Escape To Victory (2019)

A submission for a forthcoming project 'You Goes To The Pictures' which should be published in the next 12/18 months


Escape To Victory

At some point around Easter 1981 I went with my parents off on holiday, or away for the weekend. This may have been the trip to the Geoff Hurst Soccer Skills Camp at Pontins in Prestatyn however I can’t be 100% sure…

The one thing I do remember is the copy of ‘Shoot’ Magazine I had that week included a feature on a film that had gone into production the previous summer with an ‘all star cast’ of Pele, Bobby Moore, Ozzy Ardiles and John Wark telling the story of a ‘friendly’ football team playing against the Germans at the hight of World War 2 along side some proper actors who had or would be in Doctor Who, and Michael Caine… and Sylvester Stallone

As well as being a Doctor Who fan I was also a huge football fan, regularly reading ‘Shoot' and ‘Roy of The Rovers’ alongside Doctor Who Monthly so this ‘boys own’ adventure film was right up my street, more importantly, it was something that would appeal to my Dad as well meaning I’d definitely get to see it (these were the days before video so missing it at the local cinema could mean missing it for a few years until it appeared on TV

During the Summer Holidays of 1981 the day arrived and off my Dad and I went in his trusty Robin Reliant to the ABC Cinema in Redditch (now a Wetherspoons) to watch the film I’d been waiting months for… My Dad was happy too, as not only did we get to see ‘Escape To Victory’ we also go to see ‘Chariots of Fire’ which it’d had been bundled into a double bill with (thus getting 2 movies for the price of 1)… something as an adult I’d not be adverse to

Now maybe I should appreciate the latter a little more, I’m told it’s a classic… but it’s a 124 minute film about 2 blokes racing against one another which in 1981 was stopping me from seeing the films I’d been longing to see

I wasn’t disappointed, 'Escape To Victory’ is a rollercoaster of a film. From the open scenes of a POW trying to escape and getting shot to the jubilient ending as the Allies are mobbed by the people of France and smuggled away to safety, I was transfixed for the duration of the film, quickly forgetting the previous 2 hours of tedium (apologies again  to 'Chariots of Fire’)

When we got a video player a few years later it was one of my first choices to rent. When it was ‘domestically’ released it was one of the first movies I bought, and when it received a Region 1 DVD Release (long before a Region 2) I managed to buy a copy and unlock my DVD Player to watch it

Whilst some of the acting maybe cheesy and the story a little exaggerated the film gives me a warm sense of nostalgia and time spent with my Dad all those years ago. Although in later years with college and work we spent less time together football was some thing that united us, as SeasonTickets for Manchester United we would regularly attend matches until his death in 2012

I am still a Season Ticket Holder at United, although success has waned over recent times, and on the occasions I take my son I often find myself recounting memories of what had gone before, as my Dad had done to me (and like he had done I tend to stop talking as a glazed look appears on my sons face)

It may not be a classic or in the same ‘league’ as The Godfather etc, but for me ‘Escape To Victory’ is a film I can watch over and over, so much so that for the last few years it’s become a ’tradition’ that my son and I watch the film on Fathers Day