*****SPOILERS********
While this can be an enjoyable comedy the historical inaccuracies (on facts that can be checked on Wikipedia by a 10 years old) are so big that they invalidate the whole movie.
Uruguay depiction reminds the image of Mexico given by a bad American action movie from early 80's, a tropical dusty place where people wear white hats and white suits, eat coconuts and have monkey pets. There are reports from 1930 WC that say that there were SNOW falls during the Cup so hardly a tropical country. Moreover Uruguay was a much developed and "European" country than Yugoslav itself back then, receiving scores of European immigrants every year (including people from Yugoslavia).
The Brazilian team is shown as having all black players which at the time were banned from the national team. If you do "Brazilian national team 1930" in Google you will see a lot of pictures with not one single African-Brazilian player on them. Their jersey was not yellow and no, they did not have a witch-doctor that looks like taken from the "Tintin in Congo" comic book to curse their rivals. Finally, while is entirely possible that Uruguay was, in fact, favored in the semi- final match against Yugoslavia there were in no case mobs with torches in the stands threatening with lynching the Yugoslav players, case they won. By the way, they lost that match by a 5 goals difference and that is not explained by some doubtful play in which the rival might have been favored. Sorry but it is impossible to enjoy a movie which feeds so freely on stupid stereotypes and gross historical inaccuracies. They all make it look cheap and lightly produced.
While this can be an enjoyable comedy the historical inaccuracies (on facts that can be checked on Wikipedia by a 10 years old) are so big that they invalidate the whole movie.
Uruguay depiction reminds the image of Mexico given by a bad American action movie from early 80's, a tropical dusty place where people wear white hats and white suits, eat coconuts and have monkey pets. There are reports from 1930 WC that say that there were SNOW falls during the Cup so hardly a tropical country. Moreover Uruguay was a much developed and "European" country than Yugoslav itself back then, receiving scores of European immigrants every year (including people from Yugoslavia).
The Brazilian team is shown as having all black players which at the time were banned from the national team. If you do "Brazilian national team 1930" in Google you will see a lot of pictures with not one single African-Brazilian player on them. Their jersey was not yellow and no, they did not have a witch-doctor that looks like taken from the "Tintin in Congo" comic book to curse their rivals. Finally, while is entirely possible that Uruguay was, in fact, favored in the semi- final match against Yugoslavia there were in no case mobs with torches in the stands threatening with lynching the Yugoslav players, case they won. By the way, they lost that match by a 5 goals difference and that is not explained by some doubtful play in which the rival might have been favored. Sorry but it is impossible to enjoy a movie which feeds so freely on stupid stereotypes and gross historical inaccuracies. They all make it look cheap and lightly produced.