Victory (1981) Online

Cast overview, first billed only:
	Sylvester Stallone	-	Captain Robert Hatch - The Players: U.S.A.
	Michael Caine	-	Capt. John Colby - The Players: England
	Pelé	-	Cpl. Luis Fernandez - Allied Soccer Player - The Players: Brazil
	Bobby Moore	-	Terry Brady - Allied Soccer Player - The Players: England
	Osvaldo Ardiles	-	Carlos Rey - Allied Soccer Player - The Players: Argentina
	Paul Van Himst	-	Michel Fileu - The Players: Belgium
	Kazimierz Deyna	-	Paul Wolchek - The Players: Poland
	Hallvar Thoresen	-	Gunnar Hilsson - The Players: Norway
	Mike Summerbee	-	Sid Harmor - Allied Soccer Player - The Players: England
	Co Prins	-	Pieter Van Beck - The Players: Holland
	Russell Osman	-	Doug Clure - The Players: England
	John Wark	-	Arthur Hayes - The Players: Scotland
	Søren Lindsted	-	Erik Ball - Allied Soccer Player - The Players: Denmark (as Soren Linsted)
	Kevin O'Callaghan	-	Tony Lewis - Allied Goalkeeper - The Players: Ireland (as Kevin O'Calloghan)
	Max von Sydow	-	Major Karl Von Steiner - The Germans (as Max Von Sydow)

The movie was inspired by an actual series of games in Kiev, during the German occupation of the city. Several members of Dynamo Kiev, the top soccer team in Ukraine, found work in a bakery. There they formed a soccer team with other bakery employees. They began playing in a new league against teams supported by the Ukranian puppet government and German military. After they beat a team from a local German Air Force base, the league was disbanded, and several of the team members were arrested by the Gestapo, and four were executed.

Sylvester Stallone started soccer training on weekends off during filming of his previous picture Nighthawks (1981). Stallone received training from England's World Cup winning goalkeeper, Gordon Banks. Initially, Stallone paid little attention to Banks's advice as he didn't think the training was necessary, and recklessly threw himself around on the first day of filming the match. Eventually, he hit the ground so hard that he dislocated a shoulder and broke one of his ribs, putting him out of action for several days. When he returned, Stallone paid much more attention to what Banks was telling him, but still sustained several minor injuries over the course of filming, including another broken rib. After production was finished, Stallone commented that the experience had been harder than fighting in the Rocky movies.

Reportedly, Sylvester Stallone insisted that his character score the game-winning goal in the film, as he felt he was the biggest star in the film. The non-American crew was finally able to convince him of the absurdity of the goalkeeper scoring the winning goal, and the penalty shot was specifically written to placate his ego.

The MTK Stadium in Budapest, Hungary was used to play the Stade Colombes (Coombes Stadium) in Paris, France, where the movie's climactic football match takes place. The producers had had difficulty finding a large stadium without floodlights, as floodlights at football stadiums were largely unknown until well after World War II. The MTK stadium, now known as the Hidegkuti Nándor Stadium, was the biggest one without lights (but at the same time structurally similar to Continental stadiums that were around during World War II) that they could find. The stadium today is the home of the MTK Hungária Football Club.

Apart from acting in the movie, Pelé also assisted in choreographing all the playing actions in the climactic game.

Osvaldo Ardiles said of the 47-year-old Michael Caine and his soccer skills, "Awful, and he couldn't even run twenty yards."

Sylvester Stallone broke one of his fingers trying to stop Pelé from scoring a goal.

Kevin O'Callaghan, who played the young goalkeeper who has his arm broken in the film, never played in goal professionally. Instead he enjoyed a successful career as a winger with Millwall, Ipswich Town, Portsmouth and the Republic of Ireland.

A three acre prison set was built in the grounds of the Allag Riding Stables on the outskirts of Budapest, Hungary. The POW set took three months to construct.

Sylvester Stallone lost about forty pounds for the film because he didn't want a prisoner of war to look like an "Olympic boxer", and he felt he needed that weight reduction to perform the tasks of a soccer goalie.

During the climactic soccer match, when the commentator says that there is fifteen minutes left in the game, there is exactly fifteen minutes and five seconds left until the end of the end credits.

The movie was originally slated to star Lloyd Bridges and Clint Eastwood. French actor Alain Delon was also touted to appear.

Other than Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine, the rest of the allied players (that play in the game) are actual soccer stars from various countries around the world, mostly from the 1970s and 80s. Some of them perform the "tricks" that they were famous for, such as Pelé with a bicycle kick.

The original draft of the script was a serious drama, based on the true story of a group of allied POWs challenged to a football match by the Germans. The deal was that if the Germans won the match, the POWs would be set free in Switzerland. However if the POWs won, they would be shot. The POWs decided to go for 'victory', won the match and were consequently executed.

Kevin Beattie stood in as an action double for Michael Caine during the football scenes, while Paul Cooper did the same for Sylvester Stallone.

Sylvester Stallone nixed the idea of using a professional player as a double for the game sequences. As a result, he separated his shoulder and broke a finger.

Several soccer players from the Ipswich Town Football Club featured in this movie. These included Kevin Beattie; Paul Cooper; Kevin O'Callaghan; Russell Osman; Laurie Sivell; Robin Turner, and John Wark.

In the scene where the Germans discover Hatch's escape, the German guard reporting speaks Hungarian instead of German. Most likely, the actor was a Hungarian extra. He says "jelentem, a létszám 93 fo", which roughly translates as "(I report) 93 persons are present". Also, one of the French Resistance men speaks English (to Hatch) with noticeable Hungarian accent.

This movie featured eighteen international professional football players of the time appearing in both acting and sports action stunt roles. Soccer stars who have key roles in this movie included Brazilian Pelé as Allied Trinidadian Corporal Luis Fernandez; England's Bobby Moore as the Allies' English Terry Brady; Argentina's Osvaldo Ardiles as Allied Argentine Carlos Rey; Scotland's John Wark as Scottish Arthur Hayes; Ireland's Kevin O'Callaghan as the Allied Irish goalkeeper Tony Lewis; Poland's Kazimierz Deyna as Polish player Paul Wolchek; Norway's Hallvar Thoresen as Norwegian player Gunnar Hilsson; Belgium's Paul Van Himst as Belgian Michel Fileu; Denmark's Søren Lindsted as Danish Allie Erik Ball; U.S.'s Werner Roth as German Team Captain Baumann; England's Mike Summerbee as Allied Soccer Player Sid Harmor; England's Russell Osman as Doug Clure; Holland's Co Prins as Dutch Pieter Van Beck, while England's Laurie Sivell played the German goalkeeper Schmidt.

John Wark had his Scottish accent dubbed to an English one.

This movie is both known as "Victory" and "Escape to Victory" in various territories, though its original English title is "Victory". In some territories, it was released under one of these titles in theaters and and then the other title for videocassette release.

One of the footballers, Mike Summerbee, became friendly with Michael Caine. After retiring from football, Summerbee went into bespoke shirt-making. Caine is one of his favored customers.

At the playing of the German National Anthem, the assorted German officers stand and salute. S.S. officers in black uniforms (apart from one or two) give the Nazi salute, and Luftwaffe officers in grey give the standard military salute (hand to headgear with palm down). This is correct, so long as the events took place prior to July 1944, when the Nazi salute was imposed across the whole Wehrmacht.

When questioned by news reporters in 2014, Ossie Ardiles said that his greatest ever sporting moment was playing in 'Victory', despite Ardiles being a World Cup winner with Argentina in 1978, and having other major honors throughout his football career.

Upon theatrical release, this movie was described as a cross between The Great Escape (1963) and The Longest Yard (1974), and alternatively, also as a cross between The Great Escape (1963) and Rocky (1976).

This movie is similar in storyline to two earlier European films made around 1962. Firstly, it is similar to the Hungarian black-and-white film Two half-times in Hell (a.k.a. Két félidö a pokolban (1961)). Winner of the Critics' Award at the 1962 Boston Cinema Festival, this movie told of a soccer match between Allied POWs and German soldiers and held on Adolf Hitler's birthday. Victory (1981) is also similar in storyline to the earlier Russian film, Tretiy taym (1963).

Michael Caine played the main character in the original Tapke Carter (1971). Sylvester Stallone played the main character in the remake Get Carter (2000), with Michael Caine appearing in a supporting role.

Roger Moore considered accepting the Michael Caine role of Captain John Colby.

This movie featured eighteen international soccer stars of the time, appearing in both acting, and sports action stunt roles.

Many of the actors, seen in this movie, had to learn how to play soccer, while many of the soccer players, seen in this movie, had to learn how to act.

One of this movie's main posters shows the left and right red sleeve arms of Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone respectively pushed-upwards stretching from their red soccer guernseys and symbolic of a goal victory, forming a V-shape signifying the V of the word Victory, this being the movie's title.

Actress Carole Laure received an 'introducing' credit despite the fact she had appeared in numerous French language films.

The movie was scored by Bill Conti who had composed the Oscar nominated music score for Sylvester Stallone's Rocky (1976). Victory (1981) is one of around ten collaborations of the pair and one of just a handful of non-Rocky franchise films scored by Conti and starring Stallone with the others being F.I.S.T (1978), Lock Up (1989), and Paradiisiallee (1978).

A location scout covering seven countries was conducted to find the appropriate sports stadium which would reflect a 1940s Europe in Paris, France.

Paris' Colombe Stadium in France was portrayed by Budapest's MTK Stadium in Hungary. The actual stadium could not be used as its exteriors were surrounded by post-World War II modern buildings. Overall, it was considered that Paris was too modern to film there. Since the Second World War, Budapest had emphasized reconstruction rather than modernizing. The MTK Stadium in Budapest compared closely to the Colombe Stadium in Paris. Emperor Franz Joseph I of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire had previously commissioned state architects there to make Budapest the "Paris of the East" of Europe.

German actor Anton Diffring was dubbed.

This was the only acting role for the vast majority of the football players who starred in the film.

This movie is both known as "Victory" and "Escape to Victory" in various territories, though its original English title is "Victory". In some territories, it was released under one of these titles in theaters, and and then the other title for videocassette release.

Kevin Beattie stood-in as an action double for Michael Caine during the football scenes, while Paul Cooper did the same for Sylvester Stallone.

For all of the soccer players who had acting parts in this movie, this picture has been their only ever theatrical film acting role.

Director John Huston and star Michael Caine had previously collaborated on Valge kuningas (1975) around six years earlier.

First prison movie of actor Sylvester Stallone who played one of the allied prisoners of war. Stallone would star in such later prison movies as Lock Up (1989) and Põgenemisplaan (2013).

Fourth sports movie of actor Sylvester Stallone after Rocky (1976), Paradiisiallee (1978), and Rocky II (1979).

Sylvester Stallone wanted to be the one to score the winning goal, but was persuaded by soccer-supporting cast and crew that a goalkeeper scoring would be absurd. In the years since the film was made, Stallone has proved to be more right than the soccer experts. In the modern game, when there's nothing to lose, a goalkeeper will sometimes abandon his goal and go forward for a last minute set-piece such as a corner, adding to his team's numbers in the area near the goal. This tactic has occasionally succeeded. Manchester United's iconic goalie Peter Schmeichel scored such a goal in 1997.

Sylvester Stallone and Max von Sydow also starred together in "Judge Dredd" (1995).

A great majority of the soccer players had not acted prior to this film.

In an early scene, when the allied officers are playing cards and chatting, Tim Pigott-Smith's character jokingly says "Elementary, my dear Shurlock" to Shurlock, Julian Curry's character. Three allied officers in that scene did indeed play in Sherlock Holmes productions: Julian Curry and Daniel Massey played in back-to-back episodes of The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1991), and Michael Caine played the great detective himself, in the comedy-adventure production Without a Clue (1988). He also did voiceover work in Sherlock Gnomes (2018).

Shot over a period of five weeks.

Screenwriter Yabo Yablonsky hated the revisions made to his script and was so horrified when he saw the finished film that he even briefly considered taking his own life.

Michael Caine has admitted that the only reason he agreed to make the film was the opportunity to work alongside footballing legend, Pelé.

Sylvester Stallone antagonized his fellow cast and crew members by refusing to eat with them and disappearing off to London or Paris every weekend on a private jet.