I think most football films are rubbish because they try to show the game and its hard to reproduce the drama of an actual match.

So instead I nominate "big fan"

scottishcomedyfc.wordpress.com/2012/04/1...ball-film-ever-made/

It captures what its like to be a fan! Even though the film is about american football it could easily be about soccer rivalry.

It asks an interesting question - What would you do if your favorite player beat you up the night before the big derby match? Would you report it to the police and make him miss the game or would you keep quiet so he can play?

Slim pickings.

Does Gregory's Girl count as a football film? And I enjoyed The Damned United.

Big Fan is a great little film.

There's a smashing Portuguese film from the 50s called Leão da Estrela ('The Estrela Lion' - Estrela being a Lisbon bairro) starring the inimitable António Silva, who plays a sportinguista travelling to Porto to see Sporting take on FC Porto ... and then getting into all kinds of farcical predicaments.

Here he demonstrates how a goal would be scored by the cinco violinos (Sporting's formidable attack at the time).

There's only two choices for this. Escape To Victory and Shaolin Soccer.

Was Those Glory, Glory Days any good?

It certainly was when I was seventeen and besotted with English football.

I've got to say that, for kids films, "Goal" and "Goal 2" are very watchable with half-decent scripts and very high production values. "Goal 3" could only be made worse by having Jude Law and Scarlett Johnsson in

I assume that "When Saturday Comes" is absolute shite?

'The Arsenal Stadium Mystery'. Although, only bits about football.

I think that WSC should sue about the film with the same name.

Is Bend It Like Beckham any good? haven't sen it but hard it isn't that bad.

Murphy's Mob was brilliant.

Fictional only?

(has anyone seen In the hands of gods?)

Or, indeed, When Saturday Cums (SFW).

Another Sunday And Sweet FA wins this every time.

No mention of The Miracle of Berne? Its a really good film that happens to be about football.

Saw the thread title and was going to add Das Wunder Von Bern, but see 10^7 guests got there before me.

The football scenes are well done, probably because they used footballers as extras instead of actors.

The recreation of the World Cup final is very well done, especially the farcical mix-up in the German defence for the second Hungarian goal.

I second Escape To Victory <dons Ipswich away top>

It’s shit, but wonderfully so. I loved how Michael Cane was only ever filmed from the waist up. And then, of course, there this balletic passage of play at 28 secs.

It's OK. But it's not really about football. Put it this way - if Gregory's Girl doesn't count, then Bend It Like Beckham definitely doesn't.

The Exploding Vole wrote:


I was in the crowd the afternoon they filmed scenes for this at Portman Road. All I can remember is the crowd chanting "Who the f*cking hell are you?" at the actors.

That's going to need working up if it's ever going to be presented as an hilarious anecdote, isn't it.

I saw Bloomfeld (or Hero, to give it its US title) on a random Sky movie channel somne time in the mid-90s and it really stuck with me. Richard Harris as an Israeli football legend unsure whether to throw his last game for money.

See also Richard Harris in This Sporting Life, the best Rugby League film ever made.

erwin wrote:


Curious, I always think, that despite its significantly reduced position when put against football, Rugby League has provided the background for a much better film (the aforementioned 'This Sporting Life') and significantly superior fictional novels ('This Sporting Life' and Thomas Keneally's excellent 'A Family Madness') than anything football has produced.

Well, anything I've watched or read, anyway.