Escape to Victory

Escape to Victory
Poster for North American edition
Directed by	John Huston
Produced by	Freddie Fields Executive Gordon McLendon Mario Kassar Andrew G. Vajna
Screenplay by	Evan Jones Yabo Yablonsky
Story by	Yabo Yablonsky Djordje Milicevic Jeff Maguire
Based on	Two Half Times in Hell by Zoltán Fábri
Starring	Sylvester Stallone Michael Caine Max von Sydow Pelé Bobby Moore Daniel Massey
Music by	Bill Conti
Cinematography	Gerry Fisher
Editing by	Roberto Silvi
Studio	Lorimar
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures (theatrical) Warner Bros. (video)
Release date(s)	July 30, 1981 (1981-07-30)
Running time	117 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$27,453,418

Escape to Victory, known simply as Victory in North America, is a 1981 film about Allied prisoners of war who are interned in a German prison camp during World War II. The film was directed by John Huston and stars Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, Max von Sydow and Daniel Massey..

The film received great attention upon its theatrical release, as it also starred football superstars Bobby Moore, Osvaldo Ardiles, Kazimierz Deyna, Paul Van Himst, Mike Summerbee, Hallvar Thoresen and Pelé. Numerous Ipswich Town F.C. players were also in the film, including John Wark, Russell Osman, Laurie Sivell, Robin Turner and Kevin O'Callaghan. Further Ipswich Town players stood in for actors in the football scenes - Kevin Beattie for Michael Caine, and Paul Cooper for Sylvester Stallone. The script was written by Yabo Yablonsky.

Plot

Association football plays a central role of the film. A team of Allied prisoners of war (POWs), coached and represented by Englishman Captain John Colby (Michael Caine) (who was a professional footballer for West Ham United before the war) agree to play an exhibition match against a German team, only to find themselves involved in a German propaganda stunt.

Colby is the captain and essentially the manager of the team and thus chooses his squad of players. American POW Hatch (Sylvester Stallone) is not initially chosen, but eventually nags the reluctant Colby into letting him on the team.

Colby's superior officers repeatedly try to convince Colby to use the match as an opportunity for an escape attempt, but Colby consistently refuses, fearing that such an attempt will only result in getting his players killed. Meanwhile, Hatch has been planning an unrelated escape attempt, and Colby's superiors agree to help him, if he in return agrees to journey to Paris, make contact with the French Resistance, and try to convince them to help the soccer team escape.

Hatch succeeds in escaping the prison camp, traveling to Paris, and finding the Resistance, at first, the Resistance decides that the plan to help the soccer team escape is too risky; but once they realise the game will be at the Colombes Stadium they plan the escape. They convince Hatch to get re-captured, so he can pass information along back to the leading British officers at the prison camp.

Fearing another escape attempt, the Germans initially refuse to allow Hatch to participate in the match, but Colby breaks the existing goalkeeper's arm as an excuse to get Hatch back onto the team.

In the end, the POWs can leave the German camp only to play the match; they are to be imprisoned again following the match. Despite the match officials being heavily biased towards the Germans, and the German team causing several deliberate injuries to the Allied players, a draw is achieved after great performances from Luis Fernandez (portrayed by Pelé), Carlos Rey (portrayed by Osvaldo Ardiles) and Arthur Hayes (portrayed by John Wark). Hatch plays goalkeeper, and makes excellent saves including one last save from a penalty kick as time expires to deny the Germans the win, drawing the game 4–4. Before the penalty kick the POWs had scored a goal which was disallowed by the referee for a dubious offside decision, making the score 5–4, prompting the crowd to shout "Victoire!"

The resistance break through to the dressing room at halftime (in an escape led by Hatch) but the rest of the team (led by Russell Osman saying "but we can win this") want to carry on with the game, despite being behind at halftime. They manage to escape at the end of the game, amidst the confusion caused by the crowd storming the field after Hatch preserves the draw.

Selected cast

Actors

Michael Caine	Captain John Colby
Sylvester Stallone	Captain Robert Hatch
Max von Sydow	Major Karl von Steiner
George Mikell	Kommandant
Anton Diffring	Radio announcer
Carole Laure	Renée
Gary Waldhorn	Mueller
Benoît Ferreux	Jean Paul
Clive Merrison	The Forger
Maurice Roëves	Pyrie
Michael Cochrane	Farrell
Zoltán Gera	Victor
Tim Pigott-Smith	Rose
Daniel Massey	Colonel Waldron
Jean-François Stévenin	Claude

Footballers

Pelé	Corporal Luis Fernandez
Bobby Moore	Terry Brady
John Wark	Arthur Hayes
Osvaldo Ardiles	Carlos Rey
Kazimierz Deyna	Paul Wolchek
Søren Lindsted	Erik Ball
Paul Van Himst	Michel Fileu
Werner Roth	Baumann (German team captain)
Mike Summerbee	Sid Harmor
Hallvar Thoresen	Gunnar Hilsson
Russell Osman	Doug Clure
Kevin O'Callaghan	Tony Lewis
Co Prins	Pieter Van Beck
Laurie Sivell	Schmidt (German goalkeeper)
Robin Turner	German Player
Kevin Beattie	Stand-in for Michael Caine
Paul Cooper	Stand-in for Sylvester Stallone

Les Shannon, the ex-Burnley player, choreographed the actual game presented in the film. The movie also credits Pelé as the designer of plays. World Cup winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks coached Sylvester Stallone. Stallone's character states that he is an enlisted member of the Canadian Army, and a Maple Leaf shaped regimental badge can be seen on his beret throughout the film. The game was filmed in the Hidegkuti Nándor Stadium in Budapest, Hungary. In the film, Pelé plays a character from Trinidad and Tobago rather than his real-life native land of Brazil. While Brazil joined the Allied cause and its soldiers fought against the Germans in the Italian theatre, their operations started too late in the war (mid-1944) to for the presence of a Brazilian POW to be believable at the date of the movie's events.

Basis of the story

The movie is based on the 1961 Hungarian film drama Két félidő a pokolban ("Two half-times in Hell"), which was directed by Zoltán Fábri and won the critics' award at the 1962 Boston Cinema Festival.

The film was inspired by the true story of the so-called Death Match in which FC Dynamo Kyiv defeated German soldiers while Ukraine was occupied by German troops in World War II. According to myth, as a result of their victory, the Ukrainians were all shot. The true story is considerably more complex, as the team played a series of matches against German teams, emerging victorious in all of them, before finally being sent to prison camps by the Gestapo. Most of the team were killed there, but a few survived.

Actors and footballers

Escape to Victory featured a great many professional footballers as both the POW team and the German team. Many of the footballers came from the Ipswich Town squad, who were at the time one of the most successful teams in Europe. Despite not appearing on screen, English World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks was closely involved in the film, working with Sylvester Stallone on his goalkeeping scenes. Sports Illustrated magazine said "the game is marvelously photographed by Gerry Fisher, under second unit director Robert Riger.

External links

• Escape to Victory at the Internet Movie Database
• Escape to Victory at AllRovi
• Escape to Victory at Box Office Mojo
• Escape to Victory at Rotten Tomatoes
• Escape to Victory at the TCM Movie Database
• Escape To Victory Website
• Escape To Victory - Photos
• The Game of Death — Australian National Centre for History Education, concerning the events this film was based on.