The Game of Their Lives (2005 film)

The Game of Their Lives
Original poster
Directed by	David Anspaugh
Produced by	Howard Baldwin Karen Elise Baldwin Greg Johnson Peter Newman Ginger T. Perkins
Written by	Angelo Pizzo Based on the book by Geoffrey Douglas
Starring	Gerard Butler Wes Bentley Zachery Ty Bryan Jimmy Jean-Louis
Music by	William Ross
Cinematography	Johnny E. Jensen
Editing by	Ian Crafford Lee Grubin Bud S. Smith M. Scott Smith Jeff Williams
Distributed by	IFC Films
Release date(s)	April 22, 2005
Running time	101 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$20 million
Box office	$388,998 (Worldwide) [1]

The Game of Their Lives (released on DVD as The Miracle Match) is a 2005 American drama film directed by David Anspaugh. The screenplay by Angelo Pizzo is based on the book of the same title by Geoffrey Douglas.

Plot

The film details the true story of the 1950 US soccer team which, against all odds, beat England 1-0 in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil during the World Cup. The story is about the family traditions and passions that shaped the players who made up this team of underdogs. One group of teammates were from The Hill neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. Another group came from the Corky Row district of Fall River, Massachusetts.

Production

Among other historical inaccuracies in the film, Scotsman Ed McIlvenny (played by U.S. soccer player John Harkes) was edited out of the captaincy he held in the match against England. McIlvenny moved to the United States in 1948, but returned to Britain in 1950 and played professional soccer for Manchester United. McIlvenny captained the U.S. side to their 1-0 victory, but the producers of the film decided to give the position of captain to American-born Walter Bahr.

Walter Bahr commented, "I was captain for about 10 years including the 1950 World Cup. But when we got to Brazil the first game was against Spain and since my teammate Harry Keough spoke Spanish, they made him captain. Against England, our coach Bill Jeffrey, who was also Scottish-born, thought it would be a big feather in Eddie's cap to be captain. It was an honor for him and I think that was the proper thing to do. I was then captain for the last game against Chile and for years to come. Yet in the film I'm captain, and that's wrong. I know Eddie's widow lives in East Sussex, and it is important she should know that an error has been made and Eddie really was the captain against England."^[2]

McIlvenny's widow, Sheila, was reported as saying: "It's disappointing, but what do you expect from Hollywood?...It is not the true story, not at all. I think he [McIlvenny] would have accepted it, but I don't think he would have been happy with it because it wasn't the truth".^{[citation needed]}

Historical inaccuracies

• The film's narrator, Dent McSkimming, died in 1976, so he wouldn't have been able to be telling story in 2004 (if he had still been alive by that time, he would have been 108 years old).

• Though it is portrayed as if the St. Louis group (Frank Borghi, Charlie Colombo, Harry Keough, Gino Pariani and Frank Wallace) meets the other players for the first time during the national team try-outs in St. Louis in 1950, this was not the case. In fact, Charlie Colombo and Gino Pariani (and also a player from St. Louis that was omitted from the film, Robert Annis) had participated in the 1948 Olympics in London together with Walter Bahr and Ed & John Souza. Furthermore, Walter Bahr, Frank Borghi, Charlie Colombo, Harry Keough, John Souza and Frank Wallace were all part of the team that qualified for the 1950 World Cup by being runners-up in the 1949 NAFC Championship in Mexico.

• Joseph Maca had only arrived in the USA from Belgium a couple of years before and did not speak with an American accent yet.

• Joe Gaetjens was of mixed German-Haitian descent and had a lighter skin complexion than the actor portraying him. He also didn't practice voodoo, but, like most Haitians he was Catholic.^[3]

• It was actually Stanley Matthews, not Stanley Mortensen who was part of the team that was travelling through North America prior to the World Cup. However, he did not play in the game against the USA in New York because of injury.Also in the after dinner speech Mortensen is congratulated on his feat of scoring three goals in the FA Cup final, a feat he would'nt do for another three years !^[4]

• The match commentator talks about the US beating the British, an inaccuracy as it was the English team.
• Joe Gaetjens wasn't the only player not to have an American passport available, since Joseph Maca and Ed McIlvenny were Belgian and Scottish respectively. Maca did however obtain American nationality a few years later.^[4]

• The six other players who were part of the team that travelled to Brazil, but didn't play in the game against England, namely goalkeeper Gino Gardassanich, Robert Annis, Geoff Coombes, Robert Craddock, Nicholas DiOrio and Adam Wolanin, were omitted from the film.

• In fact the USA was listed in the odds for winning the tournament (they were listed as 500–1).^[5]

• The first game of the USA at the 1950 World Cup (four days prior to the England game, against Spain in Curitiba) is omitted from the film.

• The England-USA game wasn't attended by 30,000 spectators, but by a crowd of just over 10,000.^[6] Though this still was a much bigger crowd than the American players were used to, several of them (namely Bahr, Borghi, Colombo, Keough, John Souza and Wallace) had played in front of crowds up to 60,000 spectators during the 1949 NAFC Championship in Mexico, so this crowd wasn't the biggest they had ever played in front of.^[7]

• The reason Stanley Matthews didn't play in the England-USA game, wasn't because "he was taking a holiday in Rio", but because Walter Winterbottom, the English coach, didn't want to change the team that had won against Chile. Matthews was in fact present in the stadium in Belo Horizonte during the game.^[4]

• Scotsman Ed McIlvenny was edited out of the captaincy he held in the match against England, because the producers of the film decided to give the position of captain to American-born Walter Bahr.

• Frank Borghi is seen to be taking several goal kicks throughout the film, though he stated that never actually did this, as he always threw ball or let another player take the goal kick.^[8]

• In 1950, United States Soccer Federation was called the United States Soccer Football Association. It did not become the United States Soccer Federation until 1974.

Cast

• Gerard Butler ..... Frank Borghi (from St. Louis)
• Wes Bentley ..... Walter Bahr (from Philadelphia)
• Jay Rodan ..... Frank Wallace
• Gavin Rossdale ..... Stanley Mortensen (on visiting English team)
• Costas Mandylor ..... Charlie Colombo (from St. Louis)
• Louis Mandylor ..... Gino Pariani (from St. Louis)
• Zachery Ty Bryan ..... Harry Keough
• Jimmy Jean-Louis ..... Joe Gaetjens (from Haiti)
• Richard Jenik ...... Joe Maca
• Nelson Vargas ...... John Souza
• Nino Da Silva ...... Eddie Souza
• John Harkes ...... Ed McIlvenny
• Bill Smitrovich ..... Admiral Higgins
• Terry Kinney ..... Dent McSkimming
• Patrick Stewart ..... Older Dent McSkimming
• John Rhys-Davies ..... Bill Jeffrey

Further reading

• Douglas, Geoffrey (1996). The Game of Their Lives. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0-8050-3875-2. 

References

1. ^ The Game of Their Lives at BoxOfficeMojo.com
2. ^ Smith, David (21 April 2005). "The American dream". Evening Standard. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/sport/article-18072975-the-american-dream.do. Retrieved 2010-06-13. 
3. ^ Schaerlaeckens, Leander (February 26, 2010). "Chasing Gaetjens". ESPNsoccernet. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/story/_/id/4937012/ce/us/real-story-1950-world-cup-hero?cc=5901&ver=us. Retrieved 2010-06-10. 
4. ^ ^{a b c} "The Real Story About the 1950 U.S. World Cup Team". National Soccer Hall of Fame. http://national.soccerhall.org/Monthly%20Column/MC.May.2005.htm. Retrieved 2010-06-10. 
5. ^ Douglas, p. 5
6. ^ "USA v England". http://www.11v11.com/api/match/225857/teamID/10551/view/extended. Retrieved 2010-06-10. 
7. ^ "Mexico v USA". http://www.11v11.com/api/match/225726/teamID/10551/view/extended. Retrieved 2010-06-10. 
8. ^ Beauchesne, Jill. "Frank Borghi". Where Are They Now?. National Soccer Hall of Fame. http://national.soccerhall.org/RNO%20-%20WATN/FrankBorghi_WATN.htm. Retrieved 2010-06-20. 

External links

• Official website
• The Game of Their Lives at the Internet Movie Database