The U.S. national soccer team just lost the Gold Cup to longtime rival Mexico, 4-2, and the Women’s World Cup is underway in Germany. Since we covered the finest of baseball on film earlier, it’s only fair that we highlight some of the best of soccer – that’s “football” outside of America and to the purists – on the silver screen, from ornery soccer stars to inspirational messages to the guy from Back to School.
The Damned United
The King’s Speech director Tom Hooper helmed this 2009 drama, starring Michael Sheen as controversial Leeds United coach Brian Clough in this story of one of the most successful soccer franchises in English history. Clough overcomes the shadow of his rivals and his hostile new players in this fascinating look at how brutal the world of professional soccer can be, both on the field and off.
Shaolin Soccer
A great big cartoon of a movie, this unique 2001 comedy masterminded by Kung Fu Hustle’s Stephen Chow follows six shaolin monks as they apply their extraordinary kung fu skills to the game of soccer. Having more in common with “Looney Tunes” than either Buddhism or martial arts, Shaolin Soccer is nonetheless a madcap antidote to more conventional or maudlin soccer movies, and has 100 percent more flaming soccer balls and dance numbers than The Damned United.
Gracie
Director Davis Guggenheim’s 2007 drama is in some ways a fairly standard underdog story, as the title character, Gracie Bowen (Carly Schroeder), overcomes personal grief over the death of her brother to take his place as the only girl on their school’s soccer team. Part coming-of-age tale, part redemption story, Gracie tells a familiar story in an effective, winning way.
Bend It Like Beckham
For many the quintessential sports-empowerment movie, 2002’s Bend It Like Beckham stars Parminder Nagra as Jess, the English daughter of strict Punjabi Sikhs. Drawn to playing soccer despite its strict forbiddance by her family, Jess is recruited by Jules (Keira Knightley, in her breakthrough role) to fill a spot on her local soccer team. Keeping it secret from her family, Jess becomes a team star and, in the face of her withering friendship with Jules and a growing crush on her coach (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), learns to become her own person.
Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas)
While admittedly not a “soccer movie” per se, the French war drama Joyeux Noel is too fine a film not to include here. Based on true accounts of the 1914 “Christmas truces” that were reported in the trenches during World War I, a game of soccer between French, German, and English forces unites foes on the battlefield as they briefly stop being soldiers and simply be people for one Christmas Day. Though a small part of the movie, the scene illustrates both the worldwide appeal of soccer and the unifying effect it can have even on even the most bitter of enemies.
Honorable Mention: Ladybugs
No one will argue that 1992’s Ladybugs is any good, any good at all, but any movie that stars Rodney Dangerfield, Jackee Harry, and Jonathan Brandis as the cross-dressing star of a girl’s soccer team bears mention here. There’s any number of innocuous kid-centric movies that could have filled the five slots on this list – The Big Green, Kicking and Screaming, the excellently-titled Air Bud: World Pup – but no: I’ve decided to single out Rodney Dangerfield and the star of “227.”
