Review – One Night in Istanbul

The movie One Night in Istanbul is a treat for Liverpool fans

If One Night in Istanbul has one theme, it’s the importance of the twelfth man. As Director James Marquand said in front of a packed theatre: “Everyone knows what happened on the pitch that night; we wanted to focus on what happened to the fans.” Fortunately, the film does a very good job in conveying this.

One Night in Istanbul centres around two faithful if not particularly bright Liverpool fans: Tommy (Steven Waddington) and Jerry (Paul Barber) and their two sons. Both fathers are diehard Liverpool fans who were there when the club won its first four European trophies, and are eagerly awaiting the fifth final in Istanbul.

Except there’s one problem; they’re skint. Faced with the prospect of watching the final in the local pub, the two of them pawn a pair of cufflinks adorned with swastikas to a scouse gangster (amusingly claiming that they are “Hitler’s cufflinks”) and as luck would have it, the man has a buyer in Istanbul who will give them two tickets to the final in exchange. It’s incredibly convenient but it acts as a decent reason to get the two fathers over to Turkey with their sons.

While the film is based off the play of the same name, it’s not really as funny as the original. This is in part due to the film’s 12A rating, which sacrifices a lot of the play’s scouse humour as a result, likely in order to appeal to fans of a younger generation who might not be ready to hear that sort of language.

As a result, most of the film’s early humour revolves around Tommy and Jerry’s inability to adapt to Turkish culture and understand the language. While the jokes are initially funny – Jerry mistaking the mosque for a massive train station brought a chuckle – it does start to get old after a while. While I imagine these gags will bring a fair few laughs to those who have experienced similar problems away from home in the Champions League, it’s not a particularly original concept and that perhaps prevents the jokes from landing quite as well as they should.

There are quite a few gags that work very well though; special mention has to be made for Jerry’s “lucky pants”, a pair of white Y-fronts that haven’t been washed for decades. They look appropriately disgusting and make a few hilarious appearances throughout the film. The banter between Tommy and Jerry is also great; one moment in particular that impressed was Jerry’s look of complete incredulity when Tommy asks: “Have I ever let you down?”

It eludes to a long-term bond between the pair that’s frequently referred to throughout the film, complete with a hilarious story on Jerry’s encounter with a prostitute in his younger days, much to the glee of the two sons listening in.

It’s Tommy’s bond with his son that ultimately becomes the film’s sub-plot as the dad tries to reconnect with his son – a musician who’s lost his respect for his father for throwing away all his musical talent on his love for Liverpool. And that’s where the theme of the film comes in; the kid doesn’t seem to be that bothered by football at the beginning of the film, only heading to Istanbul for the cultural experience.

He doesn’t understand the importance of the twelfth man and doesn’t respect Tommy’s ability to get the crowd going; it’s ultimately this trip that lets him acknowledge his father’s skills and wins him Tommy his son’s respect. It does require him to seemingly become a devout Liverpool fan in the space of one night, but if you’re willing to forgive that then it works with the theme quite well.

I will say that the film does a great job of recreating the atmosphere that existed that day; from taxis full of Liverpool fans honking and waving to each other on the road, to crowds of Liverpudlians swarming the streets of Istanbul, to a coming together of LFC fans from all over the world as they sing and fall asleep on the same rooftop.

There’s one scene in particular involving a clash of Liverpool and Milan fans in a pub that was particularly great, with the Italians’ attitudes reflecting that of their team on the pitch, with a Milanese fan remarking that “Liverpool are done with; Milan is the future”. Reminds me a lot of Gattuso casually touching the cup as he ran out on to the field.

The film also comes complete with real Champions League footage, all of which bring back a phenomenal level of nostalgia. Alonso’s equaliser still gives me goose bumps (and Tommy’s reaction in particular is absolutely hilarious) while seeing Dudek’s winning penalty save in slow motion is absolutely mesmerising.

If you’re a Liverpool fan, then there’s no real reason to not to watch One Night in Istanbul. It’s a fun movie that gives you ample moments of nostalgia and brings up a lot of comical moments that every football fan should feel familiar with. Non-Liverpool fans might struggle to get past the obvious LFC fan-service, but if they can then perhaps they might buy into it as well.

But in all honesty, it’s not made for them. It’s made for the thousands of Liverpool fans that were there on that famous night, and for those who watched it on the telly at home or grew up hearing tales of that one night in Istanbul. For us, it’s everything it needed to be.

It’s made for the twelfth man, and that’s fine with me.

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