Is there such a thing as a good film about soccer? Looking up google for a top ten of football films the first thing that came up was a list of American football films! Realising my error I quickly changed the word soccer for football and had another try. The results didn't exactly fill me with excitement/inspiration (well what did I expect?). One thing I did notice talking to people about soccer films is if you ask them to name one they will most likely say ESCAPE TO VICTORY. And that was talking to people younger than myself! Imagine a film starring SYLVESTER STALLONE as a goalkeeper and MICHAEL KANE as a coach along with some famous and not so famous soccer stars at the time. I saw this film on its release and enjoyed it.
The actual top ten (or one of them) would not exactly have the film world quaking in its boots (sorry).
#1 ESCAPE TO VICTORY
#2 BEND IT LIKE BECKAM
#3 GOAL!#4 THE DAMNED UNITED
#5 GREGORY'S GIRL
#6 THE MEAN MACHINE
#7 FEVER PITCH
#8 SHAOLIN SOCCER
#9 WHEN SATURDAY COMES
#10 ZIDANE :A 21ST CENTURY PORTRAIT
The last one is in italics because its the best. All this film consisted of was footage of ZIDANE in a Spanish Prima Liga game playing for Real Madrid against Villarreal. The cameras just focused on ZIDANE nothing else a simple idea and totally gripping, by all accounts. I only saw about ten minutes of this film being shown as an installation in in the new Visual Arts Centre in Carlow.Its on my list.
One of the better soccer films I have seen lately is RUDO Y CURSI a Mexican film made by CARLOS SAURAN it stars GAEL GARCIA BERNAL and DIEGO LUNA as half brothers from rural Mexico who make it big in the Mexican soccer leagues. Its quite funny and well done also there are no football celebs making embarrassing cameo appearances ,like in the film GOAL! directed by DANNY CANNON , this rubbish has already spawned two sequels. The two lead actors in RUDO Y CURSI were about nine years ago together in Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN which was also written by CARLOS SAURAN.Enough about soccer I'm sure every one's sick of it by now. Something that's been bothering me of late is what exactly are the guidelines of my blog? I mean do I have to write a certain amount of words? If not will the CHAIRMAN be on my case? Does everything I write have to be about film? Can I write about T.V.? Of course I'd only write about good (what I think is good) T.V. No DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES or WEST WING here.
Only quality HBO.COM or SHO.COM (SHOWTIME) stuff. Well maybe next time. I'll go and study "The Really Important Guide to Writing a Blog Almanac"......Seriously it does exist.Hugh Hyland
