By Carmen Croghan for Movies on August 7th, 2015

Are You Ready for Some Football? Five Soccer Movies You Can Stream Today

Keira Knightley and Parminder Nagra in "Bend It Like Beckham" (Photo: Fox Searchlight)
Keira Knightley and Parminder Nagra in "Bend It Like Beckham" (Photo: Fox Searchlight)
This Saturday (August 8) is the beginning of the Premier League football season. The Premier League is the top level of England’s professional men’s football association and it’s comprised of twenty clubs.

For those new to the concept of the English football system (and I’m not far ahead, I can tell you) here are a few of the very basics you should know.

1. The Premier League was formed in 1992 when twenty-two top flight teams broke away from the Football League to take advantage of a very profitable television rights deal.

2. The season runs from August to May. Yes, they play outside in those shorts in the winter!

3. Each team plays thirty-eight matches per season, one home and one away against each club in the league.

4.  Last season’s Premier League champion was Chelsea Football Club; the runner up was Manchester City.

5. There are three levels of professional football below the Premier League that make up the Football League– Championship, League One and League Two. Teams can be promoted up or relegated down depending on their record for the season. In 2014-15 for example, Hull City, Queens Park Rangers and Burnley were relegated to Championship level while Watford, Bournemouth and Norwich were promoted to the Premier League.

I have to admit I’m not the biggest sports fan and when it comes to football, I usually only watch the make-or-break matches, the World Cup, for example. I like listening to the British commentators and goals are exciting, but I’m not a true blue supporter of any particular club.

So whether you’re like me and just enjoy a good film that just happens to have sports in it or you want to get pumped up for the season to come, I have some suggestions for you and all of them can be streamed right now. You may not learn to tell a hat trick from a bicycle kick, but they all have football as a main focus.

The Damned United (Amazon Instant Video) Starring Timothy Spall, Jim Broadbent, Colm Meany and the amazing Michael Sheen, this 2009 film chronicles otherwise successful football manager Brian Clough’s inauspicious tenure with the Leeds United club.

His employment as manager of Leeds United was short and fraught with conflict. Sheen’s uncanny ability to transform into the personas of well-known public figures is demonstrated in this movie about a man with a lot of talent and even more confidence. 

United (Netflix). Another true story, this one quite tragic, stars David Tennant, Dougray Scott and Jack O’Connell of Unbroken fame in a 2011 biopic about the young, talented Manchester United team nicknamed the Busby’s Babes.

In February of 1958, the team’s plane crashed upon take-off in Munich, Germany killing eight players and numerous club staff and press members. The film tells the story of the team’s efforts to overcome grief, guilt and injury and their journey to reclaim their place in professional football. 

Bend It Like Beckham (Amazon Instant Video). On a cheerier note, there’s this classic rom-com/sports film from 2002 starring Keira Knightley, Parminder Nagra and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

Jess is a talented young football player, but her traditional Indian family doesn’t approve. With the help of her new friends, teammate Jules and coach Joe, Jess works to make her dream come true without her family’s knowledge.

The Football Factory (Amazon Instant Video). This 2004 documentary style film is less about football and more about the hooligan culture that surrounds it. EastEnders’ Danny Dyer stars as a member of a violent gang of Chelsea supporters who starts to question his lifestyle of fighting, vandalism and intimidation.

This movie probably touches on many of the same issues as Green Street Hooligans, but since that title isn’t available on-line at the current time, I went with this one for your dark side of football education.

Fever Pitch (Netflix). No, I haven’t forgotten we’re talking about football. This isn’t the Jimmy Fallon/Drew Barrymore baseball movie. Funny how “pitch” can apply to both sports – pitch a ball, football pitch (field)…

Anyhow the original 1997 version based on Nick Hornby’s novel of the same name stars Colin Firth as an obsessed football supporter who tries to balance his new romantic relationship with his eternal devotion to ArsenaI.  

If these films inspire you to watch actual matches, you can check NBC and the USA Network channels’ schedules which will be broadcasting matches this season.  Best of luck to all the Premier League clubs and watch out for the offside trap (whatever that means)!

By Carmen Croghan for Movies on August 7th, 2015
Carmen Croghan

Carmen Croghan often looks at the state of her British addiction and wonders how it got so out of hand.  Was it the re-runs of Monty Python on PBS, that second British Invasion in the 80’s or the royal pomp and pageantry of Charles and Diana’s wedding? Whatever the culprit, it led her to a college semester abroad in London and over 25 years of wishing she could get back to the UK again.  Until she is able, she fills the void with British telly, some of her favorites being comedies such as The Office, The IT Crowd, Gavin and Stacey, Alan Partridge, Miranda and Green Wing. Her all-time favorite series, however, is Life On Mars. A part-time reference library staffer, she spends an inordinate amount of time watching just about any British series she can track down which she then writes about for her own blog Everything I Know about the UK, I Learned from the BBC.  She is excited to be contributing to Telly Visions and endeavors to share her Anglo-zeal with its readers.

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