This is a gem of a film, in no way undermined by sub titles. It had a similar effect on me to that which Billy Elliott allegedly had on our Deputy Prime Minister, J. Prescott Esq! The plot is centred around the David and Goliath struggle between mighty Hungary and little West Germany in the World Cup final hosted by Berne in the summer of 1954. Even though this was over 50 years ago, it is still generally known that the Hungarian team spearheaded by the incomparable Puskas was invincible in those days. Shortly before I was born in April that year, my father took my mother to see them play England and they thrashed us 6 - 3! Drawn in the same group in the early stages of the competition, Hungary thrashed W. Germany 8 - 3, but both teams went on to meet in the final and W. Gernamy came from behind to win 3 - 2. However that is background only.
The film is about much more than a simple triumph in a football competition. The sense of period is superb. The attention to detail to ensure that the audience really does travel 50 years back in time is to my mind almost without parallel. Aided by computer graphics which perhaps fall a little short of the quality achieved in Titanic, the film vividly portrays the atmosphere in a depressed working class community on the West side of a divided Germany, still very much demoralised by the aftermath of the second world war. Their hero is a young man nicknamed the boss who plays football for the national team. The boss is friendly with and idolised by the real hero of the film, Matthias, a little boy of about 10 who has never known his own father, Richard, a prisoner of the Russians since 1943 and like many German POWs, not repatriated until the Soviets relax their stance only after Stalin's death 10 years later. We then get a valuable insight into the difficulty that this eminently decent, but badly desensitised man has readjusting to life with his family who have moved forward in his absence. There is a problem with each of his children, but inevitably the film focuses on his relationship with little Matthias, a football mad child of whose existence Richard was actually unaware. Helped by a strong wife, a sensible priest, but above all by the child himself, the father learns to confront his demons. It turns out to be much more than the success of the national team that enables the family to recover its mutual love and self respect. Thereafter father and son make up for lost time! The film is not short on light relief. There are brilliant performances by Katherina Wackernagel and Lucas Gregorowicz playing a young newly wed couple (husband a sports reporter) whose honeymoon plans are frustrated by the World Cup fever. Bear in mind that this is only 12 years before England's own 1966 victory remember how Sir Alf Ramsey treated the journalists and interviewers of the day? Perhaps he was taking a leaf out of the book of his 1954 German counterpart! Likewise the match commentary has gone down in German folklore. In the Marriage of Maria Braun, we heard part of the original recording while something quite unconnected with football was going on! It is powerful stuff, but in this film, the commentary is rightly played to some extent for laughs. However the strongest performances come from the family members themselves and inevitably from Peter Lohmeyer and Louis Klamroth who apparently really are father and son! If Mary Poppins and Billy Elliott raised that lump in your throat, be ready to go with the flow, but have a few Kleenex to hand!
The film is about much more than a simple triumph in a football competition. The sense of period is superb. The attention to detail to ensure that the audience really does travel 50 years back in time is to my mind almost without parallel. Aided by computer graphics which perhaps fall a little short of the quality achieved in Titanic, the film vividly portrays the atmosphere in a depressed working class community on the West side of a divided Germany, still very much demoralised by the aftermath of the second world war. Their hero is a young man nicknamed the boss who plays football for the national team. The boss is friendly with and idolised by the real hero of the film, Matthias, a little boy of about 10 who has never known his own father, Richard, a prisoner of the Russians since 1943 and like many German POWs, not repatriated until the Soviets relax their stance only after Stalin's death 10 years later. We then get a valuable insight into the difficulty that this eminently decent, but badly desensitised man has readjusting to life with his family who have moved forward in his absence. There is a problem with each of his children, but inevitably the film focuses on his relationship with little Matthias, a football mad child of whose existence Richard was actually unaware. Helped by a strong wife, a sensible priest, but above all by the child himself, the father learns to confront his demons. It turns out to be much more than the success of the national team that enables the family to recover its mutual love and self respect. Thereafter father and son make up for lost time! The film is not short on light relief. There are brilliant performances by Katherina Wackernagel and Lucas Gregorowicz playing a young newly wed couple (husband a sports reporter) whose honeymoon plans are frustrated by the World Cup fever. Bear in mind that this is only 12 years before England's own 1966 victory remember how Sir Alf Ramsey treated the journalists and interviewers of the day? Perhaps he was taking a leaf out of the book of his 1954 German counterpart! Likewise the match commentary has gone down in German folklore. In the Marriage of Maria Braun, we heard part of the original recording while something quite unconnected with football was going on! It is powerful stuff, but in this film, the commentary is rightly played to some extent for laughs. However the strongest performances come from the family members themselves and inevitably from Peter Lohmeyer and Louis Klamroth who apparently really are father and son! If Mary Poppins and Billy Elliott raised that lump in your throat, be ready to go with the flow, but have a few Kleenex to hand!