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Once in a Lifetime
Dirs Paul Crowther and John Dower
New York Cosmos. Never heard of them. I had never even heard of Pele before this morning, and I must have seen a total of three football matches in my life. The odds were against it but I found this film entertaining. Once in a Lifetime retraces the introduction of European football into America through the story of the New York Cosmos. Americans, notably Steve Ross who turned his father in law’s funeral company into Warner communications, do not do things half-heartedly.
They recruit the best players worldwide (at the time Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, Carlos Alberto and Giorgio Chinaglia), cheerleaders and a vegetable-fuelled Bugs Bunny, who is then interviewed holding carrots fresh out of the garden. The Cosmos become national celebrities with the likes of Mick Jagger and Henry Kissinger (“I hev a paassion fur vat ve call soccar”) lurking about after the matches. This film is charming.
Firstly because of the seventies-style soundtrack that is obtrusively disco without being embarrassing — it is in fact strikingly brilliant and even made the match extracts and footage of screaming crowds watchable. The ostentatious humour is another plus point. It is mostly at the expense of arrogant Italian Giorgio Chinaglia. Short sequences from the interviews are juxtaposed so as to contrast contradictions and insults showing how editing can take a comic stance.
“Now he was the third banana,” referring to the perms, or the Wagner that is played when Beckenbauer joins the team are equally amusing, making the film funny even for footie nonenthusiasts. The snippets of the glamorous New York of the seventies — violence, the blackout, Studio 54, perms, lots of sex — are equally entertaining, if not a little charming.
Quite exciting despite the football and an array of slight pins — the narrator’s annoying American accent, the lack of any interview from either Pele (busy) or Steve Ross (dead) — Once in a Lifetime really is not as bad as expected. Certainly an informative and entertaining ninety minutes, it has something for everyone: humour, sweaty muscular men or football. Take your pick.
18th May 2006