti who had composed the Oscar nominated music score for Sylvester Stallone's Rocky (1976). Victory (1981) is one of around ten collaborations of the pair and one of just a handful of non-Rocky franchise films scored by Conti and starring Stallone with the others being F.I.S.T. (1978), Lock up (1989), and Paradise alley (1978).This Soccer/Concentration camp movie was well directed by the great John Huston at his best , its tense filmmaking makes this crackerjack entertainment , being shot over a period of five weeks. The picture was made in a good time of the 60s , 70s and 80s when Huston resurged as a director of quality films with Fat City, (1972), The man who would be king (1975) and Wise blood (1979). He ended his career on a high note with Under volcano (1984), the afore-mentioned Honor of Prizzi (1985) and Dublineses (1987). Rating : 7/10 . Above average , as the intrigue is entertaining on its own , this is one of John Huston's best films , a model of his kind , definitely a must see if you are aficionado to WWII movies . Huston broke a new ground with this landmark movie , providing classic scenes and agreeable dialogs . Two thumbs up , essential and indispensable watching , a real must see.

I loved this film as a kid because I am such a huge fan of the sport and more so because it used real life footballers. I often wonder and hope with the popularity of the sport today and the level of talent why hasn't anyone tried rebooting or remaking this film. Could you imagine a film with Messi, Rinaldo, Neymar, Rooney, Suárez, etc? I would definitely recommend it be a period piece film again during WW2 and you could use some of Germany's current day greats like Klose, Mueller, Lahm, Ozil, etc. This film will always be a timeless classic for me personally.

The script of this unusual war/escape movie was nothing special, and neither was the acting. Not surprising about the latter since half the performers weren't actually experienced actors. However I loved every minute of it, and thought it was great fun and terrific entertainment. Of course there are those who won't quite see it that way and will dismiss it out of hand. And they'd be perfectly sane to do so. Everything about "Victory" (aka "Escape to Victory" in the UK) says it's one to leave well alone.

Even if you disregard the lack of aesthetic qualities, and tut-tut over the reality of it all, it's worth watching if only to see again a few of the great past-masters of what the Brits like to call "the beautiful game" (i.e. soccer). And Sylvester Stallone as a goalkeeper is something to behold.

As far as escape stories go this is about as original as they get, but even here it's possible to see plundering from other story lines, i.e "The Great Escape", "The Password is Courage", "Albert RN", to name but three, and as at least one reviewer has pointed out, the music is extremely reminiscent of the first one.

One of my favourites snippets is that of the Nazi sports commentator, portrayed by Anton Diffring, that stalwart of war movies, broadcasting his gramophone record of enthusiastic crowd applause, when in "reality" the whole stadium was as quiet as the grave.

I think this is one of those rare occasions, if taken in the right vein, when a bad movie can be a crowd pleaser. Forget the war pundits, the realists and the purists. Just enjoy the movie for what it is. Tremendous fun!

John Huston's Victory has probably seen so much critical scorn it's mind boggling. Is this movie Oscar material? Certainly not, but it's a great film in many ways.

First of all, Bill Conti offers up a first rate uplifting musical score. It's outstanding work and you hear a bit of resemblence to the score he wrote for a 1982 film that received a little bit of notoriety -- The Right Stuff.

Next, the cinematography is simply gorgeous. Soccer is not an easy sport to film and I think this film was done wonderfully. I thought the choice of film stock, a certain amount of grain to make it almost like you're watching a documentary was a nice touch. Some of the action shots and slow-mos are absolutely wonderful to behold.

Finally, we have a nice plot with a couple of surprises, a great cast, and an auteur director. Certainly, Huston was in failing health and not at the top of his game by this time but his work on this film was still memorable. For me I will always remember the wonderful line with "The Forger" asking Hatch "You don't want to get shot as a spy do you?" And the quick reply, "No, I don't want to get shot as anything." Simple one liner, uncomplicated, yet funny.

Victory is a great inspirational film, a sure hit for soccer fans (of course he wasn't offside - he was behind the ball when it was struck!) and a nice film for war buffs. Just ignore Maltin et al and spend the time watching it, widescreen DVD recommended, you won't be sorry.