Victory

Huston, showing admirable range in his old age, creates enough on-field magic and nostalgia for the beatiful game as an idyll of now-extinct sportsmanship, you can almost forgive the boss's choice of goalkeeper. Almost. Read full review

Script spends so much effort extolling man’s basic goodness and the values of selflessness, teamwork and fair play, that it frequently softens the action. Fortunately, director John Huston has such a firm grip on the dramatic line that does exist – and works some very good performances from the cast, particularly Caine – that the pic survives intact. Read full review

Part The Great Escape, part standard sports movie, Huston's Victory limps along until hitting full stride with a brilliantly staged soccer sequence that provides the film's climax. Read full review

Unsatisfactory both for fans of star-studded prison escape dramas and for football fans hoping to see cunningly devised tactics from Pele and his squad of internationals. Read full review

Victory, the latest effort from veteran director John Houston, represents a remarkable triumph of artificial obliviousness. The misbegotten hybrid screenplay struggles to cross the tradition of POW escape films like The Wooden Horse, Stalag 17 and The Great Escape with recent rabble-rousing sports sagas like The Longest Yard and Rocky. [31 July 1981, p.B3]