Untold: Hope Solo VS Soccer
Untold return with another documentary film, this time honing in on the scandals surrounding American football (soccer) player, Hope Solo. Regarded as one of the best female goalkeepers of all time, her story is mired in controversy, eventually culminating in her unceremonious firing due to bad comments to the press.
The film teases a “big coverup” with its opening monologue but in reality all of this stems from finding out how much more the men make in football compared to the women (we’ll circle back to this shortly). It’s also worth bearing in mind that all her comrades in the world-cup winning team refused to comment and speak up on this documentary, which is telling unto itself.
Hope Solo’s journey to the top of the football podium was certainly not easy. Growing up, Hope had issues, and after learning about her backstory, the film moves into Hope’s journey to the top, determined to become the best goalkeeper in the world. And she did so. However, her comments to the media landed her in hot water with two head coaches, eventually ending with her contract terminated.
The crux of the issue here is finally addressed in the final 15 minutes or so of this documentary – equal pay. This has been a big talking point within the sporting community for a long time, with a rabble of women (led by Hope Solo) pushing for more money within the women’s game and being paid the same as the men.
The film egregiously brushes over the real crux of the issue here, immediately spewing the discourse that everything is “unfair” and “unjust”. Now, in the business world – and especially within the entertainment sphere – money is usually distributed determined based on the value of that individual or entity and how much revenue they generate.
Not once does Untold talk about ticket prices and the revenue the game generates, beyond how much the women and men are paid as individuals. It doesn’t, for example, show how the women’s game has far lower ticket prices (ergo bringing in less money for big crowds) or how long the professional game has been going for compared to the men. Instead, it focuses solely on attendance.
While I do understand that the situation for the women isn’t as glamorous as the men, it’s still a growing industry and needs time to flourish. That is going to take time and the game needs to organically grow its talent within that time to make sure its athletes are as good as the men in every facet – including goalkeeping.
It’s a little disingenuous for Untold not to be more fair and impartial in this point, which is a disappointing way of slanting things to fit a narrative. And that’s before mentioning the World Cup final which closes out at a 4-0 score-line… even though the actual result was 5-2, skewing things further in the realm of Solo being an unstoppable goalie.
Beyond these points though, Untold does a good job of showing the toxicity within the women’s camp and how difficult Hope’s journey was to get to the top. There’s no question that Hope Solo is a talented athlete, but this film in particular doesn’t do a very good job of balancing everything out with a fair commentary, which is a shame. It’s not a bad watch, but it’s not a particularly good one either.
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Verdict - 5/10
5/10
Hey Brett, thanks for commenting! You are absolutely right, however the key is in the language that’s used within the film. You’re absolutely correct, it does state the player earnings for the women, and the team revenue “during the success in that time period”. So they’re cherrypicking a very select period of time when the women generated more revenue compared to the men. If we’re using 2015 as an example…there was no world cup tournament for the men that year. This is kinda what I was getting at in terms of slanting this documentary to a very specific narrative.
They don’t, for example, mention ticket prices, how much revenue the women’s game as a whole brings in worldwide, the level of competition on the world stage (Hope says at one point “the men can’t even win their tournament” but misses out the level of talent on display inc. Ronaldo and Messi etc).
To me, it’s a bit disappointing to see Untold go this route. It’s definitely a conversation to have, because I do believe women’s football is rising and getting better every year, but a bit of an unbiased outlook would definitely have helped here.
Thanks for getting in touch, really appreciate the feedback!
-Greg W
This is false. The film explicitly states the player earnings, men’s team revenues, and women’s team revenues. The US men’s program generated a fraction of the revenue for the Federation compared to the women, while its players earned way more individually in the time period discussed.