Flucht oder Sieg

Many people have passed negative comments about this film.If you study it closely, though, you will notice many positive and original scenes.

The football is not exaggerated like many other sporting Movies.

I first saw it when it was released in 1981/82 and thought it was very good. As a War film it is only average, but as a Football spectacle it is very interesting. The fact that the makers used real life footballers, including the great man himself "Pele" is original. We are actually seeing first class football players do their stuff in a controlled Movie enviroment... Heck some of them even try to act!

I think Michael Caine and Sly would have enjoyed making this Movie.

The message from the Movie is that Football is a game which is understood by everyone and will always be played under any circumstances. It is the Universal game and always will be!

This movie is part of my childhood. My older brother was obsessed - to say the least - with this movie, and we used to watch it every week or so. I must have seen it about a hundred times. Pelé, Ardiles, Bob Moore... No football fan can miss this movie. Is it any good? I don't think it's very good, but this is one of those movies that really made part of my life and i can never forget it. Until today - i haven't seen the movie in several years - i can recall many of the dialogs, and a lot of the situations of the game. Brazil was eliminated in 1982's world cup after an epic game against Italy - one of the most profound traumas in Brazilian football history, an event that made Brazil to change it's game style - the art football - to a more pragmatic and tactical style. Somehow this movie reminds me of that golden period of Brazilian football.

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!

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.

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.