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Escape to Victory

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Victory

Directed by	John Huston
Produced by	Mario Kassar Gordon McLendon Andrew G. Vajna
Written by	Jeff Maguire Djordje Milicevic Yabo Yablonsky
Starring	Sylvester Stallone Michael Caine Max Von Sydow Pelé
Music by	Bill Conti
Cinematography	Gerry Fisher
Editing by	Roberto Silvi
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures Warner Bros. (DVD)
Release date(s)	July 30, 1981
Running time	110 minutes.
Language	English
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Escape to Victory is a 1981 film about Allied prisoners of war who are interned in a Nazi prison camp during World War II. It was directed by John Huston and stars Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone. The film received great attention, as it also starred football superstars Bobby Moore, Osvaldo Ardiles, Kazimierz Deyna and Pelé. Numerous Ipswich Town F.C. players were also in the film, including John Wark, Russell Osman, Laurie Sivell and Kevin O'Callaghan. Further Ipswich Town players stood in for actors in the football scenes - Kevin Beattie for Michael Caine, and Paul Cooper for Sylvester Stallone. The script was written by Yabo Yablonsky. In some locations, such as the United States, the film is known as Victory.

1 Football
2 Basis of the story
3 Actors and footballers
4 Selected cast, characters and clubs
5 External links

Football

Football plays an integral part of the film. The prisoners of war (POWs), coached and represented by John Colby (Michael Caine) agree to play an exhibition match against a German team, only to find themselves involved in a Nazi propaganda tournament. In the end, the POWs can leave the Nazi camp only to play the match; they are supposed to return to the camp after the game. During the match, despite the match officials being heavily biased towards the Nazis, a draw is achieved after great performances from Luis Fernandez (portrayed by Pelé), Carlos Rey (portrayed by Osvaldo Ardiles) and Arthur Hayes (portrayed by John Wark). American soldier Robert Hatch (Sylvester Stallone) plays the goalkeeping position, and makes excellent saves including one last save on a penalty kick as time expires to deny the Nazis the win, drawing the game 4-4. Although, the POWs scored a goal which was disallowed by the referee, for a dubious offside descision, making the score 5-4 which prompted the crowd to shout "Victory!" Some team members plan to escape at halftime (in an escape led by Hatch) but the rest of the team (led by Russell Osman saying "but we can win this") want to carry on with the game, despite being behind at halftime. They manage to escape at the end of the game, amidst the confusion caused by the crowd storming the field after Hatch preserves the draw.

Basis of the story

The movie is based on the 1961 Hungarian film drama "Két félidő a pokolban" (Two half-times in Hell), which was directed by Zoltán Fábri and won the critics' award at the 1962 Boston Cinema Festival. [1] The film was inspired by the true story of Dynamo Kiev's players, who defeated Nazi soldiers while Ukraine was occupied by Nazi troops in World War II. According to myth, as a result of their victory, the Ukrainians were all shot. The true story is considerably more complex, as the team played a series of matches against Nazi teams, emerging victorious in all of them, before finally being sent to prison camps by the Gestapo. Most of the team were killed there, but a few survived.

Actors and footballers

Escape to Victory was unusual in that it featured a great many professional footballers as both the POW team and the German team. Many of the less famous footballers came from the Ipswich Town squad, who were at the time one of the more successful teams in Europe.

Selected cast, characters and clubs

Actors
Michael Caine	Captain John Colby
Sylvester Stallone	Captain Robert Hatch
Max von Sydow	Major Karl von Steiner
Anton Diffring	Radio announcer
Carole Laure	Renee

Footballers
Pelé	Corporal Luis Fernandez	Santos FC retired
Bobby Moore	Terry Brady	West Ham United
John Wark	Arthur Hayes	Ipswich Town
Osvaldo Ardiles	Carlos Rey	Tottenham Hotspur
Kazimierz Deyna	Paul Wolchek	Manchester City
Søren Lindsted	Erik Ball	Holbæk B&I
Paul Van Himst	Michel Fileu	Anderlecht retired
Werner Roth	Baumann (German team captain)	New York Cosmos retired
Mike Summerbee	Sid Harmor	Manchester City retired
Hallvar Thoresen	Gunnar Hilsson	PSV Eindhoven
Russell Osman	Doug Clure	Ipswich Town
Kevin O'Callaghan	Tony Lewis	Ipswich Town
Co Prins	Pieter Van Beck	Ajax
Laurie Sivell	Schmidt (German goalkeeper)	Ipswich Town
Robin Turner	German Player	Ipswich Town
Kevin Beattie	Stand-in for Michael Caine	Ipswich Town
Paul Cooper	Stand-in for Sylvester Stallone	Ipswich Town

Les Shannon, ex-Burnley F.C. player, choreographed the actual game presented in the film. The movie also credits Pelé as the designer of plays. Gordon Banks, World Cup winning goalkeeper, coached Sylvester Stallone. The game was filmed in the Stadion Hidegkuti Nándor in Budapest, Hungary.