Spam alot... and Victory

Who ever the wanker is who spamed my posts: piss off, as Michael Caine once said...

Watched Victory (1981) last night. Great film, with some excellent soccer shots, and a nice context for the thesis. The prisoners go up against the German National team during WWII, subversively trying beat the hegemon at its own game. They travel to the Stade Colombes in Paris (the venue for the 1938 World Cup final.

The prisoners include real players like Booby Moore and Pele. The plan is for the Resistance to spring them out the dressing room at half time. Everything is going according to plan, and the Germans are winning 3:1 at the half. But the players are so convinced they can win that they go back out and play the second half. As Pele said to Stallone in the escape tunnel: "this game means everything to us. You know that." In the end .... well that would give it away. You should watch it.

Anyway, I thought this quote would be relevant to the thesis. It is from an exchange between John Colby (Michael Caine) and Karl von Steiner (Max von Sydow):

VS: If nations could settle there differences on the football pitch. Wouldn't that be a challenge! How would you like to play a game against a team from the Wermacht? A team from the Army Base near by?

C: What for? Settle the War?

VS: Unfortunatly not. Lets say, for morale?

C: Yours or ours?

VS: For both. Life in this place must be very boring.