The Game of Their Lives film review

THE GAME OF THEIR LIVES

The U.S. soccer team's defeat of the heavily favoured England during the 1950 World Cup in Brazil ranks as one of the greatest sporting upsets in history. It's an extraordinary story, and one worthy of telling, but to who is perhaps the critical question. Certainly the English don't wish to be reminded of such an embarrassing chapter in their footballing history and as for the Americans, there are precious few who are interested enough in the sport, let alone aware of their country's past triumph, to seek this film out. All of which is rather a shame considering The Game Of Their Lives is a very creditable dramatization and one that deserves to find an audience.

Buoyed by strong performances from Gerard Butler as the U.S. team's stalwart keeper and inspirational leader Frank Borghi and Wes Bentley as the captain Walter Bahr, TGOTL focuses on the heroic individuals who comprised the U.S. team of amateurs. Indeed, director David Anspaugh and writer Angelo Pizzo, who collaborated on the highly regarded sports tales Hoosiers and Rudy, never miss an opportunity to wring as much sentimentality and heroism from events as is possible. It was as if they were endeavouring to lodge a football in viewers' throats rather than a mere lump.

The film is topped and tailed with scenes involving an aging reporter Dent McSkimming (Patrick Stewart) being interviewed at Major League Soccer's (the U.S. equivalent of the Premiership) All Star Game. He recounts his memories of being the only U.S. reporter at the historical game in Brazil. In a damning indictment of how little the beautiful game has captured the hearts of Americans in the intervening 50 years, the stands are all but empty. The film then cuts back to 1950 and St Louis where the nucleus of what becomes the U.S. team, a bunch of enthusiastic locals, are playing football in a park.

The film captures perfectly the American's low key and relaxed approach to a tournament that was a very different spectacle to the one it's become. One player initially declines to go because he's getting married while another goes against his mother's wishes to remain home and help in the family funeral business. Staying in cheap hotels, with little in the way of preparation, the team are set up as going like lambs to the slaughter to face an England side billed as the best team in the world and consisting of such legends as Alf Ramsey, Tom Finney and Stan Mortenson (played with passable assurance by Bush's Gavin Rossdale).