Film Review: "Pelé" (2021).

From Netflix comes the remarkable journey of the 'King of Football' - Pelé. This documentary directed by Ben Nicholas and David Tryhorn. Against the backdrop of a turbulent era in Brazil, this documentary captures Pelé’s extraordinary path from breakthrough talent to national hero.

On 23 October 1940, the Brazilian former professional footballer, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, also known as Pelé, was born. At age fifteen, Pelé began playing for Santos and the Brazilian National Team at sixteen. During his international career, he won three FIFA World Cups: 1958, 1962 and 1970, the only player to do so. Pelé is the all-time leading goalscorer for Brazil with seventy-seven goals in ninety-two games. At club level he is Santos' all-time top goalscorer with six hundred and forty-three goals from six hundred and fifty-nine games. In a golden era for Santos, he led the club to the 1962 and 1963 Copa Libertadores, and to the 1962 and 1963 Intercontinental Cup. Credited with connecting the phrase "The Beautiful Game" with football, Pelé's "electrifying play and penchant for spectacular goals" made him a star around the world, and his teams toured internationally in order to take full advantage of his popularity. Since retiring in 1977, Pelé has been a worldwide ambassador for football and has made many acting and commercial ventures. In 2010, he was named the Honorary President of the New York Cosmos. Regarded and labeled by FIFA as one of the greatest, if not "the greatest" player, he was among the most successful and popular sports figures of the twentieth century. During his playing days, Pelé was for a period of time the best-paid athlete in the world. In 1999, Pelé was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics, and was one of the two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the Century. That same year, Pelé was named Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee and was included in the Time list of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th century. According to the IFFHS, Pelé is the most successful top division scorer in the sport with five hundred and forty-one goals in five hundred and sixty games. His total of one thousand, two hundred and seventy-nine goals in one thousand, three hundred and sixty-three games, which included friendlies, is a Guinness World Record.

The film completely captures the power of the story the man inspired and the fickle nature of mythmaking itself, even if the myth is all we are left with. As an engrossing documentation of the price of fame, the ups and downs of a player who took a major gamble in Brazil, during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship, and went from hero to zero in the nation's eyes, the film succeeds. It's all here: the great games, goals and great scandals. It teems with life and is unlike most biopics about a sports legend. That is, it actually delivers a pungent sense of the atmosphere surrounding him.

Simon says Pelé receives: