As celebration of the most remarkable footballer to have ever played the game, the Netflix documentary ‘PELE‘ (Directors David Tryhorn/Ben Nicholas 108 mins, 2021), is an enjoyable watch, his greatest of all-time status affirmed by images of captivating skill and incredible balance mostly captured in the yellow shirt of Brazil with whom he won three World Cup winners medals – the only player in football history to do so.
Indeed, the film begins at the opening ceremony of what would be his last and most renowned of those triumphs, namely the Mexico World Cup of 1970 – from that point going back thirty years to trace a life journey that saw Edson Arantes do Nascimento (better known as ‘Pele’) rise to become the most instantly recognisable footballer on the planet, receiving a level of acclaim no other player could match.
Such praise was based on a breathtaking arrival on the global stage when at the age of just 17 he was instrumental in Brazil winning the 1958 World Cup – and although injured for the latter stages of the 1962 tournament in Chile, the team, built around his young and complete talent, was still good enough to prevail.
In the meantime, he had scored over 350 goals from Brazilian club side Santos – yet as several (Brazilian) contributors to the documentary are quick to point out when 1970 dawned Pele was thought to have left his best footballing days behind. He had gone back on a public statement of not playing in Mexico and in doing so was now at odds with Brazil team manager Joao Saldanha, who had made it clear Pele was by no means an automatic selection.
The machinations of how he came to be in the team when Brazil began their campaign at the 1970 World Cup are part of a shadow narrative running through the documentary. The fame, wealth and achievements of Pele are set against an era when Brazil saw democracy replaced by a military dictatorship, the man himself expressing regret in contemporary interviews at not speaking out against the regime – this in the face of criticism from some that his silence was a form of complicity.
Moving quickly through a poor but happy childhood, the film arrives in 1958 with the teenager, having already taken the domestic game by storm with his club side Santos, part of the Brazilian squad contesting the World Cup in Sweden – the culture shock as great for 17-year-old Pele as it is for many Swedes, some of whom he recalls, ‘had never seen a black man before.’
On the strength of some astounding individual performances (team-mate Mario Zagallo and coach of the 1970 World Cup winning side, describes the impact of Pele as ‘watching the greatest footballer of all-time being born before our eyes‘), Brazil become world champions, the victory turning Pele into a form of Brazilian royalty, his emergence equated with that of Brazil as a country.
The fame turned him into a millionaire, dominance on the pitch saw them retain the World Cup in 1962, but for the nation at least, good times were drawing to a close, (‘joy went down the drain‘ reflects one pained interviewee) an army-led coup seizing power in 1964.
At this juncture the documentary gives room to claim and counter-claim with regard to Pele and any perceived connection with the junta government.
After a mid-60s interview where Pele remarks he ‘doesn’t understand politics,’ there is clear bitterness from one critic who claims, ‘Pele was not hindered in anyway by the repression taking place. As such an important symbol he was left alone.’ The alternative view brings comparison with Mohammad Ali and his outspoken views, particularly on the war in Vietnam, but offers as valediction:
‘Mohammad Ali was never going to be tortured or disappear for speaking out – Pele didn’t have that guarantee.’
On the football field also, Brazil was about to receive a form of suffrage. In 1966 they arrived in England as overwhelming favourites to win a third consecutive World Cup. But in their group fixtures Pele was subjected to some appalling fouls, his brutal treatment at the hands (although mainly feet) of Portugal defenders forcing him off with injury in a game Brazil had to win to reach the quarterfinals.
The 3-1 defeat ensured the holders were out before the knockout stage (although sportingly Pele goes go back on the field afterwards to shake hands with his Portuguese assailants).
In reflecting on the 1966 tournament, Pele remarks ruefully, ‘It was my dream to become a world champion in England, after that I would retire. Not doing it was the saddest moment of my life.’ There is, however, an interesting perspective offered to counter-balance the theory Brazil were hacked out of the competition – a Brazilian football writer stating:
‘Yes, the refereeing against Brazil in England was deplorable, but truthfully Brazil was not a good team at this time and played poorly.’
Shortly after returning from England Pele announced he would not play in another World Cup, but as the next one approached and he showed no sign of relenting, there is inference in the documentary of the dictatorship taking an interest in selection of the national team. Their overtures to the player appear to have increased further after he took his goal tally for Santos to 1,000 in November 1969 – but even after Pele had a change of heart and made himself available, the coach offered no guarantees he would be picked.
The inevitable occurred six weeks before the 1970 World Cup was due to start, Zagallo put in charge after the services of Saldanha had been dispensed with.
This episode puts a slightly different twist on their subsequent triumph of 1970 – that the best team, playing some incredible football simply went out and won the World Cup as if somehow preordained, the achievement becoming even more admirable given the preceding tensions. While the footage of Pele and his gifted team-mates during their passage to glory is comfortably familiar it remains no less enthralling, the trophy never won before, or since, by a side with so much artistry and style.
At that stage of his career Pele was the most experienced member of the team, but even he admits to being overcome with emotion at the start of a momentous final against Italy, his legacy assured by the thrilling manner of their 4-1 victory. Describing the Aztec Stadium occasion as ‘the best moment of my life‘ he adds, pertinently, given the turmoil of everyday life in Brazil at the time, ‘it gave the whole country a moment to breathe.’
The unforgettable images of Pele performing at the 1970 World Cup represent the final chapter of the documentary as little time is given to his stint with New York Cosmos in the mid-70s, screenshots used to convey he retired from international football in 1971, finished with a career record of 1,287 goals from 1,367 appearances and interestingly enough, democracy returning to Brazil in 1985.
To a generation, or two, of football followers for whom he was a ‘before my time‘ figure, ‘Pele‘ will provide insight to why he is so revered, while for those of us who recall him in his prime (today at 80 his movement is restricted by hip surgery), it serves as reminder our admiration was not misplaced.
What the documentary cannot do, however, is depict the mystique surrounding Pele as he was when enthralling the football world in 1970. To people who had never seen the game played in such a way, his jaw-dropping ability appeared something from another planet – which to a small town in England fifty or so years ago, South America was.
But that says more about the passage of time from a personal perspective than it does about this commendable film.
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