Football Films: Off-season Tonics

Not long to go now! We’re almost through the off-season. Of course, it’s always a bit quiet this time of year on the football front, and so while we were kicking about ideas for some features — yes, pun intended — we got to discussing films, as anyone does, including some of our favourite football films. Here are our picks, in no particular order…

If you were around in the late 1990s, Fever Pitch did a great job capturing what it is like to be a football fan – both the joy and the agony. It was based on Nick Hornby’s top autobiographical book, Fever Pitch: A Fan’s Life (well worth a read, by the way) and starred a certain Colin Firth as the Arsenal-loving Paul Ashworth. Parts of it were filmed at Highbury, too, which is now sadly gone after the Gunners moved to the Emirates Stadium in 2006. If you go to get a copy, though, just be careful because another version was made in 2005 that used the same name, but it shifted the action to the USA and swapped football for baseball. Don’t ask!

If you want something a bit grittier, then how about the Football Factory? Written and directed by Nick Love, it puts Danny Dyer in the lead role and deals with the rivalry between Chelsea and Millwall fans. Again, like Fever Pitch the inspiration comes from a novel, specifically the trilogy written by John King. It’s a bit like Green Street Hooligans, starring Elijah Wood and Charlie Hunnan, but better in our view and released a year earlier.

Another one we enjoy, and have extremely fond memories of watching when we were younger. was Escape to Victory. It featured an all-star cast, including Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, and (of course) a number of great football players from that era such as Pele, Bobby Moore, Osvaldo Ardiles and Mike Summerbee. It has developed somewhat of a cult following these days, and the score by Bill Conti was just brilliant. There was talk of a re-make a few years ago too, although it’s all gone a bit quiet since then.

Back to more recent times, in 2006 we had the release of Pele: Birth of a Legend. It charts his rise to fame, and, while not well-received by a number of critics, the public warmed to it a lot more. Indeed, it currently has a 70% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and in our view is pretty decent.

Sticking with biographical films, you can’t help but mention Damned United, focusing on Brian Clough’s rocky 44-day tenure as manager at Leeds in 1974. It was nominated for a number of awards and was widely liked by both fans and critics. It’s a great way to spend an hour and a half.

Those are our five recommendations, although we should give a few honourable mentions for the likes of United, Looking for Eric, Mike Bassett: England Manager and Bend it Like Beckham.

And if those films aren’t enough to get you through the remainder of the off-season, how about making the most of the extra time on your hands by taking in a few other sports? For example, you could debate on who might win the British Open or head to London for the World Athletics Championship. Alternatively, you could do a bit of reading up on your club’s history, start thinking about your Fantasy Football team or play some footie yourself.

Just remember – not long to go now. The Beautiful Game, season 2017/2018 beckons.