Wonderful character development!

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

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.

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.

Perceived as a GREAT ESCAPE clone, and somewhat resembling THE LONGEST YARD, this John Huston directed Sylvester Stallone project winds up a WWII version of an obscure Vietnam War flick titled THE BOYS IN COMPANY C.Within a German POW camp, Michael Caine plays Major John Colby, a once-great British soccer star heading a ragtag prison team, viewed by Max Von Sydow's Major Steiner, who, recognizing Colby, sets up a YARD style scrimmage between the cons and the guards… But this initial plan doesn't go far.The Nazi propaganda machine wants a legit game to occur in occupied Paris. Here's where the escape wheels spin by the imprisoned intellectual Brits… Yet American Sylvester Stallone, as the new Steve McQueen style Cooler King, Captain Robert Hatch, likes this game plan most of all… only Caine's Major Colby wants nothing to do with him. An aggressive Hatch, who eventually winds up a better goalie than kicker, begs to join the team… they get a cozy barracks and three square meals a day… but for selfish reasons only – he desperately yearns for a solo breakout.The best sequence has the rogue American given a tactical pre-game mission while director John Huston keeps the suspense edgy and unpredictable: as Hatch sneaks around and about the prison, the camera's kept low and dark, as if we too were escaping. This is followed by a brief pocket of downtime after Hatch is safe within the confine of a French Resistance group, wherein a disposable love interest is introduced. The anticipated rivalry takes up the entire third act and, like soccer often can, the match is stretched-out, hard to follow and not as involving as, for instance, the football game in THE LONGEST YARD or even Robert Altman's M*A*S*H… Here's where the climactic BOYS IN COMPANY C plot line unveils: a 1978 film in which a group of American soldiers in Vietnam take part in a soccer match against the enemy, and wind up choosing possible triumph over probable freedom.A semi-conceived halftime escape, surreptitiously tunneled out by the Resistance through a THIRD MAN style underground sewer, seemed much too easy to begin with: Leading back to the game involving shots of real players highlighted by Brazilian star Pelé (an impressive back-flip goal-kick is repeated three times in slow motion), whose exploitative "special guest" appearance made more sense to audiences than was logical to the storyline...The iconic athlete's casting trumped even the A-list Stallone, who, with help from the always-capable Caine, turns in an above par performance, shining brighter than his usual action fare and yet, like other Sly flicks, you'll suspend the same amount of testosterone-pumping disbelief backed by another ecstatic (though hardly as catchy) Bill Conti score.

ESCAPE TO VICTORYThis film was recommended to me by my parents. My Dad is a fan of this movie... and I can see why. It is a good film.I am not a football fan at all, but I did really enjoy this film.It is about a group of people being held captive by the Germans during World War II. They start to play football whilst being held, and the German soldiers challenge them to a game. The game becomes a big thing and ends up being played in Paris. The whole time they are arranging this game, the inmates are arranging to escape during the half time break.The film stars a young Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine. I am a fan of both of there guys. They are both legendary actors. This is neither of their best film... they have both made better movies. But this is still very good. The legendary footballer, Pele, also stars. Pele makes a great shot in the final match. :)The story is a typical war escape movie. It's not as good as the classic Great Escape, but still is similar in ways.The acting is not bad. There are some bits that were not brilliant, but you hardly noticed it really.There were a few bits that I thought were just a little too unrealistic. For instance, a German soldier sees one of the prisoners escaping, and he just smiled and sat down. Hmmmm... not overly likely.I will give this film 7 out of 10.Very entertaining, but not really realistic. :)For more reviews, please like my Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ordinary-Person-Movie- Reviews/456572047728204?ref=hl