The Story of Escape to Victory

Filmed in Hungary, the film is based on the 1962 Hungarian film drama Két félidő a pokolban ("Two half-times in Hell"), which was directed by Zoltán Fábri and won the critics' award at the 1962 Boston Cinema Festival.

The film was inspired by the now discredited story of the so-called Death Match in which FC Dynamo Kyiv defeated German soldiers while Ukraine was occupied by German troops in World War II. According to myth, as a result of their victory, the Ukrainians were all shot. The true story is considerably more complex, as the team played a series of matches against German teams, emerging victorious in all of them, before any of them were sent to prison camps by the Gestapo. Four players were documented as being killed by the Germans but long after the dates of the matches they had won.

Escape to Victory featured a great many professional footballers as both the POW team and the German team. Many of the footballers came from the Ipswich Town squad, who were at the time one of the most successful teams in Europe. Despite not appearing on screen, English World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks and Alan Thatcher were closely involved in the film, working with Sylvester Stallone on his goalkeeping scenes. Sports Illustrated magazine said "the game is marvelously photographed by Gerry Fisher, under second unit director Robert Riger."

Since the movie is set in the early years of the German occupation of France (probably 1941 or 1942), Pelé's character, Corporal Luis Fernandez, is identified as being from Trinidad, not Brazil. The Brazilians did not join the war against the Axis powers until 1943, with the Brazilian Expeditionary Force arriving in Italy in 1944. Similarly, Argentinian star Osvaldo Ardiles' character, Carlos Rey, isn't identified as being from any particular country (as Argentina was mostly neutral during the war), though it is generally thought that Rey was from either Mexico or Costa Rica.

Source: Wikipedia

What are the best movies about football?

There's Only One Jimmy Grimble - is it any good?

There’s Only One Jimmy Grimble concentrates on social outcast Jimmy (Lewis McKenzie), a fifteen-year-old who dreams about playing for Manchester City.

It mixes notions of the breakdown of the conventional family unit and social exclusion with coming-of-age, teenage romance and finding an identity. All the while, Jimmy tries to break into his school’s football team and possibly help it win the Manchester Schools Cup final. Ray Winstone and Robert Carlyle also star.

Discover More: The Beautiful Game: Top 10 Films About Football

Best Football Films?

 What's the best film about football?

The best films about football

Football, or soccer as it is better known in the USA, has become one of the world’s greatest spectator sports for good reason. For while winning, whether it be a domestic championship, a cup or a continental trophy, is the ultimate “goal”, the journey getting there is an adventure worth living over and over again. It’s the very reason why being a football fan is so exhilarating.

"Football films always have a bit of a hard time. Ultimately, it’s probably because the world’s biggest movie market, the USA, doesn’t really care for football like the rest of the world. Then there’s the ever-present issue that people who enjoy football tend to be busy actually watching the football rather than visiting the cinema. Still, that’s not to say that good football movies don’t exist at all. There are a few gems that have popped up over the years. So, for all the times you’re not watching the World Cup but still need your football fix, we’ve put together of the best football films ever made. As with our romantic and horror movie guides, we looked at scores from Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, and IMDB to find the football films with the overall highest average scores. Here they are in order from lowest to highest rated." [Source: Verdict]

"Eric Cantona, Pele and a golden retriever called Buddy feature in some of the most memorable movies about the beautiful game. A good sports movie is difficult to make – or, at least, difficult to find. The paint-by-numbers underdog tale of an unfancied team or player triumphing against all odds is all too common. Add to that the challenge of filming a convincing football match using teams of actors, and it can feel like finding a good football film to watch is more of a challenge than it’s worth." [Source: Goal]

Let's take a look at the best films about football. 

The Best British Documentary Films of the 2010

Documentarists have always had a duty to inform and been given the latitude to influence. But their most important role in an age of increasing media fragmentation is to hold up a mirror to society so we can see ourselves as we really are.

On Top 10 Films, film writer David Parkinson takes a look at British documentary film and the best examples to have emerged in the 2010s.