Friday
09Oct2009
Movie Review - 'The Damned United'
Friday, October 9, 2009 at 12:02AM | The Damned United
Starring Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, and Jim Broadbent  |
By and large, the sport we call soccer has never fully caught on in the United States. It's football
everywhere else in the world, and we know why we don't call it the same thing here. And as much as we love
American football, we simply can't compare to the rabid loyalty international football enjoys among its
native fans.
Perhaps nowhere is the love of the game so fiercely expressed than in the UK, the setting for the new
import The
Damned United, which stars Michael Sheen
(Frost/Nixon) as legendary coach Brian Clough.
But during the late 1960s and early 1970s, Clough was not so legendary, and his time spent with Leeds
United would not ordinarily seem like the sort of thing you'd make a movie about. In American terms, it
would be like making a movie about the Bobby Petrino era with the Atlanta Falcons.
Of course, there's more to Clough's story than this point in his career, so if you're unfamiliar with the
world's most popular sport, this might be a good way in. There's plenty of background about how Clough and
his assistant coach Peter Taylor (Timothy Spall) rose through the ranks from
lower level clubs. Eventually, Clough ascended to take over the defending European champions, the Leeds
United, without Taylor at his side, one of the great sub-plots in the film.
Director Tom
Hooper (who previously helmed the HBO mini-series John Adams)
creates a period piece that never feels out of place. The clothes, hairstyles, cars, and even the language
feels very realistic. You should also thank screenwriter Peter Morgan (The
Queen, Frost/Nixon, The Last King of Scotland) for some of that; clearly, the man knows how to write a
story based in history and give it a contemporary punch.
Beyond that, however, Hooper integrates archival footage seamlessly into The Damned United, giving
the film a visual identity that helps it cut through all the more. Usually, films will splice their actors
into old TV footage and it sticks out like a sore thumb. Not here. And the device is never used so much
that it gets in the way, just enough to provide a little more context.
Colin Boyd | Permalink | in Bio-pic, Michael Sheen, Reviews | Print Article | Email Article | Post a Comment | Share Article
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