Watch Maradona by Kusturica For Free

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Quite simply, this is not a documentary. It is a self-indulgent waste of time, with a film- maker who is enough of an egomaniac to put his name in the film's title and put himself at the center of the story he describes as a "portrait of Maradona". There is little to nothing revealing or insightful about the footballer as when we are watching any interview footage (rather than mundane footage of Diego watching television, or going for a swim), the tone is so sycophantic as to be useless. Ironically, given the film-maker's ideological projection, it is like the most low-brow back-slapping American breakfast TV interview of Tom Cruise. The animated sequences padding out the film are ludicrous, implying Maradona was some scourge to Reagan and... Tony Blair?!?! Their cheapness betrays any claim to the film- maker being a director of great repute. This is the stuff of satire; if Mitchell and Webb had done this I would be pissing myself.What a shame then that it is completely straight-faced seriousness.

I hated this in every way. I'll be honest, I hadn't heard of Kusturica before seeing it but I've since learned he's regarded as a genius in filmmaking.Even though Maradona is a cheating, egotistical little fool, there's no escaping the fact that he's a colourful individual and was one hell of a footballer.However, I learned very little more than I already knew about him. Everything was done so obviously on Maradona's terms. It was nothing more than an arty Maradona love-in. He hates the USA, he hates Britain, he loves Castro, he loved cocaine, he played a good game of football. That much we did learn. However, I and anyone else who follows football, already knew that. But, let's not forget, he cheated time and time again. Whilst he comes across as remorseful for the effect him doing drugs had on his family, he clearly sees himself as a victim for the effect it had on his career. The man was a professional sportsman, an idol and role model for millions around the world, yet he's bitter and feels hard-done-by about the fact that he was one of those to get caught out.Any cheating on the pitch, namely the infamous 'Hand of God' against England, was portrayed as no more than a schoolboy prank he got away with. How did Maradona get away with it? According to Maradona it was because of God (further proof of Maradona's deluded mind)! Then, frequently during the film, Kusturica depicts the second goal in the same game (reputedly the best goal ever scored) as some sort of political comment on the Falklands War, with a cartoon Maradona slaying Prince Charles, the Queen and Margaret Thatcher to name a few. Sorry, but whilst the goal was a stroke of genius, it was no political comment; it's just convenient to suggest it was.A footballer surely doesn't justify such an arty piece of filmmaking. If a filmmaker's intention is to profile a footballer, then surely a chronological study from the start to present day is what's needed, not philosophical ramblings over what made him what he is/was. If these ramblings taught us anything, then fine, but they didn't. He wasn't a revolutionary (although he clearly believes he is), he wasn't the great ruler of a nation (I'm sure he believes he's this too). He was a footballer and a cheat. A brilliant footballer, yes, and arguably the best to have ever lived and his life off the pitch is thought to be equally as (if not more so) fascinating as his life on it. That's why I'm so frustrated to have learnt so little from this. I wanted to hear him discuss in greater detail his humble beginnings, his rise through the ranks in footballing terms, his experiences with drugs, more details around his time at Barcelona and Napoli etc. The lack of facts and the general sycophantic tone that shrouded the whole film left me none the wiser and even less enamoured by Maradona than I was to begin with.It's amazing (and again very odd) to see just how revered he is in Argentina but I wished the film would have stopped dwelling on the fact and get on with some steadfast facts on the man himself. I don't wish to see some weird looking Argentine couple supposedly getting married at the church of Maradona, nor do I want to see Maradona singing a song (presumably about himself) for what seemed like an eternity. This was just further evidence of his God complex. I found both these scenes to be really peculiar.Aside from it being mind-numbingly dull, I found the whole thing a bit sinister really. Kusturica especially so. His voice-over was horrible, his bedraggled appearance horrible and then you get him fawning all over the supposed great man.Maradona's autobiography, El Diego, whilst interesting at times, was like reading a true Rock 'N' Roller's autobiography without any mention of the sex, drugs and excesses that go with it. Whilst a different approach was taken here, it was by no means a more interesting one.Total garbage.

Born and raised in Brazil, and like everybody else here, I was taught to say "Pelé is better than Maradona" even before they taught me how to walk or wipe myself. As I grew older, I kept believing this was true. But the more I got to know both men, the more I thought this was probably applied only to football skills - Pelé kept giving me reasons to believe he was the perfect moron, while Maradona's subversive stance on everything found sympathy on anybody in South America more or less haunted by our CIA-sponsored, "anti-communist" military dictatorships. Even on my early years as a not-so-subversive toddler, I knew there was something wrong about Pelé's easygoing attitude towards the establishment.Not only that, but coming from a family which dealt with addiction for generations, I learned very early that Garrincha was by far a better player than Pelé. Brazilian media and FIFA can keep ignoring Garrincha because he was never the Mr. Nice Guy Pelé pretended to be, but one just has to watch how Garrincha made 2 players on the other team sit on the pitch without even touching the ball (probably one of the best moments on the World Sport's history).Unlike many of my fellow countrymen and women, my family didn't think one's accomplishments should be overshadowed by his or her tendency to abuse psychoactive substances. Nevertheless, I just couldn't ignore what Pelé did on the playing field - even though Maradona, Garrincha and probably the 2 Ronaldos were actually a lot "more magical".But I digress.This was the first Kusturica movie I've ever seen, and I was surprised to find out the auteur's got such a faithful audience like others I've had the pleasure to know - like Trier and Tarantino (yes, you heard me). I guess my ignorance towards Kusturica was probably a good thing, since I've been reading here many of his disappointed fans complaining that, ironically enough, he was too much of a fan boy on Maradona-Kusturica.I'm not so stupid as to think that socialism is the root of all evil. South America lacks true heroes, so I love when Cinema gives me and others the opportunity to know more about the life stories of such controversial people like Fidel, Che and Maradona.I just couldn't stop watching this movie, ingenuously hoping the final takes would give me some extremely-needed closure to the big mess that was Diego's life. As most of the greatest movies ever - and Dogville comes to mind -, you never get closure. You go out with a lot more doubts than certainties. And that's a good thing. In my humble opinion, "feelgood" movies are no different than cocaine. They shouldn't be called movies, for starters. They're a drug made to make you numb and feeling good about yourself. That's not what the Art of Cinema is about for me. I don't want to feel good about a movie. I want to feel challenged. I want to have my brain building new synapses, no matter how painful might the process be.Maradona-Kusturica did that for me. Surprisingly enough, as much unlikely I thought it would be, I ended up getting what goes on on the minds of those wackos at the Church of Maradona. I understand now and I admire them - this is the kind of rupture of a concept that amazes me, pretty much as Hooligans(2005) made me see through the vandalism and admire those poor guys whom at least found strength to believe in "something".Maradona is not a genius outside the playing field. He's just a guy. A very "real" guy, that does good things and bad things, like anyone else. Not even the pope gets to be nicknamed "The God"; nevertheless, Diego does his best to cope with such a fanatic crowd everywhere (his visit to Naples was out-of-this world).Many people will just ignore this movie because it is likely to praise the deeds of a cocaine addict. The kind of people that thinks that cocaine abuse (or any other drug for that matter) should remain as taboo should keep watching Titanic or Desperate Housewives. As my dentist once said, you should keep touching the wound instead of trying everything to pretend it's not there.I sympathise with people that screw up because I feel they no longer wear their masks. One could think Maradona was just a selfish bastard after all. A guy who cared for nothing else than just putting more snow on his nostrils. Funny. You get to see how his daughters, even though carrying a lot of grief, love him and like many people also think he's their god.Pelé, FIFA's Mr. Nice Guy, in the other hand... Married an underage girl, barely used his fame to help not even Brazil's football institutions, let alone the country as a whole. Later on he could come and tell that 1970's World Cup was a gift to the Brazilian people so we could have at least a little bit of happiness through all that was going on. But that doesn't change the fact that bringing Jules Rimet Trophy home helped the dictatorial government ease the always-growing social instability. Neither that he shook hands (and will keep shaking) with every and each man in power because, after all, it's so much easy than thinking about your symbolic role for a nation's populace.I pity for Edinho - the King Pelé's imprisoned and addicted son. If only his father had been more of a moron like Maradona was, he could be the one jumping on a stage and singing how his father was a god.Oh, and about football and movies... I can only hope that Kusturica ever gets to love Garrincha as much as he loves Diego, and decides to make a movie about him. That guy's certainly worth the title of Wizard of the Ball.

6to Festival International de Cine Contemporaneo de la Ciudad de Mexico: Maradona by Kusturica (Emir Kusturica, 2008)* 23/02/09 *Two days ago was the first Saturday of FICCO and a free screening was programmed at the Zocalo of Mexico City: Maradona by Kusturica. I saw this film for the very first time on DVD exactly the same Saturday in which I saw Steven Soderbergh's The Argentine so that day I had a "revolutionary" Saturday, with two Argentineans and with Fidel Castro in both films. Last Saturday I went to the Zocalo, it was a really good number of people in the audience and for sure some persons wearing Maradona shirts. I love football and if you ask me who is the greatest football player of all time you will not hear Pele or any other name, either you hear Diego or Maradona or Pelusa or simply God. And that's a fact, and sure Pele is the king but Maradona is God and sure there are many people that are anti-Maradona but I doubt if those haters can stop looking at Diego playing. So I saw for the first time a film standing, in the Zocalo and of the FICCO, and I'm very very glad I came, I knew the film certainly and it was great to watch it on a big screen, it was great just to watch it again. When I first saw it back in January of course I knew pretty much everything about Maradona, certainly you don't have to know a lot about Diego to enjoy this film but for fans this is just a must-see. The God, the Bad and the Ugly, unforgettable and wonderful score, we hear part of the main theme, Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra (I really liked Super 8 Stories, recommend also), played and there Emir was introduced as the Maradona of cinema, later on Kusturica will mention both Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah, for him at the time when he meet Maradona this looked like a character from a Sergio Leone or Sam Peckinpah film or like from the Mexican Revolution, almost impossible to think that he played football like God. Here we have a recovered Maradona, talking about his drug addiction, about his regrets, about those birthdays in which he was not with his daughters Dalma and Giannina, about the player that he could have been if only he had stayed out of the drugs, about the player that we all lose. Probably the most touching and memorable moment of this film is when Diego sings what for me is the very best of the songs composed to him, the song by Rodrigo, the song "La mano de Dios". Here Maradona sings it in first person and at one point during the performance he ask to his daughters to join him, that moment is really memorable, after the worst Diego was finally there to enjoy his family. We can hear other of those Maradona songs, we see here Manu Chao (another memorable part) and we can hear the song "Para Siempre Diego" at a bar, a bar that functions as sponsor or something like that for the Iglesia Maradoniana (the Maradonian Church). The stuff with the members of the Maradonian Church is simply fantastic (I knew about its existence yet this was the first time I actually saw stuff of the Maradonian Church), if you get married by that church you have to add the name Diego to your name and not only the husband but also the wife! And their Lord's Prayer! A lot of fun, and certainly just a proof of that, infinite, love to Diego. As I guess you know unlike Pele Maradona does played for European teams, he played for one of the greatest teams not only of Spain but of the world, FC Barcelona and for sure he had great games (here Maradona travels to Belgrade, he meet Kusturica's son (is really fantastic when Kusturica's son says something like "I never wear a shirt before but today I'm going to meet God") and more familiars of Emir, including his wife and his grandson who for Maradona has legs of a football player. Will be certainly unforgettable for Emir the fact that Maradona was the last person who spoke with his mother before she passed away. Also during this trip Emir takes Diego to the Stadion Crvena Zvezda, home of the football club Red Star Belgrade, certainly that football-related stuff can't missed but is very special since Kusturica suffered a really great goal of Maradona while he was playing for FC Barcelona and here Kusturica indicates to Diego to which goal he shoot that day, also Kusturica show us his abilities to dominate the ball, he is pretty good actually) but nothing like those from his times in Italy, in the South of Italy, in Napoles. The only way to defeat a great power, football and Argentina won that football war against England in 1986 and a team from the South of Italy came to not only defeat but to humiliate a Northern team when Maradona leaded Napoli but certainly not only that: 2 Scudettos, the first one was not only the first Scudetto for Napoli but also for any Southern team, 1 Coppa Italia, 1 Suppercoppa Italiana and the first major European title, the UEFA Cup. Here we can the return of Maradona to Napoles and you can imagine the people, there's only one thing to do when Maradona is present and here we can how even Hugo Chavez jumps and stuff. "Stop Bush" says a t-shirt of Diego, the Sex Pistol of football and yes Sex Pistols' music is here, only one song (God Save the Queen) and we hear it each time we are just mesmerized by the playing of Diego, all certainly lead us to the masterpiece of Diego, the goal of the century. I think even the British has to celebrate.