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!

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.

I was looking through the action collection at the video store and trying to find something that might interest my husband and myself, a daunting task. When I picked up Victory, I thought 'why not?' as it has Max Von Sydow who we both enjoy. The fact that it had Michael Caine was an added bonus. Besides I wanted to know what kind of film could have those two AND Sylvester Stallone. Somehow I couldn't picture Stallone playing football with the Europeans, at least not doing it well. I was right. Stallone couldn't play, but it didn't matter because that was part of the shtick for the character.

I'll admit that there were a couple of places where the plot was rather predictable and places where I simply thought it was completely unbelievable. However, all in all I would recommend this movie. It's fun and, at times, touching.

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!

If the part where the football match takes place was omitted, "Victory" would be a "5 stars out of 10" film. The reason is that although it features two very good actors (Michael Caine - Max von Sydow), there is not much to stand out: A rather incredulous WW2 plot, an average acting (what could you expect from professional footballers or from Stallone?), and a simply decent direction, produce an average result. Thankfully, there is more than that, as I will explain in more detail later.

"Victory" is about some inmates in a WW2 prison camp, who have a passion for soccer. Captain J. Colby (Caine), a former footballer, is the leading figure in the camp matches that take place. One day, he is spotted by football-fan Major Steiner (Max von Sydow) who proposes him the idea of organizing a match between allied POWs vs. Germans. Colby agrees, as he believes this will be a great morale-booster and a chance for better prison conditions for those involved; however, more senior inmates are skeptical, as they believe this will be a propaganda stunt for the Germans. In the end, they also concur but only after they have convinced the team's goalie Capt. Hatch (Stallone) to arrange the team's escape during the match. The difficulty is that both Colby and his team are more interested in this game than in their freedom, so they are hesitant on what they should finally do...

As I said, the movie is just watchable during its first part. And yet, when we start to watch the Allied - Germans match, things get much better: We watch terrific football from stars such as Pele, Ardiles, and Bobby Moore, with scenes such as Pele's goal being memorable to all sports fans. Of course, if you are not into soccer, then perhaps you won't get that excited (although the spectacle can be exciting for non-fans, too). But if you like the King of Sports, then you will certainly enjoy this film. 7/10.