MOORO THE MOVIE
A new film celebrates the life, times and little-known struggles of English football’s greatest captain. Watch and learn
How well do you think you know Bobby Moore? Beyond the famous image of England’s greatest ever skipper perched on his team-mates’ shoulders and hoisting aloft the World Cup trophy in 1966, there’s plenty more you may not associate with the West Ham legend.
Bobby, a revealing new film created by director Ron Scalpello and journalist-cum-producer Matt Lorenzo to help mark the 50th anniversary of England’s World Cup win, attempts to honour Moore’s memory with a little help from those who knew him best. It sheds some light on his horrifying – and secret – cancer battles two years before that momentous Wembley final, and how football shunned the 108-cap defender after his retirement.
“I was lucky enough to grow up with Bobby – my dad was a sports journalist and they were mates,” Lorenzo tells FFT. “It was nice to impress your friends by saying England’s World Cup-winning captain was in your back garden last week. Actually, it wound them up.
“Years later, my boss at Sky Sports was looking for someone to preview fixtures, so I suggested Bobby. He said: ‘No, he’s a bit old hat’. It infuriated me, but it was just one example of how he was treated after his playing career finished. Nobody would give him a job. He didn’t get the respect he deserved – we want to redress the balance.”
Lorenzo recruited Moore’s family to help – wives Tina and Stephanie (“the only two people he really opened up to”) and his daughter Roberta – plus a host of former team-mates and friends, including Gordon Banks, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters.
However, despite his willing helpers, film-making – and more specifically, archive footage – isn’t cheap. Lorenzo & Co. launched a Kickstarter page to raise £100,000, which he admits was “an experiment that really didn’t work out”, but that amount was merely a tiny portion of a £1.3 million project.
“We used a researcher called Richard Wiseman, who’s a genius,” Lorenzo says. “He got coverage of the 1966 World Cup Final from two angles that hadn’t been seen before. FIFA wanted $22,000 per minute, and there are 20 minutes. That could have scuppered it – but they recognised the Bobby Moore Fund angle. The FA had given us their stuff for free, so I got it down by two-thirds.”
You’ll certainly learn something new about Moore – but what’s the big reveal?
“I knew him, but nobody actually knew him,” says Lorenzo. “He was a proper hero, but not just for what happened on the pitch. As Frank Lampard Snr says in the film, he was a role model not just for football, but for life.”
‘Bobby’ will preview in British cinemas on May 27, and will be available on DVD from May 30