Movies by Theme

Zidane

From then until the final on July 11, teams representing 32 nations will face off against each other in matches that will grip the attention of billions. And that’s no exaggeration – the 2006 tournament attracted a cumulative audience of 5.9 billion viewers. Six hundred million tuned in for some or all of the controversial final game in which Italy triumphed after French star Zinédine Zidane administered the head-butt heard round the world.

There are plenty of people on this continent eager to watch as much footie as work and family schedules will allow. (It helps to be an early riser; the time difference means that many games start before dawn here.) Yet fans in North America lament soccer’s still-lowly status as a spectator sport compared with football, hockey, baseball and basketball. Even golf and NASCAR are bigger draws in the U.S. Though the game remains the most popular recreational sport for young people in Canada, it has yet to attract the same mass devotion.

There have been some promising signs. A hardy successor to the flashy but doomed North American Soccer League that brought Pelé to New York, Major League Soccer is growing in the U.S. and in Canada, with Toronto in the league since 2007, Vancouver due to be included in 2011 and Montreal a good possibility for 2012. A stint by English superstar David Beckham with the Los Angeles Galaxy squad added some glitz and excitement to the sport, as did Olympic wins by the U.S. women’s national team.

Movie imports from soccer-mad nations have also caught the fancy of viewers here on occasion. Bend It Like Beckham was a surprise box office hit in 2002, launching the careers of Keira Knightley and ER’s Parminder Nagra. A few more hits like that could actually make a big difference to the sport’s profile.

The last time Hollywood made a serious effort to embrace the game was 1981, when Brazilian legend Pelé starred opposite Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine in Victory, a drama about a team of POWs during the Second World War. Alas, the film’s poor performance discouraged future filmmakers from devoting much energy to promoting the sport, unless of course it’s played by kids (as in the Will Ferrell comedy Kicking &
Screaming) or canines (Soccer Dog, anyone?).

To be fair, the game might not be a great fit for the movies. Indeed, the reasons for the lack of truly exceptional films about soccer may have to do with why many North Americans don’t watch the sport in the first place. For instance, baseball and football highlight the actions of individuals; soccer is all about collective effort and teamwork, with the occasional breakout performance. Likewise, it’s easier to create big dramatic moments with sports that have frequent stops and starts rather than the long, fluid playmaking that defines soccer. The vast size of the playing field also makes for a different rhythm and pace than competitors can achieve within the tighter confines of hockey rinks and basketball courts.

Conveying the skills and thrills that make soccer so compelling for spectators has stymied moviemakers outside North America, too. Goal! and Goal II: Living the Dream chart the fortunes of a fictional Mexican-American player who becomes a star in Europe – too bad the scenes of on-the-pitch action look so tricked-out and phony.

Last year’s Rudo y Cursi, which starred Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna as rival sibling soccer stars in Mexico, also demonstrated less interest in the game itself than in showing how the players waste the big money they’re earning.

Recent years have yielded only one true masterpiece of soccer cinema. Not long before Zidane’s meltdown in the 2006 World Cup, artists Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno and a team of camera people filmed the star as he played a single game. The result – a stylized, realtime documentary named Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait – not only conveys the speed, agility and concentration of a great athlete but also the combination of grit
and grace that distinguishes the sport’s most exciting moments.

The less eventful stretches of Gordon’s film would exhaust the patience of gridiron junkies and b-ball fanatics. But soccer wouldn’t be soccer without the boring parts, would it?

A FAB FOUR OF FOOTIE MOVIES

Bend It Like Beckham: The Brit hit is an infectiously fun display of girl power, both on the field and off.

The Damned United: Michael Sheen is ferocious as an embattled
team manager in this story about the brutal world of 1970s British soccer.

Shaolin Soccer: Hong Kong star Stephen Chow puts a whole new spin on the game by
adding martial arts action, surreal CG effects and lots of goofy slapstick.

Victory: Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine and Pelé show up their Nazi captors in a suitably macho fashion.


Jason Anderson is the film columnist at Toronto’s Eye Weekly.