The Damned United
The movie The Damned United is an adaptation of David Peace’ book Damned Utd. Tom Hooper is director and Peter Morgan is the writer of the film that runs for duration of 97 minutes. The film has broken the usual norms of a sports movie and that sets it apart from the rest.
Michael Sheen plays the football coach in the film, which is yet another real-life character for Sheen and surely he will not complain one bit. The film is not soccer match-centric but it focuses much on the career of legendary British football coach Brian Clough, which is the part played by Michael Sheen.
The major part of the film covers Brain Clough career as the coach of Great Britain’s championship team Leeds United. The story of the film runs simultaneously on two tracks; Clough’s short stay with the Leeds United and his past job with the Derby County. He harbours bitter feelings for Don Revie (Colm Meaney) who is the manager of the Leeds. This grudge against Leeds and Revie motivates him to win against the Leeds and takes the beaten Derby team to the top.
Clough labels the Leeds team as cheaters and later in 1974 when takes charge of the rival team he meets with same allegations he made previously. Clough in fact tells the Leeds that their football feats were achieved not because of their skill or potential to play the game but by cheating. Clough has a strong hatred for the Leeds even when he was coaching them and it is also believed that the Leeds intentionally lost a few games to bring down Clough.
Clough was fiercely loved the game and his short stay with Leeds United gave a dramatic end to his career. Clough was rather too passionate, which would cause the tension and in one of the match against Leeds made him so nervous that he locked himself in a room unable to take control over his own mind and the cheers from the crowd.
The Damned United
But his assistant Peter Taylor played by Timothy Spall who is exactly the opposite to the personality of Clough. And Clough insults Taylor when disagrees to join him to coach the Leeds and this incident was the beginning of Clough’s career failure.
Spall has don outstanding job as a supporting actor and even Michael Sheen as the passionate coach is given a stupendous performance. The movie does not concentrate too much on the sport despite the fact that it is a sports film rather it gives an insight about the legendary British coach’ remarkable career that reached the top and in no time saw a disastrous end.
His 44-day tenure as the Leeds coach has still not faded from the mind of the public. In regular sports movies you get to see the hero of the film who triumphs in the end after being beaten badly but in The Damned United Clough falls from fame to destruction.
The movie definitely is worth watching.
| Film | The Damned United |
|---|---|
| Cast | Colm Meaney as Don Revie Henry Goodman as Manny Cussins David Roper as Sam Bolton Jimmy Reddington as Keith Archer Oliver Stokes as Nigel Clough Ryan Day as Simon Clough Michael Sheen as Brian Clough Mark Bazeley as Austin Mitchell Timothy Spall as Peter Taylor |
| Director | Tom Hooper |
| Writers | Peter Morgan David Peace |
| Producers | Andy Harries Hugo Heppell Christine Langan Grainne Marmion Peter Morgan Lee Morris |
| Runtime | 1 Hour 37 Minutes |
| Rating | 4/5 |
Posted on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 5:12 pm