Leofwine_draca Although it's a well-remembered film – particularly here in the UK – I found watching ESCAPE TO VICTORY to be a hollow experience. It actually turns out to be a hollow, rather soulless viewing experience. Yes, it's a feel-good film about a football match between an international team and the Nazis during WW2, but in truth? The script isn't very good. The prison drama stuff just kinds of happens without the viewer ever getting too involved or emotionally attached to the plot, and none of the characters have a great deal of sympathy, either.Perhaps it's one of those movies where there are so many characters, we don't have time to care about them. So we get Michael Caine as the token movie-star hero, Max Von Sydow as the token sympathetic Nazi, Sly Stallone as the token macho American idol, and a bunch of real footballers like Pele and Bobby Moore doing their bit on the pitch.The football scenes themselves are great. They're portrayed humorously, with maximum drama and skill. The final few minutes of the final match are truly nail-biting, and all this is from a guy who typically hates football. But other than pride, what's the film all about? The prison escape drama strives to be on the same level as the one in THE GREAT ESCAPE, but I never cared about whether the characters made it or not. Well-remembered it might be…but unlike other well-remembered movies, this one's no classic.

Frank Amado III As usual, the film does little more than to portray the Germans as villains, who do everything in the power to use lies and deceit to make themselves look better. This is, in reality, similar to what is going on today with apartheid Israel and what they're doing to the Palestinians; i.e.: the Israeli soldiers shooting two of the Palestinian football player in the legs, prior to one of the championship games. In any event, the first time I saw this film, I was but an impressionable teenager, and yet, something about it never sat right with me. I recently had an unexpected opportunity to watch this brainwashing film again, and as a previous commentator understated in the remarks in his headline, "entertaining, but improbable", would be more accurately described as "annoyingly inaccurate and impossible". If this were a Siskel & Ebert rating, I would give it, not only, two thumbs down; I would say two thumbs, 8 fingers and 10 toes down.

Johan Dondokambey The story is one of the unique tales to be based on World War II, The basic premise departs from the love of the game of football in both the sides of Allies and Axis, despite there's a war between them. The added weight of having the Nazi will be very tempted to use the game as a great propaganda against the rest of the world and the Allied POW will be tempted to use the game as a cover to escape makes the story more interesting. However, the story develops rather unpredictably weird, having Hatch willing to go back inside to convey the info to Colby, and having the mob rush in without the Nazi shooting a single bullet. There's also all the little hiccups here and there such as the alarm didn't sound when the light hit Hatch's face when he's escaping, and also the football game rather played stupidly despite being designed by Pele. The acting is surely an average one, despite the big names of Stallone, Caine, and Von Sydow here. From all the roles, I only see Michael Caine delivers a quite convincing acting, although is also refuted by the sheer weirdness of how the story unfolds.

Desertman84 The film,Victory is a story about Allied prisoners football players. A team of Allied prisoners of war (POWs), coached and represented by Englishman Captain John Colby agree to play an exhibition match against a German team, only to find themselves involved in a German propaganda stunt.He is the captain and essentially the manager of the team and thus chooses his squad of players.American POW Hatch is not initially chosen, but eventually nags the reluctant Colby into letting him on the team.The superior officers repeatedly try to convince Colby to use the match as an opportunity for an escape attempt,but he 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.He 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.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.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 "VICTORY!!!"They manage to escape at the end of the game, amidst the confusion caused by the crowd storming the field after it ends in a draw.Victory maybe a have all the elements of an underdog sports picture especially with a final match in the end,but it became a memorable one.One reason is that football happens to be arguably the most popular sport in the world.Also,the actors in the movie were well-known like Sylvester Stallone,who played Hatch;Michael Caine,who played Colby; and Max von Sydow.Finally,the film also has the participation of well-known football players like Bobby Moore, Osvaldo Ardiles, Kazimierz Deyna, Paul Van Himst, Mike Summerbee, Hallvar Thoresen and Pelé.John Huston's direction was also worth the mention.This is one excellent sports.A must-see for football fans and people who love the underdog.Also,it was one hell of an enjoyable and entertaining film.