Escape to Victory

Just watched Escape to Victory last night, based on a 2020 episode of the Nessun Dorma football podcast. It occurred to me as I listened that I'd seen bits and pieces, and seen in-jokes and mentions of the movie for more than 20 years, but I'd never sat and watched the whole thing through. The closest I came was watching part of it on TV in a youth hostel in Geneva in 2001, with my friend Erick (who had no idea what was going on) and a Brazilian guy who was also staying there and laughed maniacally every time Pele came on screen. I don't even remember if it was dubbed into French or had subtitles.

So I rented it on my Apple TV, and watched it over the course of a couple of nights. The Nessun Dorma crowd were right when they said it felt like a 1950s war film, but it also still felt very late-70s/early-80s, even apart from the presence of Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine.

For those who don't know, it starts in a German POW camp during WWII, when the Allied inmates are challenged to a football match by the German guards. It goes from being a "friendly" to a propaganda exercise, on the part of the Germans, and an escape attempt on the part of the Allies. The real draw, however, is that it features a number of actual footballers, most notably Pele but also Bobby Moore and Ossie Ardiles, among quite a few others.

(I'm not going to bother with spoiler warnings because the film is over 40 years old, and we all know the Allies won the war) 

Another impressive thing about the movie, beyond the players who star in it, is the fact that it was directed by none other than John Huston. It was fairly late in his career, and not listed among the notable films in his filmography, so it's possible he was just hired on to direct, but it's still interesting that they got a director of that caliber for it.

Overall it's fairly disposable. The acting from the footballers isn't exactly on the level of Olivier, and Stallone turns in the kind of performance you'd expect. But there's something earthy and real about the camera work and sound, the kind of thing you only see in movies from that period, with the dialogue sounding weirdly naturalistic, almost like Robert Altman's MASH.

The acting from the other professionals isn't amazing either, though Caine is good as Colby, the working-class captain of the team who finds himself at odds with the more aristocratic British officers who insist on using his team as a means to escape. It's a little strange that he spends the first part of the movie fighting against the escape plans, including not wanting Stallone's character on his team because he worries his escape attempts will get the team in trouble. On the other hand, it's a nice touch that Colby convinces the Germans to let him have a few Eastern European players - the Germans resist at first, because the Poles and Czechs have no legal status (code for starving them to death), but eventually relent. Colby doesn't even use the Easterners, but they manage to escape at the end with the rest of the players.

I also like Max von Sydow, who plays the German officer who floats the idea of a match because he recognizes Colby; it's notable that he's the only Nazi who cheers when the Allied team equalizes, showing that he's more honorable than his fellow Wehrmacht officers. At the end, when the crowd is bundling the players out and disguising them, it's clear that he sees what's happening, and he gives a little smile of admiration.

The match, of course, is the centerpiece, and although it feels very choreographed, it's an affecting spectacle nonetheless. The filmmakers do a good job of ramping up the tension as the Germans go 4-0 up early on, while the crowd slowly comes to life when the Allied team makes its comeback. It's strangely affecting to hear a stadium full of actors belt out La Marseillaise without accompaniment, as well as seeing Ardiles and Pele score some magnificent goals against the Germans.

Overall, the movie probably holds up better if you care about football, and if you're familiar with the Ipswich Town team of that era (which provided most of the players) then you're on even more familiar ground. But it's a fun movie, and I couldn't get over the sight of Michael Caine conspiring with both Sylvester Stallone and Pele against the Nazis. I read that there's a remake in the works, supposedly, but I hope it never gets made, because it'll never hit the heights of this version.