Ídolo Dourado

I just watched this film on AMC on a rare Tuesday off of work. I was surprised at how good it was. What struck me first was the cinematography, outstanding! Lee Garmes really understood how to frame a football game and uses some innovative mobile camera work to take you right into the action. His camera angles are very similar to ones you see covering football today and I wonder if he was a pioneer in this effort.

The story flowed well and kept you interested. It's somewhat disheartening that the underlying thread in the story (the dark (money)side of big time college football) is still so relevant. When Aldo Ray's character say's to John Derek's character "...do you think the fans get in for free?, It's a racket..." and you consider it is 1951 you wonder at how far we have really come.