Even the best football movies struggle to capture the sport's drama on film. The worst (and there are many) are truly abysmal
Why has cinema found football to be such a tricky customer? Football scenes in film and television are traditionally very awkward affairs, with the "defenders" tip-toeing nervously around the "attackers" as they advance, the goal finally coming via the sort of impractical flying volley you just never see on a real pitch. It's clearly very difficult to let someone score a script-dictated goal while pretending to try to stop them but, at the same time, trying not to look like you're pretending to try to stop them. Perhaps they teach it at Rada, who knows?
Furthermore, filmmakers have the challenge of adding a fictional big-screen gloss to what is already an overwhelmingly camera-friendly and consistently dramatic spectacle in its own right. Real-life football already has its own "script...
Why has cinema found football to be such a tricky customer? Football scenes in film and television are traditionally very awkward affairs, with the "defenders" tip-toeing nervously around the "attackers" as they advance, the goal finally coming via the sort of impractical flying volley you just never see on a real pitch. It's clearly very difficult to let someone score a script-dictated goal while pretending to try to stop them but, at the same time, trying not to look like you're pretending to try to stop them. Perhaps they teach it at Rada, who knows?
Furthermore, filmmakers have the challenge of adding a fictional big-screen gloss to what is already an overwhelmingly camera-friendly and consistently dramatic spectacle in its own right. Real-life football already has its own "script...
- 2/27/2014
- by Adam Hurrey
- The Guardian - Film News
From Jesus Quintana to Apollo Creed, via a Sheffield United hero and a chubby wide-eyed tricycle-loving kid called Champion
1) Jimmy Muir (When Saturday Comes, 1996)
Football has never really lent itself to the silver screen. Somehow things just don't work – the movement is too forced, the celebrations too cartoonish, the plots too hackneyed, the acting too stilted, the need to get a few real-life players in there (for some reason) too hard to resist. When Saturday Comes is no different. The football scenes don't work, the plot would've been turned down by Boy's Own for being too far-fetched, and Mel Sterland and Tony Currie pop up and make Ally McCoist look like Robert De Niro. The climax should be pretty clear before the opening titles have ended.
If you're expecting an "And yet …" at this point, think again. You can't dress this up as a moment of cinematic brilliance any more...
1) Jimmy Muir (When Saturday Comes, 1996)
Football has never really lent itself to the silver screen. Somehow things just don't work – the movement is too forced, the celebrations too cartoonish, the plots too hackneyed, the acting too stilted, the need to get a few real-life players in there (for some reason) too hard to resist. When Saturday Comes is no different. The football scenes don't work, the plot would've been turned down by Boy's Own for being too far-fetched, and Mel Sterland and Tony Currie pop up and make Ally McCoist look like Robert De Niro. The climax should be pretty clear before the opening titles have ended.
If you're expecting an "And yet …" at this point, think again. You can't dress this up as a moment of cinematic brilliance any more...
- 9/6/2013
- by Barry Glendenning, John Ashdown
- The Guardian - Film News
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