Although on the face of it this film seems like like just another football movie with some heroic story of an underdog winning against all odds this film is far from that. Sure there are many of the similar things you might see in one of those cheesy sports films, but with this there is a reality and a depth to the story that you would not see in fictional depictions of football.
The film begins by harking back to the famous event in 2001 where the American Samoa team lost 31-0 the biggest loosing margin in an international match. This is the incident that drives the whole team to do better not least the one man who was present in the team on that day Nicky Salapu (the goalkeeper).
I really like the way this film was made there was a mixture of set up interviews combined with actuality footage of the practices and matches. This all lead to an enthralling piece of documentary filmmaking which really tugged at the heart strings for me. When they won there first match (the first win in their history) I really felt like this film had got to me, because I knew about the pain they had to go through after losing so many times and especially against Australia.
I have to say in the end I really treated it more like a fictional movie than a real documentary as its such a great story to be told that you would think this would be something out of a Hollywood movie script. A film all about the strength of the human character as well as the power of one little nations heart.
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| Goalkeeper Nicky, who had to toil through the biggest loss in International football history |
Better analysis here, but you need to take your time over the way the story was told and shot - the narrative, as you have made clear, made it feel more like a drama - how did they achieve this? Great variety of content evidenced in your blog showing you are exploring the genre.
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