Hero: The Official Film of the 1986 FIFA World Cup (1987)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Tony Maylam

Writer:

Tony Maylam (writer)

Release Date:

2 July 1987 (West Germany)

Genre:

Documentary | Sport

Plot:

The official documentary record of the 1986 soccer World Cup, highlighting the Captain of Argentina, Diego Maradona. |

Plot Keywords:

Soccer | Independent Film

Cast

Michael Caine	...	Narrator (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Viv Anderson	...	Himself
John Barnes	...	Himself
Peter Beardsley	...	Himself
Andreas Brehme	...	Himself
Terry Butcher	...	Himself
Emilio Butragueño	...	Himself
Kerry Dixon	...	Himself
Terry Fenwick	...	Himself
Paulo Futre	...	Himself
Andy Goram	...	Himself
Richard Gough	...	Himself
Mark Hateley	...	Himself
Glenn Hoddle	...	Himself
Lars Høgh	...	Himself
Eike Immel	...	Himself
Pat Jennings	...	Himself
Dariusz Kubicki	...	Himself
Michael Laudrup	...	Himself
Jim Leighton	...	Himself
Gary Lineker	...	Himself
Maurice Malpas	...	Himself
Diego Armando Maradona	...	Himself
Alvin Martin	...	Himself
Lothar Matthäus	...	Himself
Frank McAvennie	...	Himself
Alan McDonald	...	Himself
Alex McLeish	...	Himself
Bernard McNally	...	Himself
Jan Mølby	...	Himself (as Jan Molby)
Steve Nicol	...	Himself
Jean-Pierre Papin	...	Himself
Daniel Passarella	...	Himself
Michel Platini	...	Himself
Jimmy Quinn	...	Himself
Paul Ramsey	...	Himself
Peter Reid	...	Himself
Ahmed Rhadi	...	Himself
Oscar Ruggeri	...	Himself
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge	...	Himself
Julio Salinas	...	Himself
Hugo Sanchez	...	Himself
Kenny Sansom	...	Himself
Vincenzo Scifo	...	Himself
Graeme Sharp	...	Himself
Peter Shilton	...	Himself
Allan Simonsen	...	Himself
Socrates	...	Himself
Graeme Souness	...	Himself
Trevor Steven	...	Himself
Gordon Strachan	...	Himself
Jean Tigana	...	Himself
Franky Van Der Elst	...	Himself
Pietro Vierchowod	...	Himself
Rudi Völler	...	Himself
Chris Waddle	...	Himself
Norman Whiteside	...	Himself
Ray Wilkins	...	Himself
Nigel Worthington	...	Himself
Walter Zenga	...	Himself
Zico	...	Himself

Also Known As:

Hero (short title)

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:E | West Germany:6

Company:

Worldmark-Samuelson International Productions

Movie Connections:

Follows G'olé! (1982)

An account of the 13th FIFA World Cup

This movie is a must for all people that enjoy soccer as an art. What strikes first about this movie about a soccer world cup is the way it is filmed. Besides following the play like a TV broadcast, there is generous footage dedicated to follow individual players in the games. This brings forward the emotions and situations these men go through as they attempt to reach glory. Today's TV broadcasting style, so different than that of 1986, is still inferior in quality compared to this movie.

The players are not the only stars. The audience, the referees, the journalists covering the matches and the environment itself all play a central role in the development of what today is history. In this movie you can see how all these factors play together in a very explicit way. In that regard, today's TV broadcasting style has not yet reached this level of quality, although it is now much closer than before.

There are several highlighted players: Maradona (Argentina), Elkjaer and Laudrup (Denmark), Francescoli (Uruguay), Platini (France), Lineker (England), Rummenigge (Germany), Butrague#o (Spain), Socrates (Brazil), and Sanchez (Mexico).

This movie is not a collection of the best soccer moves of Mexico 1986, although most of them are well covered. Across all the movie, there is a stress for presenting several aspects of the game and the competition itself based on the progress of these players and teams, even at the cost of skipping relevant plays of the games themselves. This is what makes this movie so interesting and unique.

Because of what happened because of referees during Mexico 1986, much of the comments about this movie and world cup are extremely Maradona-biased. Much of these comments do not take into account that there is a referee and two linesmen, that they are as human as the players, and that all of the abovementioned make mistakes one way or the other. Soccer rules do not allow referees to use TV based replays to make decisions, so for the most part referees have to decide on what they perceive. As a consequence, referees play an active part in the development of a game. Their influence can be seen in several parts of this movie.

The sequel movie for the 1990 World Cup, compared to this one, is just a source of bitter disappointment. Much of it comes from the fact that it became too involved in the game, whereas this movie tells things from a more distant, unbiased point of view.