Victory

In World War II, a group of Nazi officers come up with a propaganda event in which an all star Nazi team will play a team composed of Allied Prisoners of War in a Soccer (Football) game. The Prisoners agree, planning on using the game as a means of escape from the camp.

Fans of The Great Escape and The Longest Yard will cheer venerable director John Huston's rousing 1981 adventure that pits Allied prisoners of war against their German captors in a soccer match. Michael Caine, who starred in Huston's The Man Who Would Be King, heads an international all-star cast as true-Brit John Colby, a former soccer champion, who heads the rag-tag squad. Max Von Sydow costars as the humane German officer who proposes the match, improbably staged for maximum propaganda impact in a stadium in Paris. As the Allied team, which includes real-life soccer legends Pele and Bobby Moore, practices, the officers' only goal is an audacious half-time escape. Sylvester Stallone is somewhat out of his league as the American determined to join the team. As an actor, Pele may not be on the same playing field as his Oscar-winning costars, but he is thrilling to watch as he executes some awesome, game-winning kicks. --Donald Liebenson