Il Divin Codino

"Baggio" is a emotional movie about one of Italy's greatest footballers ever - Roberto Baggio. The movie takes place through his career and his struggle to prove himself as worthy enough.

Although it's a beautiful and inspiring story, the movie in total is just not enough and lacks a lot of features, first of all the time periods are not presented well, it seems like the story is jumping to fast from time to time. I know most of the movie centers around Baggio and Italy's national team during the world cup of 1994 but I would have liked to see Baggio career during Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milano and so on. Besides it seems like the plot doesn't show enough of Baggio's personal life, why there is no scene of his wedding day or when his children were born?, why the plot jumps so fast in time that we don't get to see much of his life?.

In addition, after Italy loses the world cup there is still 40 minutes left of the film to watch where it's mostly Baggio pitting himself and trying to recover from the tragedy in order to still prove himself worthy. Only to be disappointed when he is not called to the squad of Italy for the world cup of 2002.

Overall I thought this movie lacked a lot of features and simple things such as indicating time and setting, even if it's a story a lot will find to be emotional and inspiring, I find it to be not so divine.

I honestly expected more. Not that I did not enjoy it. Fans enjoy watching anything about Baggio but that is a very low bar for a movie. Considering that Baggio has a deep character and a rich and eventful life story, personal and professional, it should not have been so difficult to write a screenplay that can truly portray who the legend is and why he is so loved around the globe even seventeen years after his last match. Unfortunately movie has missed that opportunity. It is still entertaining and nostalgic for Baggio's fans, but by missing lots of important details of his professional life (e.g. Two world cups and four football clubs), I doubt if this movie has anything valuable for those who do not know Baggio. They will not learn anything coherent about Baggio's career or personal life. Even if it meant to be about Baggio's sufferings it has missed the opportunity to be a true inspiring movie. I am asking myself over and over when a non-fan watches this movie can he/she understand why Baggio is so much loved and why people find him so inspiring? And why he is seen as the finest of Italy's football? What people who do not know Baggio will learn about him watching this movie? Except pronouncing his last name wrong, if they watch the English dubbing version of the movie. The original song (Il'uomo dietro il campione) was beautiful and touching and brought tears to my eyes at the end of the movie. Arcangeli did a great job as Baggio.

The life of Roberto Baggio was full of success and falls but the movie doesn't show all of them. It starts with his faith in Buddhism and suddenly jumps in the future, missing important events of his life. In. In this way people who aren't Italian can't understand how much he was popular and loved.

At least actors play quite well, espacially the one who represents him.

The actor playing Roberto Baggio did a good job, I thought he looked like him and everything. But apart from the acting I found this film to be very disappointing once it had finished. I was actually quite enjoying it up until the point I discovered the director had skipped some historic and unforgettable highlights of his career by jumping straight into USA 94. I'll never forget some of the beautiful goals Baggio scored for Italy, especially one of the greatest World Cup goals ever against Czech Republic at Italia 90. I was 10yrs old and celebrating the house down with my Neapolitan Dad! Baggio and Schillaci were Azzurri superstars during that World Cup (along with other legends such as Maldini and Baresi).

The film also misses out France 98 too amongst other vital moments of his glory days when he was the best in the world and played for Juventus. He also redeemed himself for his USA 94 penalty miss from showing his amazing talent and strength by scoring a brilliant penalty at France 98, which showed so much confidence and courage to step up and take one after his significant fail 4 years earlier. This film made it look (to non Baggio fans) that all he did was curl up into a sulky ball of depression and hide away from the world after he missed against Brazil in the final, when he actually carried on being a great footballer for his club and country. After he kicks it over the crossbar we get taken "Six Years Later". What a load of ****.

Also nothing is properly and clearly explained or elaborated on why Baggio was actually an "Italian icon" and universally one of the greatest/most loved footballers ever. No effort put into what a genius on the field he was. They could've at least used a stunt double/professional footballer to imitate some of Baggio's magic on the field, allowing viewers to see why its referred to as 'the beautiful game'... Otherwise why did Sacchi even compare him to Maradona? Why?!! This film shows does the real 'Divine Ponytail' no justice. It mainly focuses on his injury rather than what a skilful maestro he was on the field.

Baggio's resume includes playing for 3 of the most successful Italian clubs ever... AC Milan, Juventus, Inter Milan, and scoring 27 goals in 56 games for Italy after appearing in the 3 World Cup Tournaments that took place in the 90's. I would've felt more satisfied if this film was an interesting 180 minutes long instead of a rushed 90 minutes. I got nothing out of it apart from learning that his father was a very stubborn and negative man. The CGI replicating the original exterior to the stadiums looked too artificial to me aswell, too silky smooth, glossy and perfect. I think the real footage would've been better, so what if it looks dated now and has that blurry 90's look, it would've looked more authentic and added to the nostalgia. Except a couple of old televisions there was nothing in this film to indicate it took place in the 1990's.

This typical Netflix-ey movie actually had the potential to be a quality biopic telling the story of a legendary athlete. Italy haven't had a player like Roberto Baggio since Roberto Baggio. But to me, it unfortunately missed out the most important story of all - WHY he inspired and brought so much joy to millions of people.

This is personal, I'm a big fan of Baggio because my dad was his biggest fan. The film was released on the day that my dad would have been celebrating one more anniversary, if he didn't pass away unexpectedly last year. I also am a fan of films with short durations.

However, to talk about Baggio and to make a biography, you need between 2.5 and 3 hours to develop the person and the player. Unfortunately, the film feels like an appetiser. What it does, does well, but there are so many chronological jumps and so many important moments out of it (not even a minute with Milan and Juve, the most important clubs on his career), that it feels totally incomplete.

If you wanted to make a short film about Baggio, you should focused only on a specific time (maybe the WC94, maybe his time after that WC, maybe the time before), but 90 minutes is not enough for the man, and even less for the player. Watching the film, casuals will never understand why Baggio is one of the best ever, the film doesn't show anything about the player, what he achieved (speak barely about it).

It's sad because there was potential here. The actors do a great job, the colours and cinematography is interesting, but unfortunately everything seems so rushed that we don't have even time to be emotional during the most dramatic moments.