Escape to Victory

Escape to Victory, known simply as Victory in North America, is a 1981 film about Allied prisoners of war who are interned in a German prison camp during the Second World War who play an exhibition match of football against a German team. The film was directed by John Huston and starred Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, Max von Sydow, Daniel Massey and Pelé.

The film received great attention upon its theatrical release, as it also starred professional footballers Bobby Moore, Osvaldo Ardiles, Kazimierz Deyna, Paul Van Himst, Mike Summerbee, Hallvar Thoresen, Werner Roth and Pelé. Numerous Ipswich Town players were also in the film, including John Wark, Russell Osman, Laurie Sivell, Robin Turner and Kevin O'Callaghan. Further Ipswich Town players stood in for actors in the football scenes – Kevin Beattie for Michael Caine, and Paul Cooper for Sylvester Stallone. The script was written by Yabo Yablonsky. The film was entered into the 12th Moscow International Film Festival.

Sylvester Stallone

Sylvester Gardenzio "Sly" Stallone (/stəˈloʊn/; Italian pronunciation: [(ɡarˈdɛntsjo) stalˈloːne]; born July 6, 1946) is an American actor, screenwriter, producer, and director. He is well known for his Hollywood action roles, particularly boxer Rocky Balboa, the title character of the Rocky series' seven films from 1976 to 2015; soldier John Rambo from the four Rambo films, which ran from 1982 to 2008; and Barney Ross in the three The Expendables films from 2010 to 2014. He wrote or co-wrote most of the 14 films in all three franchises, and directed many of the films.

Stallone's film Rocky was inducted into the National Film Registry as well as having its film props placed in the Smithsonian Museum. Stallone's use of the front entrance to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the Rocky series led the area to be nicknamed the Rocky Steps. Philadelphia has a statue of his Rocky character placed permanently near the museum. It was announced on December 7, 2010 that Stallone was voted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the non-participant category.

Bill Conti

William "Bill" Conti (born April 13, 1942) is an American composer and conductor best known for his film scores, including Rocky (and four of its sequels), For Your Eyes Only, Dynasty, and The Right Stuff, which earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Score. He also received nominations in the Best Original Song category for "Gonna Fly Now" from Rocky and for the title song of For Your Eyes Only. He has served as musical director at the Academy Awards a record nineteen times.

Early life

Conti, an Italian American, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of Lucetta and William Conti. He graduated from North Miami High School in 1959. He is a past winner of the Silver Knight Award presented by the Miami Herald. He is a graduate of Louisiana State University, and also studied at the Juilliard School of Music.

Rocky series

His big break into celebrity came in 1976, when he was hired to compose the music for a small United Artists film called Rocky. The film became a phenomenon. Conti's training montage tune, "Gonna Fly Now", topped the Billboard singles chart in 1977, and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. The film won three Oscars at the 49th Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The same ceremony was also the first time Conti served as musical director for the Academy Awards, which he has done 18 times subsequently, more than anybody else.

Victory

Victory (from Latin victoria) is a term, originally applied to warfare, given to success achieved in personal combat, after military operations in general or, by extension, in any competition. Success in a military campaign is considered a strategic victory, while the success in a military engagement is a tactical victory.

In terms of human emotion, victory is accompanied with strong feelings of elation, and in human behaviour is often accompanied with movements and poses paralleling threat display preceding the combat, associated with the excess endorphin built up preceding and during combat. Victory dances and victory cries similarly parallel war dances and war cries performed before the outbreak of physical violence. Examples of victory behaviour reported in Roman antiquity, where the term originates, are the victory songs of the Batavi mercenaries serving under Gaius Julius Civilis after the victory over Quintus Petillius Cerialis in the Batavian rebellion of 69 AD (according to Tacitus), and also the "abominable song" to Wodan, sung by the Lombards at their victory celebration in 579. The sacrificial animal was a goat, around whose head the Langobard danced in a circle while singing their victory hymn (see also Oslac). In the Roman Republic, victories were celebrated by triumph ceremonies and monuments such as victory columns (e.g. Trajan's Column). A trophy is a token of victory taken from the defeated party, such as the enemy's weapons (spolia), or body parts (as in the case of head hunters).