The Game of Their Lives

Plot

The film is based on the true story of the 1950 U.S. soccer team which, against all odds, beat England 1–0 in the city of Belo Horizonte during the 1950 FIFA 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.

Cast

Gerard Butler as Frank Borghi, from St. Louis

Wes Bentley as Walter Bahr, from Philadelphia

Jay Rodan as Frank Wallace, from St. Louis

Gavin Rossdale as Stanley Mortensen, on English team

Costas Mandylor as Charlie Colombo, from St. Louis

Louis Mandylor as Gino Pariani, from St. Louis

Zachery Ty Bryan as Harry Keough, from St. Louis

Jimmy Jean-Louis as Joe Gaetjens, from Haiti

Richard Jenik as Joe Maca

Nelson Vargas as John Souza

Nino Da Silva as Eddie Souza

John Harkes as Ed McIlvenny

Bill Smitrovich as Admiral Higgins

Terry Kinney as Dent McSkimming

Patrick Stewart as older Dent McSkimming

John Rhys-Davies as Bill Jeffrey

Tim Vickery as BBC announcer

Production

In September 1996, Douglas' book was published. In November 1996, the film rights to it were purchased by producer Peter Newman. Newman was unable to secure financing for production, however, and finally sold the rights to Philip Anschutz, one of the founders of Major League Soccer. Anschutz wanted to generate interest in the fledgling soccer league, and hired Pizzo to write the screenplay and Anspaugh to direct.

Anspaugh was initially hesitant, thinking that the success of his previous sports films (Hoosiers and Rudy) would be difficult to top and that a film about soccer would not be warmly received in the U.S. Coincidentally, the same day that Anspaugh was approached about the film, Pizzo was discussing the 1950 match with Indiana Hoosiers men's soccer coach Jerry Yeagley.

Casting began in September 2002. The actors were chosen mostly for their soccer skills. Scotsman Gerard Butler, for example, grew up playing the game, although he portrayed a goalkeeper in the film. Wes Bentley was the only major exception. American international soccer player Eric Wynalda served as a technical consultant, and another American player, John Harkes, appeared in the film.

The film only had an initial budget of $13 million, which meant that they were unable to film many scenes about the players' back-stories. Principal photography took place in St. Louis, Missouri, and several of the surviving members of the U.S. 1950 World Cup frequently visited the set. Gino Pariani's son appeared in a bit role.

Release

Theatrical run

The film was distributed by IFC Films and was released on April 22, 2005. It only grossed $388,998 worldwide, with nearly 97% of that coming from the U.S.

Reception

The Game of Their Lives received mostly negative reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 26% based on reviews from 35 critics, and reports an average rating of 4.6 out of 10. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 47% based on 13 reviews.

Roger Ebert awarded the film one-and-a-half out of four stars and said, "This is a sluggish and dutiful film that plays more like a eulogy than an adventure."

Historical inaccuracies

The film strongly implies that the St. Louis players and East Coast players first came together during a trial game portrayed in film. However several of the players had previously represented the United States at the 1949 NAFC Championship, a tournament which had acted as a 1950 FIFA World Cup qualifier. This tournament is never mentioned in film.

The game played against England was actually the second match that the U.S. had played in the 1950 World Cup. They had been defeated 3–1 four days earlier by Spain.

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

Joe Gaetjens was of mixed German-Haitian descent and had a lighter skin complexion than the actor portraying him. He also did not practice voodoo, but like most Haitians, he was Catholic.

It was actually Stanley Matthews, not Stanley Mortensen who was part of the team that was traveling through North America prior to the World Cup. However, he did not play in the game against the U.S. in New York because of injury. Furthermore, the touring team won with a score of 1–0; it was not a rout as depicted in the film. Also in the after-dinner speech Mortensen is congratulated on his feat of scoring three goals in the FA Cup final, a feat that he accomplished in 1953.