Product Description
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This DVD collection takes you beyond great goals and classic
match action, to focus on every aspect of the game - on and off
the pitch, along the corridors of power, from its humble
beginnings to the billion dollar industry it is today.
The series investigates the factors that have enabled soccer
players to become culturlal icons and millionaires, recognized
throughout the world. Through exclusive interviews filmed in over
50 countries, it explores the tremendous influence soccer holds
over our lives.
Every aspect of the sport is covered with exclusive footage,
ground-breaking interviews with icons of the game - past and
present and revealing ins into why soccer generates more
excitement, passion, and wealth across the world than any other
sport.
With amazing DVD extras including rare and previously unseen
footage, extended interviews and player profiles, this is
must-see viewing for every true fan of the game!
Collect all six volumes plus a bonus seventh DVD in a special
limited edition DVD box set:
Vol. 1: Origins / Football Cultures
Vol. 2: Evolution / European Superpowers
Vol. 3: Brazil / South American Superpowers
Vol. 4: For Club and Country / The Dark Side
Vol. 5: Superstars / The Media
Vol. 6: Africa / A Game For All / Futures (2 DVDs)
Approximate Running Times:
Six Volumes (Seven Discs): 11 hrs, 16 mins
DVD Extras: 3 hrs, 50 mins
**Spanish-language version also included.**
.com
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The entire history of the world's favorite game? It's an
extraordinary challenge that could go have gone horribly wrong,
but History of Soccer: The Beautiful Game is a class act. It
boasts top-drawer production values, including narration by
Terence Stamp, access to everybody who has really mattered in the
game, ever, plus loads of famous, rare, and never-seen-before
footage, each volume offering a blend of narrative, action, and
illuminating interviews. This is a polished product: part
celebration, part commemoration, but always with a sharp
investigative sense, digging around the misty-eyed, good ol' days
tradition, to explore in the company of those interviewed the
reality behind some of soccer's myths and legends.
The breadth of enquiry is naturally impressive, as is the
narrative structure, but it's the deft handling of the subplots
that really sets this apart, including: analysis of the dominant
club sides such as Liverpool, Real Madrid, and Milan (volume 2);
the evolution of Brazil (volume 3); the superstar casualties,
like Maradona and Garrincha (volume 5); football as an agent of
social control in Victorian England (volume 1); the revolution in
French football that created the 1998 World Champions (volume 4);
and the failure, so far, of Africa to fulfil Pele's famous World
Cup prediction (volume 6). There's so little material here that
isn't memorable that it's difficult to pick highlights, but
action aside (and it's hard to think of an historically important
game that isn't featured), an emotional Maradona exposing the
"conspiracy" that fixed the 1990 World Cup final (volume 2) is an
unforgettable slice of soccer culture.
History of Soccer on DVD comes complete with a heap of extras
(between 33 and 54 minutes' worth per volume) including, across
the set, every single goal from every World Cup Final game;
extended interviews with the likes of Pele, Maradona, Zidane, and
Bobby Charlton; loads of "first-ever-recorded-on-film" material
including the 1907 England-Scotland game; text-only biographies
of the major interviewees; extended tournament highlights of past
European Championships, African Nations Cups, World Club
Championships, Asian Cups, and, of course, World Cup Finals. The
picture itself is presented in widescreen, and there's a
Spanish-language track plus an Easter egg of additional hidden
material in every volume. --Alex Hankin