Barnes & Noble

Just as basketball held a mythic appeal in small-town Indiana of the post-WWII era, in the St. Louis immigrant neighborhood known as the Hill, passions ran to soccer. In 1950, the U.S. hastily assembled a squad to compete in the World Cup, combining feisty players from the Hill with more disciplined East Coast athletes, then sending the underdogs off to Brazil. Their improbable victory over the reigning English team, said to be “the biggest shock” in the history of soccer, is the stuff rousing sports movies are made of. Director David Anspaugh and screenwriter Angelo Pizzo, the winning team behind Hoosiers and Rudy, strictly hew to sports film conventions. (The DVD chapter titles practically tell the story: “I Want to Be on That Team”; “Weakness Exposed”; “Team Breakdown”; “Cheers”; and “Who Would Believe?”) Yet missteps aside, The Miracle Match scores through strong performances by Patrick Stewart, as the now aged reporter who covered the historic match, and Gerard Butler and Wes Bentley as the team’s rival star players. By the climactic curtain call featuring actual surviving members of the 1950 team, soccer fans may even forget -- if not forgive -- such soccer-centric misfires as Ladybugs and Kicking and Screaming. Donald Liebenson

All Movie Guide

In 1950, most Americans had only a passing familiarity with the game of soccer, even though it was the world's most popular sport, and few athletes in the United States played the game with any particular degree of expertise. However, when an invitation was extended to the United States to participate in the World Cup tournament in Brazil -- the international soccer championship held every four years -- Bill Jeffrey was determined that America participate. In less than two weeks, Jeffrey assembled a team comprised mostly of players from St. Louis (where soccer had developed a small but loyal following) and the East Coast (where the game gained a foothold on college campuses), with immigrants from Haiti, Portugal, and Scotland filling out the ranks. Against all odds, the Americans not only made it to the World Cup games, but defeated the British team (favored by many to win the championship) in the greatest upset of the 1950 games. The Game of Their Lives is a sports drama based on the remarkable true story of the 1950 United States team, featuring John Rhys-Davies as Bill Jeffrey, Wes Bentley as team leader Walter Bahr, Gerard Butler as goalie Frank Borghi, Jimmy Jean-Louis as Joe Gaetiens, a dishwasher born in Haiti who found his way onto the team, and Patrick Stewart as a journalist covering the games. David Anspaugh, who made the acclaimed basketball drama Hoosiers, directed. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 786936711837
• Source: WALT DISNEY VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Time: 1:41:00
• Sales Rank: 2,594

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