Speaker 1: Quest.
Speaker 2: Yeah, welcome friends to the Christian o'connells Show podcast.
Speaker 3: Let's get into this week's Letter of the eighties.
Speaker 4: Today's letter is Bletter Christian O'Connell's The eight Jack.
Speaker 3: Post a millennial, not a child of the eighties, So
Speaker 3: each week I've been giving him a movie to do
Speaker 3: with the letter of the week. This week, what a movie,
Speaker 3: What a tree for Jackie Boy. It was from nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty one Escape to Victory known in America's Victory. They
Speaker 3: dropped the Escape to set in the Second World War Germany.
Speaker 3: The Nazis want to play the prisoners of war and
Speaker 3: in the Prison of War camp is a kind of
Speaker 3: who's who of international football. There happens to be Michael Kay,
Speaker 3: Sylvester Salone. We'll get into that in a minute, Okay.
Speaker 3: Bobby Moore, Sir Bobby Moore, who was the captain of
Speaker 3: the England football team that won the World Cup the
Speaker 3: only time, probably the only time we will ever win
Speaker 3: the World Up in nineteen sixty six, a hero and
Speaker 3: the world's greatest player, one of the megastars in Sportland
Speaker 3: at the time.
Speaker 1: Heele as well. It's like a who's who, it's.
Speaker 4: A great idea and you never really seen it again.
Speaker 4: Let's get all these international superstars of sport.
Speaker 1: To act in said it in the Second World War.
Speaker 3: Play a game against Hollywood's favorite baddies.
Speaker 1: Of all time, the Nazis. What's at stake freedom?
Speaker 3: Not only is it a football match, they also have
Speaker 3: a plan to escape from the Germans.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot going on. Just listen to the trailer.
Speaker 3: Is this gets me excited when my dad took me
Speaker 3: to see this in nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 2: In nineteen forty two, and just.
Speaker 1: This the music as well bursts on the scene.
Speaker 2: In nineteen forty two, the Nazis thought they were sitting
Speaker 2: on top of the world, never suspecting that they could
Speaker 2: be toppled in one conflict.
Speaker 1: In an unusual battle of the.
Speaker 2: War, it has been decided that a German national team
Speaker 2: will play a combined team from the prisoners of war
Speaker 2: or the occupied territories. That's crazy, a stacked game, the
Speaker 2: third Reich's finest against a ragged bunch of prisoners of war.
Speaker 2: The Germans thought they hadn't made They couldn't.
Speaker 3: Run about for ninety minutes. They'll be checking their guts up.
Speaker 2: Victory starring Sylvester Stallone, Michael Keye, Max Vancido and introducing Pele.
Speaker 2: Would you like to play football against the Germans?
Speaker 1: Why not? What? What a trainer? What a trailer? Also?
Speaker 1: What a team playing for?
Speaker 3: As the Baddies, they should have been called Baddie FC,
Speaker 3: Third Reich's Finest?
Speaker 1: Who are you playing for? The moment? I'm playing for
Speaker 1: Third Reich FC? Face him up front, face him at
Speaker 1: the back. Terrifying manager.
Speaker 3: You don't want to get in the big boss upstairs angry,
Speaker 3: trust me, you think he's angry all the time.
Speaker 1: When you lose. This guy really starts with the old Snarlian.
Speaker 4: My main takeaway from the film was they could have
Speaker 4: made the Nazis way more.
Speaker 1: Anything the friendliest as to them. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know it.
Speaker 3: It's an American movie, so it's a very American version
Speaker 3: of what life must have been like in a Second
Speaker 3: World War prisoner of war camp. The senior British officers
Speaker 3: that they've captured are allowed their own very luxurious offices
Speaker 3: where they have filing cabinets. There's a gardener, there's a
Speaker 3: there's a man on his sneeze at one point doing
Speaker 3: a herb garden there's an officer wandering around smoking a pipe,
Speaker 3: so was there a tuck shop there? Where was he
Speaker 3: getting the tobacco from? It's an incredible movie, this genuine
Speaker 3: Did you enjoy it?
Speaker 4: I loved it, honestly loved it. The sports aspect. If
Speaker 4: you if you love a good sports film, go and
Speaker 4: watch it. If you want a gritty World War two
Speaker 4: like what was.
Speaker 1: It really like?
Speaker 4: Don't watch as the war, don't watch this because the
Speaker 4: English for the most part, had their feed up on
Speaker 4: the tables, were whistling around the prisoner yard. They were
Speaker 4: having a great.
Speaker 3: Running, running four leagues, running a four league football division,
Speaker 3: which is so much work. There's the in the first
Speaker 3: sort of six minutes of the movie. Sylvester Stallone isn't
Speaker 3: needed in this movie?
Speaker 4: Well, I loved him.
Speaker 3: How can you love his character as a midgic goalkeeper
Speaker 3: when the first time you see him in the goals
Speaker 3: it looks like a kid's having a knock around. He's tiny,
Speaker 3: He's the smallest man in the whole movie, and he's
Speaker 3: in net.
Speaker 1: He's the goalkeeper.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but he needs to be there because he's like.
Speaker 3: You watching a footy movie and the Americans having as
Speaker 3: Max Gorn a ruckman, are very Tom Cruise playing Max Gorn.
Speaker 4: That's what made it so because it makes the English
Speaker 4: a worse team because they've got this American guy in
Speaker 4: goals and he's never played soccer before. He doesn't even
Speaker 4: know where to stand when they get a corner kick.
Speaker 4: But does he save the day? We'll find out if
Speaker 4: you watch the film.
Speaker 3: Apparently stallone right, because he'd just come off the back
Speaker 3: of Rocky too, so he's a really big start. Was
Speaker 3: a nightmare on set.
Speaker 1: He insisted that they change the script and he's score
Speaker 1: a goal, and.
Speaker 3: All the actual footballers like goalie, Yeah, like Pele went.
Speaker 1: You're a goalie.
Speaker 3: Even the world's greatest goalie, which are not because you're tiny,
Speaker 3: wouldn't get a goal against the Germans. There's some of
Speaker 3: the best players ever in the world. Goalkeepers don't go
Speaker 3: up front and score the winning goal. So they had
Speaker 3: to that's what he saves, and that the penalty at
Speaker 3: the end. They had to give him that.
Speaker 4: They gave him the hero moment. But it would have
Speaker 4: been great if he saved it and then dribbled across
Speaker 4: eleven players and scored a goals.
Speaker 3: There a single line here sort of Stallone's first line
Speaker 3: in the first five minutes.
Speaker 2: Lisia can have my board back, one of.
Speaker 3: The greatest lines ever, and he says to the German
Speaker 3: visiting their prison of.
Speaker 2: War camp, Lisa can have my boar back.
Speaker 1: What did you make of Michael Kaine?
Speaker 4: Liked him and I traditionally don't like Michael Kane because
Speaker 4: I told you about that interview I saw where he
Speaker 4: was obnoxious.
Speaker 1: He's a great actor in this.
Speaker 4: I loved Colby.
Speaker 3: This is Michael Caine meeting the German commander for the
Speaker 3: first time, where they sort of they're sort of testing
Speaker 3: each other out.
Speaker 1: You are the spotsvior double meaning of the word feurer. There,
Speaker 1: you are the sports viewer. You are the spotvich. I'm Colby.
Speaker 2: Colby was very familiar. It's a common name.
Speaker 1: Very enthusiastic, No.
Speaker 4: Bloody good, but very enthusiastic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you play Mattress. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: We have a league, four divisions for division.
Speaker 2: We even't played internationals internationals England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales.
Speaker 1: You call that international would be international.
Speaker 2: If you played against Germany, we'd murder you.
Speaker 1: The most.
Speaker 3: He's a prisoner of war in the ugliest war, you know,
Speaker 3: millions have been killed and they're lying to each other. Oh,
Speaker 3: don't get me started on that Colby and then this
Speaker 3: German okay, who works for the Nazi Party.
Speaker 2: Colby John Colby, Western and England.
Speaker 1: There's no Wikipedia.
Speaker 3: He's suddenly recognizing that he's such a mega football fan.
Speaker 1: Will come back then to Escape the Victory? To do
Speaker 1: with the letter V of the eighties The Christian O'Connell
Speaker 1: show podcast.
Speaker 3: Jack's Honework wants to watch nineteen eighty one eighties movie
Speaker 3: to a Letter V Escape to Victory, set in the
Speaker 3: Second World War.
Speaker 1: Who's Who Are Football?
Speaker 3: Pelais also starring Michael Kaine Sylvester Stallone. It's a great movie.
Speaker 3: If you're looking for someone to watch this weekend, it
Speaker 3: will make you smile. It's enough of a good movie
Speaker 3: where you want to see how it all plays out
Speaker 3: in the end. Twenty minutes of the actual football games
Speaker 3: done really well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you struck gold with this recommendation and I did
Speaker 4: love it. But can I give you my top three
Speaker 4: believable moments of the movie. Number one is so they're
Speaker 4: in a prisoner of war camp. The Nazis from every
Speaker 4: other war movie we've seen would totally get them in
Speaker 4: trouble for anything any wrongdoing. Sylvesti salone escapes the prisoner
Speaker 4: of war camp and comes back. He gets like a
Speaker 4: slap on the wrist, and the Germans are essentially going
Speaker 4: like you naughty boy.
Speaker 1: This guy.
Speaker 4: While he's away, the rest of the troop makes a
Speaker 4: Sylvester Stallone Latex dummy.
Speaker 1: Early Madam two sorts, which.
Speaker 4: They carry around and convince of the Germans that that's.
Speaker 3: Health were the Germans were they gonna go, that's a
Speaker 3: paper mache head.
Speaker 4: And then not only that, do they get away for
Speaker 4: days on end with this paper mache sylvesterter Lione that
Speaker 4: fools the Germans When they find out that it's a
Speaker 4: paper mache doll, you would think, all right, well, the
Speaker 4: whole team's dead. You're gonna get in big trouble for this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've read the history books. We know how this ended.
Speaker 4: You're gonna get in trouble. They do. They just laugh
Speaker 4: like it's a prank.
Speaker 2: Like this.
Speaker 1: All the time.
Speaker 3: You never know what they're up to be escaped. It's
Speaker 3: like a hidden camera show. Pranks galore in this camp
Speaker 3: Number two.
Speaker 4: These are two to do with the final game. Michael
Speaker 4: Caine obviously not a great footballer because.
Speaker 3: It's not a footballer, you know, it's all the cutaways.
Speaker 3: All he does is that you don't see him running.
Speaker 4: You never see him really play.
Speaker 3: For me, someone that actually played in the game. There's
Speaker 3: quite a few English footballers, not really well known ones
Speaker 3: that's still on there to to to make it look realistic.
Speaker 4: And they did. They made it look like a great,
Speaker 4: proper game.
Speaker 1: Plea.
Speaker 3: You've got amazing Argentinian soccer play. Used to play for
Speaker 3: Spurs as well, Ossie Ardeliz. There's loads of great players,
Speaker 3: Bobby Moore and they've got a couple of Michael Kaine right,
Speaker 3: had a problem apparently with his legs and so you
Speaker 3: don't see him running. Another English footballer, Kevin Beatty, Right,
Speaker 3: his legs were used for Michael Kain's legs.
Speaker 4: You never see Michael Kane do anything on the ground.
Speaker 4: They don't even.
Speaker 3: He's just pointing a lot. He doesn't move during the game.
Speaker 3: His legs are played by Kevin Beatty. What a great
Speaker 3: fact for the English rule Kevin Beatty that his legs
Speaker 3: were Michael Kaine's legs in the movie.
Speaker 4: And finally at halftime, the team the English team has
Speaker 4: a chance to escape the Germans because they're playing.
Speaker 3: And this is why they took the game, really was
Speaker 3: so they could escape.
Speaker 4: They had this big plan escape with the French.
Speaker 1: The French.
Speaker 4: French were going to tunnel into the stadium, into the
Speaker 4: locker rooms of the visiting team and they would all exit.
Speaker 4: They go into halftime for one down, and they're about
Speaker 4: to exit through this tunnel that some French guys have
Speaker 4: dug all night. And then as they're getting down into
Speaker 4: the or, one of the guys goes, wait, I think
Speaker 4: we can still win this, And then they ken looks
Speaker 4: around and sayes, do we think we can still win this? Yea,
Speaker 4: we do. So they give up their freedom, their prisoner's
Speaker 4: a war.
Speaker 3: They must know, they must know that only death will
Speaker 3: await them, and they decide to go back for the
Speaker 3: second half. And also I remember watching it the first times,
Speaker 3: are going why didn't they have this conversation already, like
Speaker 3: we are leaving, don't kimm it. I don't care whether
Speaker 3: it's a draw, it's.
Speaker 1: Four all, or we're only one behind.
Speaker 3: It's just football. Yeah, I don't want to die in
Speaker 3: a prisoner of war. I want to see my family. Actually,
Speaker 3: to know what now, Let's go on, come on, it's football,
Speaker 3: let's get back out there.
Speaker 1: It beat the Germans.
Speaker 4: It would look bad if we didn'tmanship.
Speaker 3: Actually looks rude to the Germans. They've hosted this, let's
Speaker 3: do that. Final mark s out of ten for Escape
Speaker 3: to Victory A great film, fantastic look.
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