Too much of everything

hyped garbage

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This movie's History Channel style of editing, production and scoring cheapen an otherwise riveting story. And while the Soviet Union is rightly portrayed as the imperial aggressor for its murderous response to the Hungarian uprising of 1956, there is little effort to place the narrative in any meaningful context outside a kind of generic idea of freedom. It's hard not to interpret this oversimplification of history as unwitting agitprop for an unstated purpose. But more than this, and to reiterate, there's no need to dumb down and dress up history with crappy canned TV docudrama music, misleading editing, and cheesy graphics. If a story is good, let it tell itself and you won't have to pasteurize it for the masses.

This is a brilliant documentary! Whether you are interested in sports, history or just purely what freedom means and what people will do for it or nations to repress it, it will give you something to contemplate for a long time. I think it will appeal to people who have experienced or seen repression elsewhere.It puts the 1956 Hungarian revolution beautifully into context. It took USSR 2000 tanks (same number as Hilter had to advance the whole western front in WW2) to defeat the uprising of a spirited nation.It's also lovely portrait of water polo and what it means to Hungary and Hungarians.

I just came across this at the library. I am a big fan of documentaries and I have to say that this one is excellently made. The pacing is great. I love how they link the huge (Revolution) to the what seems less important ( a water polo match). I love this lack of separation. They really show well the consequences of living under a dictatorship and oppression. Also well shown is how a popular movement of regular people can make a difference. I also learned much about water polo and I much more interested than I ever was before.It is also a wonderfully paced and well edited piece. Great musical score. I also love that they are very fair and show all perspectives on the uprising. I really learned much that I did not know about this event.Having said this there are some bones I have to pick with them.A very minor one is that they make it look like the civil rights movement was inspired by this. That there would have been no civil rights movement without this uprising. Definitely, not true. The civil rights movement was going on long before 1956. I have also read nothing on the subject of civil rights that shows that they were directly inspired by Budapest.One big thing that was missing was the effect of the match had on a recently crushed people. That was a segment that should have been in there. Maybe some interview questions from the people in prison of what they felt when they found out about the results of the match.Having made these criticism, I still have to say that this a fantastic film. The positives outweigh the negatives by a huge margin. Not only, is this worth seeing, it worth seeing again and again. Definitely worth owning.

I'll admit I had misgivings. Was this going to be a hackneyed, pathos-dripping American documentary with a naïve voice-over commentary, relegating the "local talent" to the role of extras and curiosities? Within two or three minutes it was obvious it was not - there is a sensitivity and an unhurried feel (though there is action enough for anyone, in and out of the water) to the making of this film that could teach many a lesson. The protagonists are given room to tell their story, and - particularly in the case of those who lived the Uprising and several very articulate and immensely likable members of the Hungarian Olympic side - they grab it with both hands and effectively take things over.The history, and the tragedy of what went down in the fall of 1956, is also presented in detail and not in sound-bites for the attention-deficient, and you are left with a feeling that everyone involved knew that they were dealing with a subject that deserved their full attention, and that they had amazing picture material that should be allowed to speak for itself. Gripping, heartwarming, uplifting, some seamless blending of archive footage and modern recreations, and worthy of a much larger audience.Kudos to Mark Spitz, too, for a job well done, but then again, when you read the final credits you know why - how could he have DARED to let his old schoolboy coach down? As a side observation, it was good to see the members of the defeated Soviet water polo team in good cheer. When the Soviet Union's football team was defeated by Yugoslavia at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, just four years after Tito had humiliated Stalin politically, the players did not fare quite so well. Stalin had expected much more out of the country's first appearance at the Olympics. He immediately disbanded CSKA Moscow, who had provided most of the national side, the result of the game was not published in the USSR until 1954 (a year after his death), and many of the unfortunate players (let's face it, they only had the bad luck to come up against a very very good Yugoslav team, who took the silver medals behind the magnificent Hungarians and Ferenc Puskas) allegedly wound up in labour camps. At least Nikita Khrushchev did not stoop THAT low in 1956. There is also quite a good TV-documentary about this particularly ugly footnote in footballing history, but I cannot for the life of me find it now...