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Trailer for "Once in a Lifetime"

If you’re not already a soccer fan, the documentary Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos isn’t likely to make you one. Back in the early 1970s, the Cosmos were the team assembled by Warner Communications chairman Steve Ross to be the centerpiece of a league that would make the sport as popular in the US as it already was in the rest of the world. After several years of failing to make much headway, he decided to recruit the Brazilian superstar Pelé, who was coaxed out of retirement by Ross’s friend Henry Kissinger.

Of course, he wasn’t indifferent to the multimillion dollar contract he was offered. At a time when the highest-paid player in sports, Hank Aaron, was getting $200,000 a season, it was the lure of money more than anything else that sparked the American public’s interest in the Cosmos. Once in a Lifetime is enamoured less by the athletic abilities of the team’s players (who at its peak included the top world soccer stars from 14 different countries) than the businessmen behind them and their ultimately unsuccessful ploys to develop a cash cow. Perhaps this focus was decided by filmmakers Paul Crowder and John Dower after they failed to win the participation of Pelé, who was promoting another documentary that focused entirely on himself. As such, this is recommended primarily to students of 1970s excess, who should thrill to the nonstop soundtrack of forgotten disco tunes.