The celebrated story goes that on Christmas Day 1914, while the rest of the world tucked into their Christmas dinners and drank sherry, British and German soldiers temporarily ceased firing their rifles and met in ’no man’s land’ to play a game of football. The Germans ran out 2-1 winners (nothing’s changed for England there, then!), and the soul-stirring tale was forever carved into the World War I time capsule. That simple act shared between the British and German troops during the great Christmas Truce restored a sense of humanity amongst the bloodshed and senseless killing of war. The power of sport possesses the ability to unify, empower, and bring peace in times of conflict.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
5 The Test: A New Era for Australia’s Team
Following on from the 2018 ball-tampering scandal that shook the world of cricket, and considerably damaged the reputation and integrity of Australian Cricket in specific, The Test: A New Era for Australia’s Team follows the side looking to regain respect, credibility, and pride in the aftermath of “sandpaper gate." To those Americans seeking to further their understanding of the alien game of Cricket, Prime Video provides this unembellished, 16-month perspective of a team on a downward trajectory, desperately seeking an upturn in fortunes.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
4 All or Nothing: Manchester City
3 All or Nothing: NFL
In 2015, Prime Video set out to bring viewers unparalleled, unseen, behind-the-scenes footage of sports teams with All or Nothing, including the NFL and, in season one’s case, the Arizona Cardinals. The goings-on at most American Football teams are kept under strict confidentiality; everything from training regimes, tactical knowledge, and the personal lives of playing staff is kept under lock and key.
Prime equips us with the master key, the bolt-cutters, and the sledgehammer to crack the lock and see for ourselves the grueling demands of the professional side of the most popular sport in the States. Over five seasons, the Arizona Cardinals, LA Rams, Dallas Cowboys, Carolina Panthers, and Philadelphia Eagles are all subjects of the seasons respectively, and each follows their own, unique story of the trials and tribulations of the pursuit of the sport’s most coveted prize. There are many great football movies, but the five seasons of All or Nothing go behind-the-scenes in a way fiction simply can’t, and is riveting as a result.
2 Diego Maradona
Altitude Film Distribution
After the supreme success enjoyed by his 2012 documentary Senna, the documentarian Asif Kapadia turned his attention to non-American football with Diego Maradona, about one of the most exceptionally gifted sportsmen of all time, Diego Armando Maradona. The diminutive yet ethereally gifted Argentinian’s flair for the sport was prodigious, and at times unearthly (with the term ‘The Hand of God’ used to describe him); his ability to weave through opposition defenses, ball seemingly glued to foot, hadn’t been seen since the days of Pele.
1 Senna
Universal Pictures
Formula 1 is a sport that has a certain grandeur and sexiness, whether that be the roguish handsomeness of some of its drivers past and present, like that of James Hunt, or the daring, adrenaline-inducing nature of driving a carbon-fiber racing car at 250mph. It’s also conducive to cinema, as evidenced by the success of Netflix’s documentary A Life of Speed. Asif Kapadia’s Senna takes a deep dive into the whirlwind life of F1 driver, Ayrton Senna. The BAFTA-award-winning documentary explores Senna’s life and success on the racetrack, and his quiet, humble, and reserved life off it.
