Well Watched, well watched. Three films for Anna Walsh, Gerry Donaldson and Steve Graves to get their teeth stuck into. Three quite different propositions and three quite different eras.
Firstly there is Once In A Lifetime – The Story Of The New York Cosmos. It is a gossipy affair, full of tackiness froth, but a whole host of fun. Everything from Pele to Shep Messing’s lad gets a run out in this one.
Secondly there is the German film The Miracle Of Bern, released in 2003 but about West Germany’s 1954 World Cup win and what it meant for the newly constructed nation in the post war era. There is a bit of playing fast and loose with the truth but it is essentially two films in one, never entirely reconciled.
Lastly, Gerry, Anna and Steve have their say on The Arsenal Stadium Mystery from 1939, hats and all. It is one of the first murder mysteries to be filmed and includes the Arsenal playing squad of the period.
All worth keeping an eye. Well watched. Hopefully well enough.
Enjoyable show, as ever. Without wishing to sound like on of the Classics professors on Down the Line, I do, however, feel compelled to offer a number of correctives:
The Miracle of Berne sounds to me as though it feeds into a dangerous revisionism in contemporary Germany that (rightly) laments the treatment of German soldiers in Soviet Russia and German civilians in Hamburg and Dresden without reference to the treatment of Russian and Eastern European civilians that prompted said retailatory acts. Thus Steve’s relativism is misplaced: the comparison is between the acts of German soldiers in Russia and their subsequent punishment. He’s quite right, however, to raise the vexed question of memory in contemporary Germany as Germany has done more than any other society to engage in memory work. We British could learn a thing or two from that.
Secondly, but related, Gerry’s right to point out that there was a failure to come to terms with memories of the past in 1954. That comes much later and is largely a result of pressure from the children of those who fought in the war. It is what the German student movement of 1968 is largely about.
As for the Pele’s boring meme, well that’s just balls. He was considered the greatest player to have graced a football pitch when I was younger and still is by many. To comprehend his greatness, remember that until Maradonna, his position as the greatest player ever was unquestioned.