Synopsis
In the 1970s the North American Soccer League marked the first attempt to introduce soccer to American sports fans. While most teams had only limited success at best, one managed to break through to genuine mainstream popularity - the New York Cosmos. The brainchild of Steve Ross (Major executive at Warner Communications) and the Ertegun brothers (Founders of Atlantic Records), the Cosmos got off to a rocky start in 1971, but things changed in 1975 when the world's most celebrated soccer star, the Brazilian champion Pele, signed with the Cosmos for a five-million-dollar payday. With the arrival of Pele, the Cosmos became a hit and the players became the toast of the town, earning their own private table at Studio 54. A number of other international soccer stars were soon lured to the Cosmos, including Franz Beckenbauer, Rodney Marsh, and Carlos Alberto, but with the turn of the decade, the team began losing favor with fans and folded in 1985.
Votre Filmothèque
Cast
- PeléHimself (archive footage)
- Franz BeckenbauerHimself
- Raphael de la SierraHimself
- Phil WoosnamHimself
- Jay EmmettHimself
- Werner RothHimself
- Peppe PintonHimself
- Giorgio ChinagliaHimself
- Shep MessingHimself
- Clive ToyeHimself
Recommandations
- 91
Entertainment Weekly
It's a stylish scramble of evocative footage, groovy music, and crazy-candid reminiscences from key players still proud to score. - 75
TV Guide Magazine
Crowder and Dower's film is a refreshing reminder that without Ross and the Erteguns, pundits would have had to coin an entirely different term to describe "soccer moms," since without the Cosmos' brief and shining moment in the sun, suburban soccer leagues would be as rare as collegiate boccie tournaments. - 75
New York Post
Once in a Lifetime, which is being released at the peak of World Cup fever, is the sort of sports documentary that will appeal even to nonfans. It's a quintessential only-in-New York story. - 75
New York Daily News
Once in a Lifetime performs a belated autopsy on the Cosmos and the North American Soccer League and basically concludes that they died of impatience. - 75
Chicago Tribune
You don't need to be a soccer fan to, like Cosmos fans, fall for this captivating tale, told in "Rashomon"-like style. - 70
Variety
While soccer fans will rep the core aud, even non-fans can enjoy. - 70
The New York Times
This is a movie so unabashedly in love with its subject that even audiences who don't know Giorgio Chinaglia from Georgie Best will leave the theater grinning. - 67
The A.V. Club
Once In A Lifetime is less a proper documentary than an extended VH1 Behind The Music episode, but there's only a little bit wrong with that.
