Pelé: Birth of a Legend

20162016
PGPG
1h 47min

7.2/10

Biography Drama Sport

Pele's meteoric rise from the slums of Sao Paulo to leading Brazil to its first World Cup victory at the age of 17 is chronicled in this biographical drama.Pele's meteoric rise from the slums of Sao Paulo to leading Brazil to its first World Cup victory at the age of 17 is chronicled in this biographical drama.Pele's meteoric rise from the slums of Sao Paulo to leading Brazil to its first World Cup victory at the age of 17 is chronicled in this biographical drama.

7.2/10

18K

Directors
- Jeff Zimbalist
- Michael Zimbalist
Writers
- Jeff Zimbalist
- Michael Zimbalist
Stars

Top credits

See production, box office & company info

See more at IMDbPro

Videos1

Trailer 2:22

Official Trailer

Milton Gonçalves and Leonardo Lima Carvalho in Pelé: Birth of a Legend (2016)

Leonardo Lima Carvalho in Pelé: Birth of a Legend (2016)

Robert De Niro and Pelé at an event for Pelé: Birth of a Legend (2016)

Kevin de Paula in Pelé: Birth of a Legend (2016)

Directors
- Jeff Zimbalist
- Michael Zimbalist
Writers
- Jeff Zimbalist
- Michael Zimbalist
All cast & crew
See more cast details at IMDbPro

Pele's meteoric rise from the slums of Sao Paulo to leading Brazil to its first World Cup victory at the age of 17 is chronicled in this biographical drama.

cameo appearance by real life subject brazilian sportspeople afro brazilian sao paolo brazil girl 15 more

Taglines
- A boy with nothing who changed everything.
Genres
Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
- Rated PG for thematic elements, some smoking and language
Parents guide

Trivia
The Old Guy in suit who's tea was dropped by the Brazilian team at the hotel before the Final of 1958 World cup was actually the real Pele as himself.

Goofs
In the film, Pelè's mother is a servant in Josè Altafini "Mazzola's" home. In real life, both Pelè and Altafini were from modest families. They also lived in different towns.

Crazy credits
The end credits include the disclaimer that "The persons and events in this motion picture are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons or events is unintentional." Which is of course ridiculous considering this is a biopic of Pelé loaded with real events (like the 1958 world cup).

Connections
Referenced in Bigil (2019)

Soundtracks
The Little Rascal
Performed by Anna Beatriz
Composed by A.R. Rahman
© 2016 Sony Classical

Top review

8/10

Good for for the entire family

This PG rated movie is about the greatest futbol (soccer in USA) player that ever lived. Pele. It covers his youth, in the slums, learning to play futbol in the streets using socks and other clothing stuffed together to make a futbol so they could play. Then progresses through hardships encountered on his way to playing for one of the many futbol teams.

What most Americans won't know is that in Brazil (as with all futbol countries) there are massive leagues on multiple levels of the society. They all play against each other or against other Latin American teams for various awards and cups. Pele played for a team called Santos.

From Santos he was picked, like other great players from other teams, to play on the National Team. I don't like that they don't show this process in the movie because it shows the level of competition. We are talking thousands of players rather than a few dozen which they show in the movie.

The movie doesn't show any love interests. This biopic covers only his youth and his journey to play in the 1958 World Cup. Then the movie ends and gives short mentions to the what he did afterwards. Then there is a collection of his game skills shown in a small window as the credits roll.

Overall it was pleasurable to watch and I knew that he would have a small cameo in the movie. Did you see him?

8/10 stars for good clean entertainment

helpful•10