SCREAMING EAGLES REPORT
courtesy IFC Films
A Report From the Premiere of The Game of Their Lives
by David Lifton :: April 19, 2005
The advance screening of The Game Of Their Lives, a cinematic depiction of the U.S. national team's stunning upset over England in the 1950 World Cup, was an opportunity to be in the presence of American soccer history. After the screening, which took place at the Regal Theaters in Gallery Place, there was a question-and-answer session with the four surviving members of that team: Walter Bahr, Harry Keough, John "Clarkie" Souza, and Gino Pariani. Despite their advanced age, their minds were still sharp as they recalled the story of how they pulled off the impossible on that day in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Also present were director David Anspaugh, screenwriter Angelo Pizzo, actor Jimmy Jean-Louis, and John Harkes, Eric Wynalda, and former Miami Fusion and Tampa Bay Mutiny midfielder Nelson Vargas, all of whom were in the film.
Anspaugh began the session by telling us how he came upon the story, then gave us some information about how the soccer scenes were filmed. He praised Eric Wynalda for his assistance during the auditions, and how he ran the actors through a two-week "boot camp" to turn them into credible soccer players. Of note was that Jean-Louis, who played goal-scorer Joe Gaetjens, had broken his ankle before shooting commenced, but told the filmmakers it was only a sprain.
Keough, probably the most vocal of the players, spoke of how the reception following the victory was occasionally met with bemusement, even in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, long one of the hotbeds of the sport in the country. When asked of their most lasting memory of the game, Keough brought the house down by saying that it was when the final whistle blew. Bahr then spoke of the exemplary sportsmanship of the English team, who never publicly said that they felt they had been cheated out of a victory. When asked about the possibility of the United States being a potential world soccer power, Souza said that he feels that it will happen within the next 15 years. They all had kind words to say about coach Bill Jeffrey, who understood the difficulty of trying to put a ragtag team together on short notice, and preferred to let the players play their game rather than impose a particular style upon them. Pariani and Souza also spoke at length about Charlie Columbo, the hard-nosed defender who always wore gloves on the field, regardless of the weather.
Following the event, the men signed posters and greeted those of us who simply wanted to thank them for having contributed so much to the growth of the sport in the country. Even Kevin Payne was star struck. I overheard him tell someone that he has so many autographs that he doesn't even bother anymore, but he was going to make an exception for these men.
As for the movie, well, there are plenty of highlights. Most importantly, the game scenes are well filmed and highly believable, often be the kiss of death in sports movies, so there are no "Stallone-in-goal" moments. Anspaugh's direction is tight, with an authentic post-war feel to it. The acting is solid, with good performances by Jay Rodan as midfielder Frank "Pee Wee" Wallace, the midfielder who didn't fully comprehend the honor of representing his country, and Gerard Butler as goalkeeper Frank Borghi, whose remarkable performance kept the U.S. in the game 48 years before Kasey Keller shut out Brazil.
The movie's main flaw is in the script. The main problem is an overall lack of conflict in the events leading up to the game. For example, there is little explanation as to how Bahr, as captain, united the East Coast and St. Louis factions that comprised the team, even though the tryouts, which pitted the two groups against each other, showed some tension. Disagreements within the team are quickly resolved with rational discussion rather than heated arguments and then forgotten. By focusing on the St. Louis crowd, Pizzo leaves Bahr's character, the most central to the movie, underdeveloped, leaving Wes Bentley with little to do.
Some license is taken with the story. Pizzo admitted that several scenes were added for dramatic effect, and while there's nothing wrong with that, those scenes fail to provide the emotional wallop needed. One only needs to look at similar scenes in the movie "Miracle," which chronicled the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team's also improbable victory over the Soviet Union, to see how these scenes could have been handled. Also, there is no mention of how the U.S. did in the two other games it played in Brazil (they lost to Spain and Chile). It's not unthinkable to envision someone walking out of the theater thinking that the U.S. won the World Cup simply by beating England.
Most glaring, though, is how nobody treats Gaetjens, a Haitian immigrant on a student visa (permissible at the time under FIFA rules), differently, even though he was the only black player on the team. There is some initial reluctance from Jeffrey for an unspoken reason, but he is left with no other option when an injury forces out the original starting striker, and Pariani objects to his religious beliefs, but it is resolved on the flight to Brazil. Like every other potential clash in the movie, it is hinted at or glossed over rather than dealt with head-on, perhaps as a desire to create a family-friendly movie, which is too bad because Gaetjens' story is a movie unto itself.
Still, the movie is entertaining enough for the soccer scenes and for the simple reason that this story has received an opportunity to be told to new generations of soccer fans. And, as a bonus, in order to tie the movie to the present (Bristol Bay Productions, part of the Anschutz Film Group, are co-producers), some scenes were shot at the 2004 MLS All-Star Game at RFK Stadium, and some of the Screaming Eagles even wound up making the final cut.