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United Kingdom, United States · 2006
Rated PG-13 · 1h 37m
Director John Dower
Starring Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer, Raphael de la Sierra, Phil Woosnam
Genre Documentary
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In the 1970s, the North American Soccer League marked the first attempt to introduce soccer to American sports fans. While most teams had only limited success at best, one managed to break through to genuine mainstream popularity—the New York Cosmos—after landing Pelé, the world’s most celebrated soccer star.
Though the movie promises a Behind the Music–type look at the meteoric rise and tragic fall of the Cosmos -- a team (if the press notes are to be believed) overwhelmed by wealth, groupies, rivalry and power struggles -- it all adds up to a tempest in a tea pot.
New York Daily News by Jack Mathews
Once in a Lifetime performs a belated autopsy on the Cosmos and the North American Soccer League and basically concludes that they died of impatience.
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
It's a stylish scramble of evocative footage, groovy music, and crazy-candid reminiscences from key players still proud to score.
Once in a Lifetime, which is being released at the peak of World Cup fever, is the sort of sports documentary that will appeal even to nonfans. It's a quintessential only-in-New York story.
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
Crowder and Dower's film is a refreshing reminder that without Ross and the Erteguns, pundits would have had to coin an entirely different term to describe "soccer moms," since without the Cosmos' brief and shining moment in the sun, suburban soccer leagues would be as rare as collegiate boccie tournaments.
Once In A Lifetime is less a proper documentary than an extended VH1 Behind The Music episode, but there's only a little bit wrong with that.
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