| Abstract: |
Football, which is an important part of daily life in almost every society in
our day, has progressed in similar periods with the cinema. These two fields,
which were among the important actors of the 20th century, existed in daily
life through their various intersecting aspects, and these similarities
provided a ground for the cinema to be nourished by football. Football has
functioned far beyond just being a game within social life and turned into a
highly important area at both cultural and economic levels through the bond it
has formed with the symbolic values of daily life. The influence of football
on masses is too big to be ignored. Offering a hero to individuals isolated by
modern life with whom they can identify themselves, great joys experienced
when the ball meets the net, and a sense of belonging to the team they support
and to people they do not know, football is an activity that has achieved
goals far beyond being a game. Together with the Second World War, football
gradually became more professional, more commercialized, and the football
spectator alienated from football, which was an important part of his life.
With the development of the phenomenon of being a supporter, football
followers regained their existence in football and managed to exist within a
collectivity.In the present study, the relationship between football and
social life, and the phenomenon of being a supporter are examined through the
film Looking for Eric, which is among the important films of Ken Loach’s
cinema. The film narrates how the life of a postman who has strong feelings of
support for his team and who looks for hope for his bad life changes for the
better when his most favorite footballer comes into his life and how the
experiences in a football field can be put into practice in real life.
Playfields in which a reproduction in the public sense springs to life,
especially the stadiums, once again appear in front of us with this film as
the proof of that “football is never only football†. What makes the film
different from other football-themed films is the use of a real football star,
and that the film constructs a narrative through the relationship between life
and football presenting true slices of the footballer’s life and
achievements in the football field. |