Film Reviews

Once In A Lifetime

• Rating:
• Director: Paul Crowder, John Dower.
• Starring: Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, Rodney Marsh, Giorgio Chinaglia.
• Details: US, 90mins, PG.

"Who's Pele?" When The New York Cosmos - the first North American football team founded by media millionaire Steve Ross - needed a big name to kick-start their team and ultimately the NASL (North American Soccer League), the former Brazilian great was touted but was met with a nonplussed response. Founded in 1971, Cosmos, and soccer, were non-entities in America but by 1980 the team boasted such footballing luminaries as Beckenbauer and Carlos Alberto. Playing first on artificial pitches before moving to a run-down stadium with more broken glass on the pitch than grass, it was only in 1977 when Pele, then 34 and reaching the end of his career, was approached with a still undisclosed amount of money (rumoured to be anywhere from $2,000,000 and $7,000,000) to join the team. Pele at first refused but when Henry Kissinger stepped in, telling him that it would be good for international relations between the two countries, that the deal was secured. Soon attendances of 400 soon rose to over 70,000 as Pele thrilled everyone with his jovial personality and majestic skills. Football began to take off and a small league of twelve teams was formed. However, Ross (who owned Warner Communications and Atari) decided he needed more than Pele and travelled to Italy to sign troubled Juventus striker Giorgio Chinaglia. Ross found in Chinaglia a kindred spirit in how he saw Cosmos, both as a football team and a business venture. Chinaglia handpicked his own coach and the team took the league by storm. As they reached the heady heights of the table with Chinaglia averaging a goal a game, the spoiled Italian's behaviour upset everyone in the club (including several dressing room bust-ups with Pele).With the great man retiring, Ross kept up the celebrity status by signing Beckenbauer and Alberto. But as The Cosmos sank beneath the weight of Chinaglia's ego and the cost of keeping together such an expensive team, it disintegrated in 1982. An unashamed, unabashed celebration of football, Once In A Lifetime is also a useful introduction to the beautiful game. Directors Crowder and Dower mix exciting, witty and often vicious talking heads with snippets of dream-like football that is a joy to behold. Anyone for a kick-about?

Review by Gavin Burke