Film Analysis Of Pelé: Birth Of A Legend

Pelé: Birth of a Legend is a biographical film directed and written by Jeff Zimbalist and Michael Zimbalist. It follows the early life of a Brazilian footballer named Edson “Dico” Arantes do Nascimento, who would later become widely known as simply Pelé. Alongside Pelé, the main characters in this movie are Dondinho, Pelé’s father, who was forced to quit football due to a fractured leg, Celeste, Pelé’s mother, Feola, the head coach of the Brazil national team, Waldemar de Brito, the scout who discovered Pelé, José Altafini, Pelé’s early rival and later teammate, and Garrincha and Zito who would become Pelé’s teammates. The movie starts off with Dondinho watching Brazil lose the 1950 World Cup Final to Uruguay and returning home in a depressed

Throughout the movie, arousal was something Pelé struggled with since he was a child and it continually got worse as he aged. Firstly, as discussed earlier, during the Santos football camp, Pelé doubting his abilities to do well in football making his motivation at an extreme low. As the coaches would often yell at him from the sidelines to open his eyes and to play in the style taught, Pelé used the images of playing football with his father to centre himself. After the use of imagery, Pelé is able to find his football roots, play with ginga and gain his motivation back to score goals. Secondly, during the World Cup, Pelé’s arousal levels were at an all time high. Before he goes to play, he vomits and those around him were constantly yelling at him, stating things such, “stand up straight, look older than you are, lace your goddam boots up, don’t do ginga, it’s way too dangerous.” But Pelé once again uses his imagery technique to help him relax. With this skill use of motivational Specific and motivational general imagery techniques, Pelé is able to decrease his arousal to accomplish his goal. In conclusion, it become evident the goal that intrinsically motivated Pelé was not the only way he was able to accomplish his goal. With the help of peptalks, imagery and feedback, Pelé was able to keep his arousal levels in check which influenced his