Escape to Victory
Encyclopedia
Escape to Victory, known simply as Victory in North America, is a 1981
film
about Allied
prisoners of war who are interned in a German
prison camp during World War II
. The film was directed by John Huston
and stars Michael Caine
, Sylvester Stallone
and Max von Sydow
.
The film received great attention upon its theatrical release, as it also starred football
superstars Bobby Moore
, Osvaldo Ardiles
, Kazimierz Deyna
, Paul Van Himst
, Mike Summerbee
, Hallvar Thoresen
and Pelé
. Numerous Ipswich Town F.C.
players were also in the film, including John Wark
, Russell Osman
, Laurie Sivell
, Robin Turner
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.
stunt.
Colby is the captain and essentially the manager of the team and thus chooses his squad of players. American POW Hatch (Sylvester Stallone) is not initially chosen, but eventually nags the reluctant Colby into letting him on the team.
Colby's superior officers repeatedly try to convince Colby to use the match as an opportunity for an escape attempt, but Colby consistently refuses, fearing that such an attempt will only result in getting his players killed. Meanwhile, Hatch has been planning an unrelated escape attempt, and Colby's superiors agree to help him, if he in return agrees to journey to Paris, make contact with the French Resistance
, and try to convince them to help the soccer team escape.
Hatch succeeds in escaping the prison camp, traveling to Paris, and finding the Resistance, but the Resistance decides that the plan to help the soccer team escape is too risky; they not only refuse to help, but also convince Hatch to get re-captured, so he can pass information along back to the leading British officers at the prison camp.
Fearing another escape attempt, the Germans initially refuse to allow Hatch to participate in the match, but Colby breaks the existing goalkeeper's arm as an excuse to get Hatch back onto the team.
In the end, the POWs can leave the German camp only to play the match; they are to be imprisoned again following the match. Despite the match officials
being heavily biased towards the Germans, and the German team causing several deliberate injuries to the Allied players, 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
). Hatch plays goalkeeper, and makes excellent saves including one last save from a penalty kick as time expires to deny the Germans the win, drawing the game 4–4. Before the penalty kick the POWs had scored a goal which was disallowed
by the referee for a dubious offside decision, making the score 5–4, prompting the crowd to shout "Victoire!"
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.
and won the critics' award at the 1962 Boston Cinema Festival.
The film was inspired by the true story of Dynamo Kyiv's
players, who defeated German soldiers while Ukraine
was occupied by German 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 German 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.
squad, who were at the time one of the most successful
teams in Europe. Despite not appearing on screen, English World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks
was closely involved in the film, working with Sylvester Stallone
on his goalkeeping scenes. Sports Illustrated
magazine said "the game is marvelously photographed by Gerry Fisher
, under second unit director Robert Riger
.
Les Shannon
, the ex-Burnley
player, choreographed the actual game presented in the film. The movie also credits Pelé as the designer of plays. World Cup
winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks
coached Sylvester Stallone. Stallone's character states that he is an enlisted member of the Canadian Army, and a Maple Leaf shaped regimental badge can be seen on his beret throughout the film. The game was filmed in the Hidegkuti Nándor Stadium
in Budapest
, Hungary
. In the film, Pelé plays a character from Trinidad and Tobago
rather than his real-life native land of Brazil
. While Brazil joined the Allied cause and its soldiers fought against the Germans in the Italian theatre, their operations started too late in the war (mid-1944) to for the presence of a Brazilian POW to be believable at the date of the movie's events.
episode "Escape From Victory
" was named in homage to the film.
1981 in film
-Events:*January 19 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquires beleaguered concurrent United Artists. UA was humiliated by the astronomical losses on the $40,000,000 movie Heaven's Gate, a major factor in the decision of owner Transamerica to sell it....
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
about Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
prisoners of war who are interned in a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
prison camp during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The film was directed by John Huston
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...
and stars Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
, Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...
and Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow is a Swedish actor. He has also held French citizenship since 2002. He has starred in many films and had supporting roles in dozens more...
.
The film received great attention upon its theatrical release, as it also starred football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
superstars Bobby Moore
Bobby Moore
Robert Frederick Chelsea "Bobby" Moore, OBE was an English footballer. He captained West Ham United for more than ten years and was captain of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup...
, Osvaldo Ardiles
Osvaldo Ardiles
Osvaldo César Ardiles , often referred to in Britain as Ossie Ardiles, is a football coach, pundit and former midfielder who won the 1978 World Cup as part of the Argentine national team...
, Kazimierz Deyna
Kazimierz Deyna
Kazimierz Deyna was a Polish footballer, who played as an offensive midfielder in the playmaker role and was one of the most highly regarded players of his generation.-Early life:...
, Paul Van Himst
Paul Van Himst
Paul van Himst is a former talented Belgian football midfielder and a football manager. Now retired, he still supports R.S.C. Anderlecht, his former team. He was nicknamed Polle Gazon due to the large number of fouls committed on him...
, Mike Summerbee
Mike Summerbee
Mike Summerbee is an English former footballer, who played in the successful Manchester City side of the late 1960s and early 1970s....
, Hallvar Thoresen
Hallvar Thoresen
Hallvar Thoresen is a former Norwegian footballer. The son of former Norwegian international Gunnar Thoresen, Hallvar Thoresen was central in 1980s Norwegian football....
and Pelé
Pelé
However, Pelé has always maintained that those are mistakes, that he was actually named Edson and that he was born on 23 October 1940.), best known by his nickname Pelé , is a retired Brazilian footballer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football players of all time...
. Numerous Ipswich Town F.C.
Ipswich Town F.C.
Ipswich Town Football Club are an English professional football team based in Ipswich, Suffolk. As of 2011, they play in the Football League Championship, having last appeared in the Premier League in 2001–02....
players were also in the film, including John Wark
John Wark
John Wark is a Scottish former footballer who spent most of his playing time with Ipswich Town. He won a record four Player of the Year awards before becoming one of the four inaugural members of the club's Hall of Fame...
, Russell Osman
Russell Osman
Russell Charles Osman is a retired England international footballer.-Playing career:Osman was born in Repton, Derbyshire, the son of Rex Osman who played a handful of games for Derby County in the early 1950s...
, Laurie Sivell
Laurie Sivell
Laurence "Laurie" Sivell is an English former footballer who played in the Football League as a goalkeeper for Ipswich Town and Lincoln City.Sivell spent 15 years with Ipswich Town, between 1969 and 1984...
, Robin Turner
Robin Turner (footballer)
Robin David Turner is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward. He played in Football League for Ipswich Town, Swansea City and Colchester United before moving into non-league football with Bury Town.-External links:*...
and Kevin O'Callaghan
Kevin O'Callaghan
Kevin O'Callaghan is a former Irish footballer, who played as a left winger.-Early Years:O'Callaghan was born in Havering on the 19th October 1961 to Paddy and Barbara O'Callaghan.A playful youngster, he frequently felt the crack of the headmaster's cane at St Bonaventures Catholic School...
. Further Ipswich Town players stood in for actors in the football scenes - Kevin Beattie
Kevin Beattie
Kevin Beattie is an English former footballer, playing at central defence for both Ipswich Town and England in the 1970s and early 1980s.- Through the ranks :...
for Michael Caine, and Paul Cooper for Sylvester Stallone. The script was written by Yabo Yablonsky.
Plot
Association football plays a central role of the film. A team of Allied prisoners of war (POWs), coached and represented by Englishman Captain John Colby (Michael Caine) (who was a professional footballer for West Ham United before the war) agree to play an exhibition match against a German team, only to find themselves involved in a German propagandaPropaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
stunt.
Colby is the captain and essentially the manager of the team and thus chooses his squad of players. American POW Hatch (Sylvester Stallone) is not initially chosen, but eventually nags the reluctant Colby into letting him on the team.
Colby's superior officers repeatedly try to convince Colby to use the match as an opportunity for an escape attempt, but Colby consistently refuses, fearing that such an attempt will only result in getting his players killed. Meanwhile, Hatch has been planning an unrelated escape attempt, and Colby's superiors agree to help him, if he in return agrees to journey to Paris, make contact with the French Resistance
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
, and try to convince them to help the soccer team escape.
Hatch succeeds in escaping the prison camp, traveling to Paris, and finding the Resistance, but the Resistance decides that the plan to help the soccer team escape is too risky; they not only refuse to help, but also convince Hatch to get re-captured, so he can pass information along back to the leading British officers at the prison camp.
Fearing another escape attempt, the Germans initially refuse to allow Hatch to participate in the match, but Colby breaks the existing goalkeeper's arm as an excuse to get Hatch back onto the team.
In the end, the POWs can leave the German camp only to play the match; they are to be imprisoned again following the match. Despite the match officials
Referee
A referee is the person of authority, in a variety of sports, who is responsible for presiding over the game from a neutral point of view and making on the fly decisions that enforce the rules of the sport...
being heavily biased towards the Germans, and the German team causing several deliberate injuries to the Allied players, a draw is achieved after great performances from Luis Fernandez (portrayed by Pelé
Pelé
However, Pelé has always maintained that those are mistakes, that he was actually named Edson and that he was born on 23 October 1940.), best known by his nickname Pelé , is a retired Brazilian footballer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football players of all time...
), Carlos Rey (portrayed by Osvaldo Ardiles
Osvaldo Ardiles
Osvaldo César Ardiles , often referred to in Britain as Ossie Ardiles, is a football coach, pundit and former midfielder who won the 1978 World Cup as part of the Argentine national team...
) and Arthur Hayes (portrayed by John Wark
John Wark
John Wark is a Scottish former footballer who spent most of his playing time with Ipswich Town. He won a record four Player of the Year awards before becoming one of the four inaugural members of the club's Hall of Fame...
). Hatch plays goalkeeper, and makes excellent saves including one last save from a penalty kick as time expires to deny the Germans the win, drawing the game 4–4. Before the penalty kick the POWs had scored a goal which was disallowed
No goal
No goal is a call made by referees in various goal-scoring sports to indicate that a goal has not been scored. It is commonly used to disallow an apparent goal, such as when the ball or puck has entered the net but should not count as a score due to some foul or infraction.Because the decision...
by the referee for a dubious offside decision, making the score 5–4, prompting the crowd to shout "Victoire!"
Some team members plan to escape at halftime (in an escape led by Hatch) but the rest of the team (led by Russell Osman
Russell Osman
Russell Charles Osman is a retired England international footballer.-Playing career:Osman was born in Repton, Derbyshire, the son of Rex Osman who played a handful of games for Derby County in the early 1950s...
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 FábriZoltán Fábri
Zoltán Fábri was a Hungarian film director and screenwriter. His films The Boys of Paul Street and Hungarians were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film....
and won the critics' award at the 1962 Boston Cinema Festival.
The film was inspired by the true story of Dynamo Kyiv's
FC Dynamo Kyiv
FC Dynamo Kyiv is a professional football club based in the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv. Founded in 1927, the club currently participates in the Ukrainian Premier League and has spent its entire history in the top league of Soviet and later Ukrainian football...
players, who defeated German soldiers while Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
was occupied by German troops in World War II. According to myth, as a result of their victory, the Ukrainians were all shot. The true story
The Death Match
The Death Match was the Soviet propaganda name for a non-official association football match in 1942 between the local workers of a bakery factory — former professional footballers from Dynamo Kyiv and Lokomotyv Kyiv — and soldiers of the Nazi German Wehrmacht...
is considerably more complex, as the team played a series of matches against German teams, emerging victorious in all of them, before finally being sent to prison camps by the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
. Most of the team were killed there, but a few survived.
Actors and footballers
Escape to Victory featured a great many professional footballers as both the POW team and the German team. Many of the footballers came from the Ipswich TownIpswich Town F.C.
Ipswich Town Football Club are an English professional football team based in Ipswich, Suffolk. As of 2011, they play in the Football League Championship, having last appeared in the Premier League in 2001–02....
squad, who were at the time one of the most successful
UEFA Cup
The UEFA Europa League is an annual association football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1971 for eligible European football clubs. It is the second most prestigious European club football contest after the UEFA Champions League...
teams in Europe. Despite not appearing on screen, English World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks
Gordon Banks
Gordon Banks, OBE is a retired English football goalkeeper. The IFFHS named Banks the second best goalkeeper of the 20th century – after Lev Yashin and ahead of Dino Zoff ....
was closely involved in the film, working with Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...
on his goalkeeping scenes. Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
magazine said "the game is marvelously photographed by Gerry Fisher
Gerry Fisher
Gerry Fisher, B.S.C. is an English cinematographer. In 1976 Fisher was nominated for the Best Cinematography Award by the British Society of Cinematographers, for Aces High, and in 1977 was nominated for a BAFTA Award for the same film...
, under second unit director Robert Riger
Robert Riger
Robert Riger was a celebrated sports illustrator, photographer, award-winning television director, and cinematographer....
.
Selected cast
 Michael CaineMichael Caine Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules .... |
Captain John Colby |
 Sylvester StalloneSylvester Stallone Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed... |
Captain Robert Hatch |
 Max von SydowMax von Sydow Max von Sydow is a Swedish actor. He has also held French citizenship since 2002. He has starred in many films and had supporting roles in dozens more... |
Major Karl von Steiner |
 George MikellGeorge Mikell George Mikell is an actor and writer most well known for his performances in The Guns of Navarone and The Great Escape... |
Kommandant |
 Anton DiffringAnton Diffring Anton Diffring , born Alfred Pollack, was a German actor.-Biography:Diffring was born in Koblenz... |
Radio announcer |
 Carole LaureCarole Laure Carole Laure is an actress and singer from the province of Quebec in Canada.-Career:Throughout most of her career, Carole Laure primarily collaborated with Anglophone singer, songwriter, producer, and director Lewis Furey, whom she met in 1977 and who later became her husband... |
Renée |
| Gary Waldhorn Gary Waldhorn Gary Waldhorn is a veteran English actor, known for his role as David Horton in the sitcom The Vicar of Dibley, but who has also had a notable television and theatre career.-Theatre:... |
Mueller |
 Benoît FerreuxBenoît Ferreux Benoît Ferreux is a French film and television actor who is possibly best recalled for his role in the 1971 film Murmur of the Heart.... |
Jean Paul |
| Clive Merrison Clive Merrison Clive Merrison is a Welsh actor of film, television, stage and radio. He trained at Rose Bruford College.- Television :... |
The Forger |
| Maurice Roëves Maurice Roëves Maurice Roëves is a British actor, born in Sunderland, County Durham on 19 March 1937.His television roles include Danger UXB , The Nightmare Man , the 1984 Doctor Who serial The Caves of Androzani, Days of our Lives , Tutti Frutti , Rab C... |
Pyrie |
| Michael Cochrane Michael Cochrane Michael Cochrane is an English actor who specialises in playing upper class characters, sometimes with a suaveness that hides their villainy.... |
Farrell |
 Zoltán GeraZoltán Gera (actor) Gera Zoltán is a Hungarian supporting actor. He has starred in 115 movies so far .-Selected international filmography:# Rose's Songs as Mr... |
Victor |
| Tim Pigott-Smith Tim Pigott-Smith Tim Pigott-Smith is an English film and television actor.-Early life:Pigott-Smith was born in Rugby, Warwickshire, the son of Margaret Muriel and Harry Thomas Pigott-Smith, who was a journalist. He was educated at Wyggeston Boys' School, Leicester, King Edward VI School Stratford-upon-Avon, and... |
Rose |
| Daniel Massey Daniel Massey (actor) Daniel Raymond Massey was an English actor and performer. He is possibly best known for his starring role in the British TV drama The Roads to Freedom, as Daniel, alongside Michael Bryant... |
Colonel Waldron |
| Jean-François Stévenin Jean-François Stévenin Jean-François Stévenin is a French actor. He has appeared in 150 films and television shows since 1968. He starred in the film Cold Moon, which was entered into the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.-Selected filmography:* Out 1... |
Claude |
 PeléPelé However, Pelé has always maintained that those are mistakes, that he was actually named Edson and that he was born on 23 October 1940.), best known by his nickname Pelé , is a retired Brazilian footballer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football players of all time... |
Corporal Luis Fernandez |
 Bobby MooreBobby Moore Robert Frederick Chelsea "Bobby" Moore, OBE was an English footballer. He captained West Ham United for more than ten years and was captain of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup... |
Terry Brady |
 John WarkJohn Wark John Wark is a Scottish former footballer who spent most of his playing time with Ipswich Town. He won a record four Player of the Year awards before becoming one of the four inaugural members of the club's Hall of Fame... |
Arthur Hayes |
 Osvaldo ArdilesOsvaldo Ardiles Osvaldo César Ardiles , often referred to in Britain as Ossie Ardiles, is a football coach, pundit and former midfielder who won the 1978 World Cup as part of the Argentine national team... |
Carlos Rey |
 Kazimierz DeynaKazimierz Deyna Kazimierz Deyna was a Polish footballer, who played as an offensive midfielder in the playmaker role and was one of the most highly regarded players of his generation.-Early life:... |
Paul Wolchek |
 Søren LindstedSøren Lindsted Søren Lindsted is a Danish former football player in the striker position. He started his career as a semi-professional with Holbæk Boldklub, reaching the 1976 Danish Cup final and was the team top goalscorer in 1977 and 1978. He then signed a professional contract with FC Twente in the... |
Erik Ball |
 Paul Van HimstPaul Van Himst Paul van Himst is a former talented Belgian football midfielder and a football manager. Now retired, he still supports R.S.C. Anderlecht, his former team. He was nicknamed Polle Gazon due to the large number of fouls committed on him... |
Michel Fileu |
| Werner Roth Werner Roth (soccer) Werner Roth is a retired American professional football defender.Mainly associated with the New York Cosmos, he also represented the United States men's national soccer team for three years... |
Baumann (German team captain) |
| Mike Summerbee Mike Summerbee Mike Summerbee is an English former footballer, who played in the successful Manchester City side of the late 1960s and early 1970s.... |
Sid Harmor |
 Hallvar ThoresenHallvar Thoresen Hallvar Thoresen is a former Norwegian footballer. The son of former Norwegian international Gunnar Thoresen, Hallvar Thoresen was central in 1980s Norwegian football.... |
Gunnar Hilsson |
| Russell Osman Russell Osman Russell Charles Osman is a retired England international footballer.-Playing career:Osman was born in Repton, Derbyshire, the son of Rex Osman who played a handful of games for Derby County in the early 1950s... |
Doug Clure |
 Kevin O'CallaghanKevin O'Callaghan Kevin O'Callaghan is a former Irish footballer, who played as a left winger.-Early Years:O'Callaghan was born in Havering on the 19th October 1961 to Paddy and Barbara O'Callaghan.A playful youngster, he frequently felt the crack of the headmaster's cane at St Bonaventures Catholic School... |
Tony Lewis |
 Co PrinsCo Prins Jacobus Theodorus Wilhelmus "Co" Prins was a Dutch football player. He played 184 matches for football club Ajax Amsterdam from 1959 to 1966 where he scored 60 goals. He played for the German football team 1... |
Pieter Van Beck |
| Laurie Sivell Laurie Sivell Laurence "Laurie" Sivell is an English former footballer who played in the Football League as a goalkeeper for Ipswich Town and Lincoln City.Sivell spent 15 years with Ipswich Town, between 1969 and 1984... |
Schmidt (German goalkeeper) |
| Robin Turner |
German Player |
| Kevin Beattie Kevin Beattie Kevin Beattie is an English former footballer, playing at central defence for both Ipswich Town and England in the 1970s and early 1980s.- Through the ranks :... |
Stand-in for Michael Caine |
| Paul Cooper |
Stand-in for Sylvester Stallone |
Les Shannon
Les Shannon
Leslie "Les" Shannon was an English football player and manager.-Playing career:Shannon was born in Liverpool; a centre-forward, he started his playing career with his hometown club of Liverpool in November 1944...
, the ex-Burnley
Burnley F.C.
Burnley Football Club are a professional English Football League club based in Burnley, Lancashire. Nicknamed the Clarets, due to the dominant colour of their home shirts, they were founder members of the Football League in 1888...
player, choreographed the actual game presented in the film. The movie also credits Pelé as the designer of plays. World Cup
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks
Gordon Banks
Gordon Banks, OBE is a retired English football goalkeeper. The IFFHS named Banks the second best goalkeeper of the 20th century – after Lev Yashin and ahead of Dino Zoff ....
coached Sylvester Stallone. Stallone's character states that he is an enlisted member of the Canadian Army, and a Maple Leaf shaped regimental badge can be seen on his beret throughout the film. The game was filmed in the Hidegkuti Nándor Stadium
Hidegkuti Nándor Stadium
Hidegkuti Nándor Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Budapest, Hungary. The stadium can hold 12,700 people and was built in 1912...
in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. In the film, Pelé plays a character from Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
rather than his real-life native land of Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. While Brazil joined the Allied cause and its soldiers fought against the Germans in the Italian theatre, their operations started too late in the war (mid-1944) to for the presence of a Brazilian POW to be believable at the date of the movie's events.
In popular culture
The Father TedFather Ted
Father Ted is a comedy series set in Ireland that was produced by Hat Trick Productions for British broadcaster Channel 4. Written jointly by Irish writers Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan and starring a predominantly Irish cast, it originally aired over three series from 21 April 1995 until 1 May...
episode "Escape From Victory
Escape from Victory
"Escape from Victory" is the 5th episode of the third series of Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted and the 22nd episode overall.-Synopsis:Dougal returns home to find Ted searching the parochial house frantically, because he believed they've been bugged by Dick Byrne, ahead of the annual "All-Priests...
" was named in homage to the film.
External links
- Escape To Victory Website
- Escape To Victory - Photos
- The Game of Death — Australian National Centre for History Education, concerning the events this film was based on.