So I picked up this movie last week on DVD. It played briefly in theaters last year and didn't last for more than about a week. So for me it was a matter of wanting to see this because it is a film about soccer. Here's my brief review:This film is about the coming together of the 1950 US Men's National Soccer Team. There really wasn't a lot of funding in those days for the sport and its popularity was big among the European immigrants. The team was made up mainly of players from St. Louis and New York. Gerard Butler plays the leader of the St. Louis Boys Frank Borghi and Wes Bentley plays Walter Bahr, the leader of the East Coast team.
The movie is more about the building of the relationships of the teammates than it is about the game itself. There were plenty of struggles getting it together. The US Men's National Team played a few warm-up matches that they struggled through. Gavin Rossdale, former lead man of Bush and Husband of Gwen Stefani, plays the English top player Stanley Mortenson. Mortenson brings a team over to the US that just rips them apart. Because of this the US are basically not even recognized in the 1950 World Cup as a contending team. Odds makers didn't even give them a slight chance.
As we already know the US drew England in the first round and basically didn't stand a chance. Against all odds the US team played "The Game of Their Lives." People should already know this as it's in the description of the film so I don't think I'm spoiling anything.
John Harkes, former US player, plays one of the teammates and Patrick Stewart plays the narrator and former player in current day.
It was a good film. It really was more of a movie of the relationships leading up to the final match than it was about soccer. There's some good soccer action, but funny to see Bush frontman playing a top player for England. It gets a little slow at times, but hang in there, it's a good story.
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