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Below is an original editorial written by our director for BlueFields:
It’s Just a Game.
Soccer, or football, to most, and for that matter, sports themselves, have always had the ability to galvanize nations, inspire communities, and build individuals. If we were some intergalactic explorer looking down on humans and their sports, what might we think?
We might conclude that for humanity, the emotional weight in athletics goes far deeper than the adrenaline rush of a score, a near miss, or watching a favorite team fight towards the championship. Sports are timeless indications of who we are, who we strive to be, and what we are willing to sacrifice in order to win this never-ending game with ourselves.
But what makes the game so timeless? There is no product at the end, no cure for a disease, no new technology. Humanity does not walk away with a philosophical revelation that passes to the next generation. The field is simply empty before we arrive, and it will return to emptiness again after we leave. Even the scores disappear. It’s only while we’re here that we play the game.
Much like the arts and spiritual matters, there is an aesthetic quality to the game- and a temple experience for all who participate. Dare I say - it is more dramatic theatre than the ancient Greeks could have every constructed in their legendary myths. We witness miracles, emotional catharsis, and ritualized spectacle. As athletes, we experience glorious victories and agonizing defeats, always carried by those voices singing in the distance.
We, in the crowd, are these voices. An extension of the players, we not only identify with them, we participate. We follow them through their trials, their defeats, and we revel in their victories. We are players too in this game. As theatrical as they are, athletic games do not arrive with a script, a definitive plot, or even an individual voice. The only framework we have are the rules. It’s these rules that make the game last through the ages. It’s these rules that define it. It’s these rules that make it a game.
Perhaps sports will tell us more about the game of life than any art form ever could.
In 1942 Ukraine, during the height of World War 2, some surviving members of Kyiv’s top football squads were recruited into a bakery ran by the German Nazis. The surviving members of these professional teams, including members of the infamous Dynamo Kiev squad, became known as FC Start. FC Start was compiled together by Iosif Kordik, a German speaking Ukrainian who also happened to be football’s greatest fan.
Years before, Josef Stalin had already devastated the country during the Holomodor, a man made famine that killed millions, ravaged Ukraine and other parts of Eastern Europe. As if life was not brutal enough under Stalin, Adolf Hitler arrived, masking his plans to dominate with the sly cloak of liberation from Stalin. This liberation resulted in more Ukrainians killed than any other nationalities during the war, with estimates ranging between 12-15 million.
In desperate times, desperate men do desperate things.
What followed was a series of matches that pitted the bakers against the German Luftwaffe on a football pitch. Having proven earlier they could easily defeat the Nazis, the bakers were warned not to win again. The SS viewed the Ukrainians as “subhuman” and winning would not be tolerated. Due to the evanescence of history and the darkness behind the iron curtain for decades, countless legends have surrounded these Soviet events now commonly known as The Death Match.
What makes such a story so powerful? And why?
According to most accounts, the members of FC Start were faced with a tremendous decision:
To play means to win, to win means to die. These are the rules. The Nazis reminded them it was in their best interest to lose. To lose is to live.
But a life of misery was hardly a life at all. Ukraine was known as The Breadbasket of the Soviet Union, a land with enough grain to feed all of Europe. Forced to harvest their own grain to feed their enemies in a war against each other, the Ukrainians tragically continued to starve. There was only one place the bakers could truly live. There was only one place the bakers could truly win. There was only one place their nation could reclaim it’s voice.
The entire city arrived at the stadium to watch. Here was the game of life played out on the football field, and no stakes in the history of sports could ever be so high. The only trophy was loyalty and there would be no celebration if they won it. To win was to sacrifice. To win was to give. To win was to pay the ultimate price.
The bakers found another way to feed a starving nation. They lost their lives, but they achieved immortality in the eyes of their people.
It’s just a game.
We play by the rules set forth in front of us. But the story of FC Start transcends the arena of athletics. Even in a game against death, we, as humans, still may win. The field is empty before we arrive, and it returns to emptiness when the final whistle blows. Nothing else remains, not even the score. But while we’re here, we play. We move forward, we pay the price for these luminous moments upon the field. Pushed and pulled by the booming voice we hear deep inside, we earn our souls on the great playing field of life.
It’s from this perspective I have constructed a movie script. My movie, Playing the Game, deserves to be made into a feature length, film. I am working endlessly to make this happen. One day, the right people will answer the call. For now, you can discover more of what I am working on through this website and monthly emails. We are indeed producing this film. Made now as an animation (after years trying to produce it as a live action), we are well underway. But the journey is tremendous.
Please follow the links and help support an amazing story that deserves to be told, and deserves to be told right.
Tyler Gooden
facebook
twitter
TheFCStartMovie.com
[email protected]
Below is an original editorial written by our director for BlueFields:
It’s Just a Game.
Soccer, or football, to most, and for that matter, sports themselves, have always had the ability to galvanize nations, inspire communities, and build individuals. If we were some intergalactic explorer looking down on humans and their sports, what might we think?
We might conclude that for humanity, the emotional weight in athletics goes far deeper than the adrenaline rush of a score, a near miss, or watching a favorite team fight towards the championship. Sports are timeless indications of who we are, who we strive to be, and what we are willing to sacrifice in order to win this never-ending game with ourselves.
But what makes the game so timeless? There is no product at the end, no cure for a disease, no new technology. Humanity does not walk away with a philosophical revelation that passes to the next generation. The field is simply empty before we arrive, and it will return to emptiness again after we leave. Even the scores disappear. It’s only while we’re here that we play the game.
Much like the arts and spiritual matters, there is an aesthetic quality to the game- and a temple experience for all who participate. Dare I say - it is more dramatic theatre than the ancient Greeks could have every constructed in their legendary myths. We witness miracles, emotional catharsis, and ritualized spectacle. As athletes, we experience glorious victories and agonizing defeats, always carried by those voices singing in the distance.
We, in the crowd, are these voices. An extension of the players, we not only identify with them, we participate. We follow them through their trials, their defeats, and we revel in their victories. We are players too in this game. As theatrical as they are, athletic games do not arrive with a script, a definitive plot, or even an individual voice. The only framework we have are the rules. It’s these rules that make the game last through the ages. It’s these rules that define it. It’s these rules that make it a game.
Perhaps sports will tell us more about the game of life than any art form ever could.
In 1942 Ukraine, during the height of World War 2, some surviving members of Kyiv’s top football squads were recruited into a bakery ran by the German Nazis. The surviving members of these professional teams, including members of the infamous Dynamo Kiev squad, became known as FC Start. FC Start was compiled together by Iosif Kordik, a German speaking Ukrainian who also happened to be football’s greatest fan.
Years before, Josef Stalin had already devastated the country during the Holomodor, a man made famine that killed millions, ravaged Ukraine and other parts of Eastern Europe. As if life was not brutal enough under Stalin, Adolf Hitler arrived, masking his plans to dominate with the sly cloak of liberation from Stalin. This liberation resulted in more Ukrainians killed than any other nationalities during the war, with estimates ranging between 12-15 million.
In desperate times, desperate men do desperate things.
What followed was a series of matches that pitted the bakers against the German Luftwaffe on a football pitch. Having proven earlier they could easily defeat the Nazis, the bakers were warned not to win again. The SS viewed the Ukrainians as “subhuman” and winning would not be tolerated. Due to the evanescence of history and the darkness behind the iron curtain for decades, countless legends have surrounded these Soviet events now commonly known as The Death Match.
What makes such a story so powerful? And why?
According to most accounts, the members of FC Start were faced with a tremendous decision:
To play means to win, to win means to die. These are the rules. The Nazis reminded them it was in their best interest to lose. To lose is to live.
But a life of misery was hardly a life at all. Ukraine was known as The Breadbasket of the Soviet Union, a land with enough grain to feed all of Europe. Forced to harvest their own grain to feed their enemies in a war against each other, the Ukrainians tragically continued to starve. There was only one place the bakers could truly live. There was only one place the bakers could truly win. There was only one place their nation could reclaim it’s voice.
The entire city arrived at the stadium to watch. Here was the game of life played out on the football field, and no stakes in the history of sports could ever be so high. The only trophy was loyalty and there would be no celebration if they won it. To win was to sacrifice. To win was to give. To win was to pay the ultimate price.
The bakers found another way to feed a starving nation. They lost their lives, but they achieved immortality in the eyes of their people.
It’s just a game.
We play by the rules set forth in front of us. But the story of FC Start transcends the arena of athletics. Even in a game against death, we, as humans, still may win. The field is empty before we arrive, and it returns to emptiness when the final whistle blows. Nothing else remains, not even the score. But while we’re here, we play. We move forward, we pay the price for these luminous moments upon the field. Pushed and pulled by the booming voice we hear deep inside, we earn our souls on the great playing field of life.
It’s from this perspective I have constructed a movie script. My movie, Playing the Game, deserves to be made into a feature length, film. I am working endlessly to make this happen. One day, the right people will answer the call. For now, you can discover more of what I am working on through this website and monthly emails. We are indeed producing this film. Made now as an animation (after years trying to produce it as a live action), we are well underway. But the journey is tremendous.
Please follow the links and help support an amazing story that deserves to be told, and deserves to be told right.
Tyler Gooden
TheFCStartMovie.com
[email protected]