hall895
The Damned United tells the more or less true story of Brian Clough's catastrophic 44 days as manager of Leeds United. As with many movies based on a true story some facts are changed, embellishments are made. But the heart of the real-life story remains. And what a story it is. Those unfamiliar with the story may wonder why a movie was made about a man who failed. That is certainly not the typical sports movie narrative. But the story of Brian Clough is so much more than those 44 days. And this movie tells that story very well. We see his triumphs, we see his misery. We see him at the pinnacle and at the lowest depths. Through sheer force of personality Brian Clough made himself a success. And then that same forceful personality would be his undoing.Michael Sheen plays Clough and turns in a truly outstanding performance. Clough's personality and brilliance shine through in Sheen's performance. The haughty pride, bitterness and resentment which were a part of Clough are also laid bare. Clough was certainly a flawed character but an undeniably fascinating one. Sheen brings him to life perfectly. There are some key supporting players who help. Timothy Spall plays Clough's right-hand man Peter Taylor. Jim Broadbent plays a club chairman. And Colm Meaney plays the villain of the piece, Don Revie, the Leeds manager whom Clough is obsessed with bettering. In truth of course Revie is a villain only in Clough's mind. Revie's teams won but in Clough's mind they did not win the right way. Clough was out on a crusade to win soccer matches properly, without resorting to the dirty tactics of Leeds. All well and good until you go to Leeds yourself and tell your new players they're a bunch of cheaters.Rather then tell a straightforward tale, following Clough from his successes at Derby to his disaster at Leeds the film jumps back and forth in time, between the two story lines. We see Clough floundering at Leeds, jump back to his glory at Derby, then go forward to Leeds again. The film maintains this setup throughout, bringing the two stories together wonderfully. Even with all the back and forth the story still flows very well. And doing it this way ties everything together much better. Rather than seeing a simple rise and fall we are taken on quite a roller coaster ride, the highest of highs followed by the lowest of lows and back again. Seeing Clough's struggles at Leeds gives a different perspective when we then see him at his best at Derby. All the way through Sheen is spot-on in every moment. He owns the character. The likes of Spall, Broadbent and Meaney make their contribution but make no mistake this is Sheen's film through and through. There are some little quibbles to be made with the film. You do wish they could have stuck a little closer to the truth at times, some of the events here are twisted around rather unnecessarily. The facts of the story should have been good enough, the movie is let down somewhat by some of its fiction. The soccer action we see is not always convincing but it works well enough. And we really only see limited bits of action anyway. This is not a film about the players, not about the sport, but about Brian Clough. We see Clough succeed beyond anyone's wildest expectations at little Derby and we see him cut down to size at big, bad Leeds. It is a film which provides a compelling look at a truly fascinating man. Brian Clough is such a great character, the flawed hero you can't tear your eyes away from. The Damned United is a movie which does that hero justice.
James Hitchcock
Brian Clough (1935-2004) has some claim to be regarded as the greatest ever club manager in English football. Others, such as Bob Paisley and Sir Alex Ferguson, may have won more in terms of trophies, but they did so after taking over clubs which were already wealthy, successful and established. Clough's unique achievement was to take over a struggling, unsuccessful Second Division club, Derby County, turn them into English champions, and then to repeat this feat with a second struggling, unsuccessful Second Division club, Nottingham Forest, who went on to become not only English champions but also European champions.Clough's career in football management, however, was not an uninterrupted success story, and "The Damned United" tells the story of his greatest failure, his 44-day tenure as manager of Leeds United in 1974. Over the past decade, under the management of Don Revie, Leeds had become one of the leading clubs in England, and in 1974 were reigning League champions. They were, however, also the most hated club in England, having become notorious not only for a cautious, defensive attitude to the game but also for gamesmanship and violent play.Although Clough and Revie loathed one another, they had much in common. Both came from the same town, Middlesbrough, growing up only a few streets apart. Both had enjoyed successful playing careers, playing at centre-forward, both had been capped for England, and both had played for the same club, Sunderland. Revie had also taken over Leeds United as a struggling Second Division club and had turned them into champions. Yet they had very different attitudes to the game. In contrast to Revie's "win-at-all-costs" attitude, Clough was an idealist with a firm belief in fair play and open, attacking football; he frequently referred to "the beautiful game", long before this phrase had become the cliché it is today. When Revie was appointed as England manager, Clough therefore seemed a strange choice to replace him as Leeds manager, especially as he had been one fiercest critics both of the club and of Revie. (Many other managers, in fact, agreed with Clough's opinions in private, but few had dared to express them quite so publicly).Clough's main weakness as a manager appears to have been his lack of tact and diplomacy. He was fond of speaking his mind, and despite winning the Championship with Derby had been ousted as manager of that club following clashes with the club chairman Sam Longson. According to this film, Clough's first act as Leeds manager was to tell his players to throw away all their medals and trophies, "because they won them by cheating". Given this attitude, it is hardly surprising that Clough was disliked by the Leeds players, most of whom had idolised Revie. They were determined not to take Clough's message of "good, clean attractive football" to heart; during his first match in charge of Leeds, the Charity Shield against Liverpool, the club captain, Billy Bremner, was red-carded for brawling on the pitch with an opponent. (He received an 11-game suspension and never played again under Clough's management). Discontent among the players was a major factor in persuading the club's directors to dismiss Clough after a run of poor results.The film is not a comprehensive biopic of Clough; it concentrates on his brief spell at Leeds, with the story of his days at Derby being told in flashback. It does not deal with his early life or playing career at all, only briefly touches on his private life outside the game, and his successes with Nottingham Forest are only mentioned in passing in an epilogue at the end. It presents a fictionalised version of his life and occasionally takes liberties with the facts. (Contrary to the impression given here, Dave Mackay, a one-time Derby player who succeeded Clough as manager, was not on the club's playing staff at the time of his appointment).The film's main virtues are an excellent script from Peter Morgan and some equally excellent acting. Michael Sheen seems to specialise in playing real people, and although he bears a certain physical resemblance to Clough he avoids the mistake he made when playing Tony Blair in "The Queen", that of trying to imitate his subject too exactly as though he were a Mike Yarwood-style impressionist rather than a dramatic actor. The other excellent contributions come from Colm Meaney as the self-righteous Revie, genuinely unable to understand why anyone might object to his team's playing style, from Jim Broadbent as Longson, a self-important small-town businessman who has attached himself to the town's football club despite an almost total ignorance of the game, and from Timothy Spall as Clough's assistant, Peter Taylor. Unlike Sheen and Meaney, Spall bears very little resemblance to the man he is playing, but as Taylor generally kept a much lower profile than Clough this does not really matter. Taylor, a more substantial figure than most assistant club managers, nevertheless played a key role at Derby, so he is an important character in this drama. He did not follow Clough to Leeds; had he done so, Clough's appointment might have been a greater success.Despite its international popularity, football has inspired surprisingly few good films, and virtually no great ones. In the 2000s, however, the British cinema managed to produce two very good films about the sport, of which this is the second. (The first was "Bend It like Beckham"). The film's main appeal will, I suspect, be to sports fans and to those with an interest in football history, especially those who, like myself, are old enough to remember the events of the 1970s. Nevertheless, there is enough human drama in "The Damned United" to appeal to film-lovers who have only a passing interest in football. 8/10
