MovieChat Forums > Victory (1981) Discussion > Shameless Rip-Off!!

Shameless Rip-Off!!

posted 18 years ago by EddieLarge
19 replies | jump to latest

Hmmm I feel like I've seen this film somewhere before...so many elements have been lifted from The Great Escape.

1. The main theme tune is almost identical with a few notes changed.

2. The whole feel of the camp with the Donald Pleasance chaaracter sorting out the passport and papers and the officers in their hut giving permission for escapes etc.

3. The token Yank who has to escape on his own and tell the French Resistance. He even spends time in the cooler for God's sake.

Shameless...

[–] Bobbygolucky 18 years ago

Err... and your point is exactly? 10 out of 10 for stating the obvious!

Of course it's like the Great Escape! It's just putting a different angle on it and uses real footballers, most of whom at the time were pretty famous.

It's nowhere as good as the Great Escape itself but I imagine that it was never supposed to be. Overall I think that it worked, spoilt a bit by Stallone maybe but still well worth watching at least once.

[–] EddieLarge 18 years ago

My point is; who asked for a Great Escape remake to satiate moronic football fans?

You could easily make this film with the same plot but without any similarities to The Great Esacape. And I mean any!

They only used these ploys to cash in on TGE's success and hopefully make their own poor-quality rip-off sell well.

That's my point.

[–] neuro 18 years ago

It's hardly cashing in on the success of a movie released 18 years before it. Why not accept it for what it is: a lightweight movie resting on the shoulders of others in the genre. If you can't do that, then please feel free not to watch it again :)

[–] nickle98 18 years ago

Oh God, so all of us football fans are moronic now???

Can't you see the similarities with Hart's War too?

It's set in a Prisoner of War camp.

There are American pows in it.

In the book, there are British pows too. (football fans can read)

The guards are German.

They try to escape.

Someone gets shot.

They use a hollywood name in it to sell it.

It has military type title music.

What's YOUR point? Just coz one POW flicks been done, they can't do another? Oops, The McKenzie Break, oops, Stalag 17, oops, Colditz, oops, The Brylcreem Boys. Bollocks to you, I don't care what you think. How could I grasp what you say anyway, I'm just another moronic football fan. I fargan love Escape to Victory. If you don't like it, SWITCH OVER to Match Of The Day!

[–] Bobbygolucky 18 years ago

Fantastic post nicklemansois!

Hmmm, the only thing is that I'm a "moronic football fan" as well, therefore, I shouldn't have an opinion about anything either I guess!

Also, because I'm a "moronic football fan" does this mean that I'm only allowed to watch certain types of film? If that is the case then I guess that I wouldn't ever watch such a classic film as TGE in the first place. So I guess that by watching Escape to Victory, then at the very least it has given me a flavour of what it must have been like to be a POW in WWII!

I'm struggling to get my "speak and spell, hooligan" edition to help me to write this post now so I guess I better stop before I have to steal some more batteries to make it work.

[–] spookyrat1 10 years ago

My point is; who asked for a Great Escape remake to satiate moronic football fans?

Golly! This thread is comedy central.

[–] Keenos 18 years ago

TGE was almost identical to how POW camps were. What are future films about POW camps meant to do? distance themselves from TGE and become factually wrong, or follow similar lines make it factually correct yet get accused of plagarism.

[–] HermioneO 18 years ago

I'm not a footbal fan. In fact, I don't care for sports at all. But I love sports movies. Maybe it's because they usually edit out all the boring bits.

Anyway, this film wasn't about prisoners making an escape attempt. That was just camouflage. It was about two men and their love of a game, and how everyone got caught up in the pure experience of competition for its own sake. It wasn't political for them. It wasn't about subjugation of prisoners. The Germans weren't playing fair and everyone knew it and in the end it got them nothing.

HermioneO

Lovin' that goofy Viggo Smile

[–] wormxing_2000 18 years ago

well if you're saying its the same as the great escape, why haven't you said its the same as the original "the longest yard"? which is also like exactly the same film but a comedy and with american football instead. who says escape to victory didnt copy that?

[–] meanstreets-1 18 years ago

i hav 2 add my tuppence worth. ETV was on last night, dont know how many times ive seen it. but it still gets me goin. callin it a rip-off of TGE is like callin lethal weapon a rip-off of dirty harry. cos they both feature loose -cannon cops. ETV is just doin wat films are supposed to do, entertain.and it does it without gun fire, car chases, fights, shagging etc. how many films can claim that.it has big movie stars, great players and a great ending. and i hav to agree with sum folk on here, its not an escape they were trying, that was organised behind most of their backs, its just two footballers that want to get sum dignity now that normal life has been interrupted.the whole original point of organising the game was because " life must gettin pretty boring in here", as von steiner says. so all u doubters on here that look for ways to scrutinise stallone movies, why dont u start with bond movies, indiana jones etc, cos then ul hav summat to criticise.

[–] thricej37 18 years ago

Well, as long as only one movie has been made about Nazi Germany, I'll be happy.

Wait... what?

Fact 2: "Garbledina."

[–] noobzilla 18 years ago

hahahaha...

These two movies have about as much in common with each other
as Star Wars and Star Trek. Very little.

I liked The Great Escape also, but two differant movies here
for sure.

[–] jenny_ball666 13 years ago

rip-off??

there were many stories of opposing armies setting down their weapons on christmas day to play a match etc. much like the generic "POW escape plan" plot, theyre very popular ideas that translate well to screen. don't be so ridiculous.

in that sense, every single war film would be a "rip-off" of something else because in the end the allies win!!

www.saintsfc.co.uk

[–] Prismark10 13 years ago

Last time I saw the Great Escape there was not a big football match in the climax.
I suppose they stole elements of the The Mean Machine.

Its that man again!!

[–] narnia4 13 years ago

I think the OP deserves more credit for the point than is being given here. I thought the same thing. There are obvious differences, but parts of the music in the film sound VERY similar to Elmer Bernstein's theme, too much to be a coincidence.

Then the scene where Stallone comes and tells the highest ranked allied officers the plan he had to escape... how similar was that to the scene where McQueen as the American officer comes and tells them his plan? Way too similar to be a coincidence, waaay too similar.

Still a good film... not "The Great Escape" good, seeing as The Great Escape is one of the great war/action/prison films, but a good flick.

[–] murtaza_mma 11 years ago

This movie is a rip-off of late Hungarian filmmaker Zoltan Fabri's "Két félidö a pokolban" or "Two half times in hell." It's a shame that Huston chose not to make any mention in the film's credits (or elsewhere) of Fabri's original work, which undoubtedly is a much superior work of cinema.

My IMDB Reviews:
http://www.imdb.com/user/ur19117722/comments-expanded?order=date&start=0

[–] xaggurat 10 years ago

This would be the most worthwhile comment in this discussion. Why he didn't pay credit to Fabri I don't know, what I gather Huston wasn't very petty or narrow-minded so he might as well done so. Maybe it was because of the Cold War era politics, as Két félidö a pokolban was done in "the wrong side" of the fence for the west and especially the US audience.

[–] Prismark10 10 years ago

Well its the Great Escape meets Rocky meets football!

Its that man again!!