Karry
Best movie of this year hands down!
Winifred
The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.
Bob
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Skyler
Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.
SnoopyStyle
In a WWII POW camp, an allied prisoner attempting escape is met with bullets. Capt. Robert Hatch (Sylvester Stallone) presents a naked plan to the escape committee. English Captain John Colby (Michael Caine) is one of the prisoners and a former professional footballer for West Ham United. Maj. Karl von Steiner (Max von Sydow) challenges him to a game. Colby accepts the challenge and starts building a team but he rejects any escape attempts. He doesn't want to get his men killed and would rather wait for the war's end. Hatch is desperate to escape and Colby reluctantly allows him to join. The Germans see the propaganda potential and set the game in Paris. Real football players are included in the movie starting with Pelé.It's a rather standard POW film. The actors are solid. Stallone does not embarrass himself as the brash American. There is no equal to Max von Sydow. John Huston is doing yeoman's work but not much more. The soccer stars would be appealing to fans but I don't recognize anybody other than Pelé. I'm surprised at his natural charisma coming through the screen. He's very effective at being Pelé. Tension isn't that high. The main problem could be the Nazis. The movie needs scary Nazis to elevate the intensity and they don't mistreat their prisoners enough. As for the soccer game, I'm sure it's appealing to see these great athletes on the pitch and the bicycle kick is beautiful but it has no drama. The drama is the escape and therefore, the score is actually meaningless. The game has no rooting value. The only way to make it meaningful is to play it in Berlin in front of Hitler with no chance of escape. The stakes becomes pride but the stakes here is escape. Overall, it's not boring but it could be better. I like the final escape which has a fun element. However, it is yet another example of the lack of ruthlessness by the Nazis.
SimonJack
Many movies made about World War II are complete fiction. The stories are totally fabricated but set within the context of the war. Most, but not all, are based on novels. Some of the better action and intriguing war films fit in this category. And, some books and movies are based on certain theaters and aspects of the war. These include battles and campaigns, the underground and resistance, POW camps and escape stories. "Victory" is one such movie. It was based on a 1962 Hungarian film that itself was inspired by a mythical football (soccer) match between a Kiev team and the German occupation forces in the Ukraine during WW II. While there wasn't such a match, three matches did take place between a Kiev soccer club and a team of the occupying Germans. The Ukrainians won all three, and after the last match, the Kiev players were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Many other matches apparently were held between Ukrainian clubs and German Army teams – about 150 total, with the Ukrainians winning a ratio of 6-3.5-1.5. See "The Death March" under Wikipedia for a detailed account and more background.This film is set in Germany and France, and involves British and American POWs, as well as a collection of Allied prisoners from other countries. So, "Victory," aka, "Escape to Victory" outside America, is a combination POW, soccer competition, underground resistance, and escape film. It also fits in the category of very late films made about WW II. All the players are good. But, Sylvester Stalone, as U.S. Army Capt. Robert Hatch, has some hammy lines when he is with the French girl, Renee (played by Carole Laure) in the Paris underground. Producer Freddie Fields assembled an impressive cast beyond Stalone. Michael Caine shares the lead with Stalone, as British Capt. John Colby. And, Max von Sydow plays German Major Karl Von Steiner. A coup for the film is Pele, the famous Brazilian soccer player, and several other professional soccer players for both the POW and German teams. The Allied assortment is explained by POWs who played soccer being transferred in from other prisons. The film makes a clear statement about the German treatment of East Europeans, compared to prisoners from other countries. Caine's Colby insists that the soccer prisoners from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and other Eastern countries be included. When five of them show up, they appear to be undernourished shells of former athletes. None would be able to recuperate for a long time, but Colby keeps them for the team rather than send them back. The pro soccer players in the film were from teams that had won national and/or world championships. They came from Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, England, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Norway, Poland and Scotland. The movie was filmed in Hungary and France. Because Paris had changed so much, with modern buildings in the 35 years since the end of WW II, they couldn't shoot the soccer match there. Instead, Fields found a stadium in Budapest, the "Paris of the East."This movie is a lighter account of Allied POWs during WW II. It has none of the drama or trauma of other films about the reality of wartime POW camps. But, it is entertaining and a fun film with some good scenes of soccer play. The French underground escape by the Allied team doesn't come off as planned. The team couldn't leave at half-time with the Jerry's in the lead. To the delight of the fans – mostly thousands of French civilians hustled into the stadium to make a crowd (Hungarian extras in Budapest), the Allies rally and the game ends a tie (a legitimate Allied goal having been denied earlier). And, the excitement of the crowd turns into a spontaneous mass movement onto the field and dispersion of the Allied soccer players among the fans as they leave the stadium. The ending is priceless and caps an entertaining fictional film that most members of the family should enjoy.
FilmBuff1994
Escape to Victory is a great movie with a very well developed storyline and a stellar cast. It's a very enjoyable film that takes place shortly after World War II as we see a group of POW inmates prepare for a football game that could win them their freedom, it's a very inspired and original sports film. One thing I didn't like about this movie is that it was way too light hearted, for a film in which Nazi's and war are a primary subject, we never really get a clear sense of the real danger and tough times that these characters are struggling with, there aren't enough tense moments to convey this. The cast is terrific, Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone shine in the lead roles, their styles of acting are very different, but it worked out perfectly and they made a great pair. Exciting and well acted, I would recommend Escape to Victory to anyone looking for a good drama or sports film. POWS in Germany compete in a football game against the Nazis that soon becomes a propaganda exercise. Best Performance: Michael Caine Worst Performance: Laurie Sivell
mark-whait
This film is best viewed through the eyes of either a) an eight year old boy or b) an England football fanatic. So if you are neither of those when you either saw this movie or have yet to see it, then that is pure bad luck but not something I will account for. As I was very much an 'a' then it is my prerogative to like this movie when many do not. I even believe it gives me the right to smirk at some of the cheesier moments with ease because when all is said and done I am still very fond of this presentation and always will be. Right. Happy? So where shall we start. Well how about John Huston? One of the most legendary cinematic monoliths ever to come out of Hollywood, ends up directing a movie about football or, as Huston would have said at the time, 'so-ccer'. It's akin to Martin Scorcese directing a Tom And Jerry episode or Clint Eastwood appearing in Celebrity Big Brother. Quite how much 'direction' Huston had over the football scenes is highly debatable, but that is the first shock over with. The plot is utterly ludicrous of course. An allied Prisoner of War camp just happens to house some of the worlds most infamous footballing legends, and they put together a team to play a German side, with much of the outcome designed to further progress Nazi propaganda. Inevitably, the Germans punch, kick and cheat their way through the game whilst 'our boys' look on helplessly. The sub plot here is that during half time, the Allies will make a daring bid to escape and not return for the second half. But you guessed it, whilst still believing the game can be won, the English led team decide not to take an ideal opportunity to escape from a POW camp and instead return to the field for the honour of a football match. Given that they entertain the crowd so much with their football that it sparks a pitch invasion at the end which precipitates their escape anyway, this gives the wafer thin plot even more ridicule. But do you know what? I don't care. This is how football movies should be made. I don't care that 'we' have Sylvester Stallone in goal. I don't care if a pushing-fifty year old Michael Caine mixes it with the football heavyweights like Booby Moore and Pele. I don't care if every sporting cliché is visited shamelessly to great effect. We even get 'Nazi' softie Max Von Sydow eventually applauding the breathtaking football skills of the Allies to the evident brow furrowing of his superiors. It's just a good romp through a genre we've seen so many times before. In fact, giving a war film a footballing theme could be seen as being dynamic and ahead of its time. Actually, I've just thought of an idea - how about a war film set in a POW camp that gets visited by ruthless aliens? Steady on now, I'm in full flow. This is popcorn cinema at its best - nothing to take very seriously and all good fun. Yes, that seems ridiculous even now when you consider the backdrop the movie is set against, but it is the case that nothing more preposterous yet at the same time compelling came out of Hollywood in the eighties. Then again, there's always The Hand.