Product Description

Sometimes, to follow your dreams…you've go to bend the rules! Audiences and critics alike are cheering wildly for this "exhilarating…terrific comedy" (Entertainment Weekly) about a young girl who is torn between adhering to family traditions and attaining super-stardom on the soccer field. Hailed as the year's must-see crowd pleaser that "makes you feel good and laugh out loud" (Chicago Sun-Times), "Bend It Like Beckham" scores! (Time Magazine)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2170 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-09-30
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 112 minutes

Amazon.com
Bend It Like Beckham is true girl power. This glorious comedy centers on Jess (Parminder Nagra), an Indian girl born in England whose only desire is to become a football--or, as we say on this side of the Atlantic, soccer--star like her idol, David Beckham; but her traditional family refuses to even consider it. With the help of her new friend Juliet (Keira Knightley), Jess secretly joins a girls' team under the guidance of a male coach (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). As the team starts to gain some attention, Jess's secret can't be kept forever. The story of Bend It Like Beckham is so genuine and detailed that it transcends all the sports-movie formulas that it also fulfills with cheeky exuberance. Wonderfully acted, and written and directed with loving care by Gurinder Chadha (Bhaji on the Beach, What's Cooking?), this movie is pure delight from start to finish. --Bret Fetzer

From The New Yorker
A crowd-pleasing British movie devoted to the radical idea that girls can play soccer and sprain their ankles. Jess (Parminder Nagra) is a Sikh who hides her love of the game from her conservative parents, while Jules (Keira Knightley) is a tomboy who defies her English mother. Both of them have a thing for their Irish coach, Joe (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers)-he of the wounded knee and the watery eyes. The movie is a hodgepodge: nicely barbed scenes with Jess's family bump against weird practice montages that play like sports-bra ads. What it all adds up to is multicultural empowerment for the pre-teen shin-guard crowd. -Michael Agger
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Great Movie!!!
I love cross cultural movies and books and this is one of the finest I've seen. The book "Veil of Roses" is also a great example of how two cultures can blend very nicely into one.

A jewel of a comedy, don't miss it!
This is a rare film because it is funny, filled with action, revealing the struggle of cultures attempting to evolve within a foreign country and yet, fighting to keep the set of values that make them unique.

Bend it Like Beckham is a superb comedy that evolves around the lives of an Indian family raising two daughters, one following the values of her culture, considering that marriage and family are the keys to happiness, while the other is open and hungers to change the status quo.

Jess, masterfully played by Parminder Nagra, is an Indian girl born in England who, like her father, has great athletic aptitude and dreams of becoming a soccer player. She is fighting against prejudice because her own people do not want to see a girl showing her legs all over the television, a country where girls do not have the opportunities to shine if they excel in her sport, and her own demons because she fears rejection.

Enter a new English friend Juliet, superbly played by Keira Knightley, who scouts for her soccer team and is impressed about the ability of Jess when she sees her play at the park, competing and winning while surrounded by boys. Juliet approaches Jess and encourages her to join the girls team, and Jess accepts but secretly joins because she fears her family finding out and not permitting her to follow her dreams.

The male coach, played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, becomes the agent of change that opens Jess to no longer fear rejection, to overcome her personal fear of showing disfigurement in public, and the trigger for Jess to open her heart to welcome real change and that is becoming part of another cultural set of values.

This story is much like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" a genuine story of the struggle individuals go through as they open their hearts to understanding others with different and sometimes, clashing values, morals, and religious beliefs. This movie is a jewel and if you have teenagers around questioning their lives, this film provides a fun way to realize that we need to understand who we are, work hard at what we want, and follow our dreams, regardless of the barriers we encounter.

Don't miss it!!!

"Bend it Like Beckham" Movie DVD
Hooray For Bollywood! THis is a very sweet and funny movie about a young girl, trying to swim upstream against the traditions of her Immigrant family. She is always respectful of them, but sometimes has to go against their wishes to fulfill her own role as a female soccer player.
I love this movie, there is no "bathroom" humor such as that found in most movies today...just a very heart warming story with a inside look at family life, It's great!