Pele

A sports documentary that focuses on politics

Hey Team,

Documentary isn’t the only thing I’m particularly passionate and borderline obsessed with, the first thing was soccer. It was the only sport I really played or followed growing up and it’s connection to politics and socio-econimics definitely played a roll in my love for documentary. I also write for a soccer website, we discuss fashion, culture, music; all the good stuff off the field that we, the fans get to experience but also create. It’s called Urban Pitch and it’s a great site that explores a lot of cool things.

When ever I write about a docuentary for them I’m going to share part of it here and give ya’ll a link so you can check it out. It will always be soccer focused or influenced but I promise I’ll only share documentary related links with you, here. So with out further ado……

Both celebratory and introspective, the Netflix Pelé documentary offers unique context behind an oft-discussed soccer icon. 

Everyone knows who Pelé is. But his eponymous documentary that hit Netflix last week gives us a more personal look at the legend, and even a Brazilian history lesson. It’s not the first documentary centered around Pelé and certainly won’t be the last, but its political focus makes it stand out from its predecessors and most likely its successors.There are two storylines in this film, and what it does really well is give viewers (especially this white guy from Seattle) more context of where Brazil was culturally throughout Pelé’s career.

The film opens with his last World Cup appearance, the 1970 edition in Mexico, and despite the fact that Brazil wins this tournament, the voiceover we hear is from TV and radio announcers talking about how Pelé doesn’t look the same. Then it cuts to Pelé himself saying that he didn’t want to be Pelé anymore at that point of his career.

A man known for his smile and beautiful work with his feet spends the majority of the film talking about nearly everything else. Pelé celebrates a hero, but it also wants to make sure you understand what made him and what he did for a country we all now associate with the beautiful game..

If you want to finish the article head on over here and let me know what you think!