The Olympic Games in Movies: Match by Director Andrey Malyukov

For centuries sport has brought out the best qualities of human character – kindness, open-heartedness, resilience, camaraderie, and team spirit. Sport helped overcome hardships and lift up spirits. Numerous books and movies have been created that depict and emphasize the role of sport in the society. Many of them tell amazing stories of the lives and achievements of individual athletes and teams who inspire both their contemporaries and future generations. Over centuries, sport united people and nations, fostered mutual understanding and promoted conflict resolution. Indeed, in early the history, wars stopped when Olympic Games began, and sporting competitions united yesterday’s enemies and rivals. Nowadays, athletes are viewed as ambassadors of good will and peace. That is not to say that sport cannot in turn incite conflicts, especially if competitiveness goes too far, and if sport starts to be used for selfish or political reasons.
Even though a lot of sports books and movies exist, surprisingly few of them portray the role of athletes and the importance of sports during the darkest times of the 20th century – World War II. It may at first seem that when the war engulfed the entire continent of Europe, there was no time or place for sports. Nevertheless in the war-torn countries, sports and athletes oftentimes gave the people a breath of fresh air and hope. Even though dictators and regimes used sports for their benefit and propaganda, a true positive spirit of sports prevailed.
Statement of comparison: I have chosen to analyze and compare two captivating stories about great athletes during World War II: the novel “Road to Valour” by McConnon and McConnon and the movie “Match” by director Andrey Malyukov. The plots of both ...

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...that they even petitioned the Nazi government to spare the lives of great Start soccer players. This in turn signifies that sport does bring out the best in people – true sportsmen respect their opponents and accept defeat.
In sum, while the book and movie describe athletes from different countries who took part in different sports – an individual cyclist from Italy and a soccer team from Ukraine – the key unifying theme is their sportsmanship, bravery in fighting evil, their perseverance, and as a result, their drive to inspire others to be brave and strong. Heroes of two different countries did one important thing in common – they won and inspired others to fight and win. The cyclist portrayed in the book lived to tell his story, while the soccer players depicted in the movie died. Still, the memories of these courageous athletes will live on, as will their deeds.