A Minor Miracle (1985) User Reviews

A minor movie

[Wizard-8 · 3 September 2013]

This movie is supposedly about a miracle of sorts, but if you ask me, the miracle found in this movie is that this low budget independent production not only managed to get John Huston in its cast, but also soccer legend Pele. One has to wonder how they got both legends to appear in the movie when the screenplay is so lacking. The biggest flaw in the screenplay is that none of the characters is fleshed out enough to become convincing in our eyes, especially the child characters who should be the heart and soul of the movie. And the climatic soccer sequence, which should have us on the edge of our seats, is extremely boring and poorly choreographed. If you are wondering about performances, Huston seems to be phoning it in, and Pele is downright awful (though in fairness, he seems to not be extremely familiar with the English language.) In short, this is a very forgettable movie, which might explain why the copyright holders forgot to renew its copyright, resulting in the movie falling into the public domain.

Poor Pelé

[jeapc · 2/10 · 11 January 2009]

We saw this as a free second feature "sneak preview" when this was apparently being test marketed in 1983. We had to fill out a survey afterward. What I remember was:

1. This was a dreadfully bad movie.

2. My surprise that John Huston was in such a clinker.

3. They did a good action sequence involving a children's soccer match. At least one person in the audience was cheering the orphans' soccer match.

4. When the survey asked if I found sympathy for any of the characters, I answered Pelé. I felt sorry that his big screen debut was in such a bad movie.

I do not remember much more than that.

Pele and the guy who edited The Boogeyman

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 18 February 2021]

After everyone took the Mill Creek picks that they wanted, I jumped in and picked up the stragglers, the survivors, the movies no one else wanted to watch.

A movie with a bunch of orphans who turn to John Huston as a kindly priest and the game of soccer to save their orphanage? Why would anyone have picked anything else? And an appearance by Pele? What is wrong with all the other writers on this site?

Director Terrell Tannen edited The Boogeyman and The Boogeyman II, which was really like only directing one movie if you've seen the second one. He also produced, edited and second unit directed Olivia, which is one of the strangest movies I've ever seen. I have no idea how this prepared him to make a religious soccer movie.

Between this and Victory, I have now seen two soccer movies with Pele in them. And John Huston too, now that I think about it.

great soccer movie

[spiderj · 10/10 · 24 September 1999]

Daven Kapla was great in his role as the "evil soccer player." Pretty cool. Soccer is represented well in this film. So is the battle between the sick man (Huston). Pele, as always is amazing. Brazil should be very proud. Much better than Cats.

Charming True Story

[[e-mail] · 10/10 · 14 April 2015]

A lot of criticism has been levelled at this film, along with considerable incredulity that it attracted Pele and John Huston to its cast. Lets set the record straight. This is a true story, which John Huston was passionate about bringing to the screen. Which is why he worked so hard to put the project together. Pele was in it because he was involved in the events depicted in the film. The film cast one or two other of the original protagonists to play themselves, and also, I believe, genuine orphans to play the orphans. This was intended to lend authenticity to the performances, which it does. It also lends a natural, unforced, quality to the performances of the children. The quality of the script and direction is such that you don't need precursor events to set up one's knowledge of the children's characters. They are simply who they are, and the viewer, if paying attention, understands them and their motivations immediately. This film is admittedly not typically in the American style, as it does not spell everything out. It tends more towards the European style of film making, with its lean and spare script assuming intelligence in the viewer. I love the refreshingly un-cutesie nature of the film, and the fact that its not a straight-forward City Corporation bad, orphans good story. It is never that black and white.

Interesting story on how Huston became involved

[andrewmarkgee · 27 December 2018]

I haven't seen the movie, but here's an interesting story on how John Huston got involved with the movie.

This is a great futbol film.

[dadrummeboy · 10/10 · 10 March 2024]

People don't realize this is a true story and that the parts Pele plays are the parts that he did in real life. I hate when people go into movies and films looking for what's wrong with them instead of just living for the entertainment bad or good laugh or cry. I always go to a film with the positive aspect of I want to be entertained if it's entertaining I will admit it is entertaining if it didn't entertain me I will say it didn't entertain me but I will not bad-mouth it. I think the storyline is great and the acting is superb I'll tell you why because everybody expects acting to be some phenomenal thing how about just being real is being real. Some people want this acting thing to be like what it's really not is real life is a lot of the acting the way people act is fine it's entertaining it's fun but it doesn't always have to be out of this world to draw you out it just has to be lovable fun and exciting, or at least entertaining it doesn't have to be exciting.