19/01/09

Goal

Main Characters:
Santiago Munez - Kuno Becker
Roz Harmison - Anna Friel
Glen Foy - Stephen Dillane
Gavin Harris - Alessandro Nivola

Plot:
Young Mexican Santiago Munez migrates with his parents to the USA where he begins his footballing career. As a key player of a local team, Munez is spotted by former Newcastle star Glen Foy who alerts his Newcastle colleagues of the talent he had found. Munez is offered a trial with Newcastle, however lack of funds is restricting him to doing so. Much to his fathers disgust, Santiago takes money offered from his grandmother to travel to England. The dream begins when he is playing for the Newcasltle reserve team. Again, Munez suffers further setbacks when his asthma inhaler is broken by a jelous team mate. Now that the coaches at Newcastle know about his medical condition, his place in the team is threatened, however he is given another chance. Due to injuries in the first team, Munez finally makes his breakthrough when he is called up for first team duty. He then makes his debut in the cup final against Liverpool. Gavin Harris who is now a friend of Santi's scores the opening goal only to be pegged back by Liverpool who go 2-1 up through Igor Biscan and Milan Baros. Santi then assists Harris in getting his second and Newcastles equalizer. In the final seconds of the game Newcastle win a free kick on the edge of the box and Harris insists that Santi takes it. His curled shot hits the back of the net and there is a pandimonium in the Newcastle stands. Newcastle win the cup because of Santi's efforts who is now living the dream.

The idea of using this film as research for our film, is that the two youths in the opening shot are supposed to have a future which is similar to Santi's in the fact that they make the lucky breakthrough to live the dream. From this we can take ideas about the up's and down's to the footballing lifestyle and we can also gain an idea of the types of shots that will be effective. For example, in the opening sequence of goal, we are shown Santi as a child playing football. The slow motion shots allow us to see his true skill. We will be looking to use this in our film.

This film is aimed at football fans of all ages, but mainly those of a younger age who can aspire to be like Santiago. You could also class it as a love story, so those who are fans of love stories may be interested in watching this film.