Making the game beautiful: The football film Oscars

In theory, sport and film should make cultural gold, a magnetic connection between human theatre and cinematic drama that delivers great storytelling to the biggest audiences. But it rarely works out that way, whether you’re watching an imaginary tale or a fictionalised recounting of real life events. Clearly, you have to see a lot of Rocky films to get to a Raging Bull. Football is actually not without its success stories so let’s take a look at the admittedly few memorable movies when “the beautiful game” went widescreen.

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The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1939)

Described by Graham Greene as “the closest we got to a British Thin Man”, this charming pre-war comedy-thriller remains much-loved. Starring Arsenal players and staff, although only manager George Allison has a speaking part, it’s set at the club’s former home Highbury. Featuring action from a fictitious friendly between Arsenal and The Trojans, none other than Martin Scorsese described the actions scenes as “exhilarating”. Plans for a modern-day remake focussing purely on the mystery surrounding the total lack of atmosphere at The Emirates remain no more than mischievous thinking.

Escape To Victory (1981)

A true cinematic oddity, no Christmas is complete without watching either this or that scene in Flash Gordon when Brian Blessed exclaims: “Gordon’s alive?!” Escape To Victory somehow recruited Oscar-winning director John Huston and a stellar cast of Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, Max von Sydow, Pele and Bobby Moore. Bizarrely, much of the gifted early 80s Ipswich Town squad were also involved in a movie set mostly in a concentration camp before an allied team of footballers made their escape from the Nazis via a massive bath. For some, the film retains a masochistic fascination even now.

Gregory’s Girl (1981)

Conversely, Gregory’s Girl is arguably more memorable for the actual narrative and characterisation than the action. Shot on a measly budget of £200,000, this landmark rom-com went on to make more than £25m and is ranked at 30 in the British Film Institute’s list of the top 100 British films. An undeniably amusing exploration of the growing pains of teenage life, it made low-key household names of John Gordon Sinclair and Clare Grogan, despite peddling the long since somwhat outdated view that: “Girls weren’t meant to play football. It’s too tough, too physical.”

Mike Bassett (2001)

Part inspired by the tabloid siege mentality that played a key role in bringing down Bobby Robson and Terry Venables and would later claim Glenn Hoddle and Sven Goran-Eriksen, Mike Bassett is like a fictionalised take on Graham Taylor’s An Impossible Job. Genuinely very funny at times, if a little clumsy in its real life touch points, much of the film’s shtick about English football’s self-destructive lack of sophistication remains painfully familiar. So much so that a sequel could quite realistically take inspiration from Sam Allardyce’s desperate one-match reign.

Bend It Like Beckham (2002)

Addressing a host of rather more serious issues than just football or the player who acted as the title’s inspiration, Bend It Like Beckham made a star of Keira Knightley and an absolute fortune at the box office, becoming the highest grossing Indian themed film ever in the US. Nominated for a Golden Globe, it can convincingly claim to have acted as the inspiration for young adults of both sexes to seek a way out from suffocating family lives, as well as a West End musical, although that only lasted nine months.

Ginga: The Soul of Brasilian Football (2005)

Marcelo Machado’s ebullient documentary was actually devised by Nike and seeks to explain the hypnotic hex the sport has over this part of South America. By following the real life tales of 10 Brazilian players, from street ballers like Romarinho to bona fide global stars such as Romario, the film centres around the phrase “ginga”, a national term defining the dizzy blend of style and skill they invest into the game: “Ginga is rhythm…It’s swinging your body from one side to the other to deceive. Ginga is creativity…It is having fun with the ball. It is grace. It is soul. It is dance.” The opposite of English football, essentially.

Zidane (2006)

Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait is more a work of art than a vehicle for entertainment. The same could be said for the focus of the film, which is loosely described as a documentary and follows the footballing master during a 2005 Spanish La Liga match between Real Madrid and Villarreal. Shot at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in real time using 17 synchronized cameras, this elegiac, hypnotic work was soundtracked by Scottish noisemongers Mogwai and takes inspiration from Football As Never Before, a 1970 film about George Best. In a truly perfect summation of the player’s flawed genius, both the game and Zidane end with him being sent off.

The Damned United (2009)

Though rather more entertaining and not as darkly spun as David Peace’s book of the same name, the film version of The Damned United is a very watchable account of Brian Clough’s short-lived and infamous stint as Leeds United manager. While there are said to be numerous factual inaccuracies and embellishments in Tom Hopper’s film, it’s obviously a winning tale and recommended for Michael Sheen’s convincing depiction of the belligerent, often comic footballing visionary, right up to the closing statement: “Brian Clough remains the greatest manager the England team never had.”

The Two Escobars (2010)

While Ginga is a celebration of football’s liberating power in this part of the world, The Two Escobars tells a story of how the game can be equally laced with tragedy. Focusing on the unrelated drug lord Pablo Escobar and Colombian defender Andres Escobar, it recounts the chilling events surrounding the latter’s murder after he scored a truly disastrous own goal at 1994’s World Cup finals. Capturing a country in the midst of civil war, this is a profound piece of cinema about two very different people who happened to have the same nationality: “One divided a country. The other united it.” Ultimately, however, they both ended up dead.

Next Goal Wins (2014)

Nominated for Documentary of the Year at 2015’s London Critics Circle Film Awards, Next Goal Wins documents Dutch coach Thomas Rongen’s attempts to transform the fortunes of “the worst team in the world”. American Samoa had suffered a record defeat of 31-0 to Australia in 2001 and failed to score in four years when he took over. Recounting the hapless team’s travails to qualify for the 2014 World Cup, this heroic and heart-warming work was described by Mark Lawson in The New Statesman “one of the best films about football” and arrows at the very heart of the game: the triumph of the underdog.

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