THE DAMNED UNITED doesn't quite break the football movie curse, but it's fun
According to FIFA, association footballs international governing body, there are probably one billion people who play the beautiful game worldwide. Yet despite its global appeal, the worlds most popular sport has a history of failure in one area where others have triumphed. There are a number of great films which use baseball, basketball, boxing, American football, running or golf as their backdrop. There is not a single truly great film set in the world of football. The Damned United is a worthy yet ultimately unsuccessful attempt to overcome that historic curse.
The movie is an adaptation of an excellent novel by David Peace which mixes fact and fiction to tell two episodes in the life of one of English footballs most legendary figures, Brian Clough (played here by Michael Sheen). One deals with Cloughs first great success as a talented and cocky young football manager who took Derby County Football Club from Second Division oblivion to top-flight success and then threw it all away. The other follows Cloughs disastrous 44-day tenure at Leeds United, a club which he joined in 1974 despite his hatred for the brutal and amoral antics implanted there by his predecessor and arch-rival, the superstitious and dour Don Revie (Colm Meaney). The two tales are underpinned by a subplot which analyses Cloughs relationship with his right hand man, Peter Taylor (Timothy Spall). The result is a broad and compelling canvas which touches on themes such as ambition, obsession, revenge, self-doubt and self-belief, friendship, rivalry and hatred. Given the nature of the source material it is hardly surprising that it attracted the attention of screenwriter and executive producer Peter Morgan, who in recent years has made a name for himself with a number of high profile re-imaginings of the recent past such as The Last King of Scotland, The Queen and Frost/Nixon. However, the particular creative challenges posed by Peaces book must have been some of the toughest Morgan has ever faced. The novel cuts back and forth between Cloughs Derby days and his Leeds fiasco in every chapter, hammering away at its chosen themes by juxtaposing different moments in time. This is a narrative technique which cinema finds much harder to pull off, but Morgan is a talented writer and most of the changes he has introduced help the story work better as a movie. That is not to say that the script is without flaws. It is often cluttered up by clumsy back-story dialogue. It sometimes gets caught in no mans land between comedy and drama. And although its climax is very well executed, the films epilogue feels somewhat unearned. Nonetheless, there is clearly an impressive grasp of what visual storytelling is all about on display here. One memorable example is a scene in which Cloughs Derby County beat Revies Leeds United for the first time since they have made it into the First Division. Morgan has the self-confident Clough hidden away beneath the stands of Derbys Baseball Ground, unable to watch the match due to his fear of defeat. Thus the characters inner doubts, a recurrent subject in the novels first-person narrative, are efficiently translated into the action-based language of cinema. Michael Sheens acting in that particular scene is also impressive. With his proven track record as an imitator of well-known public figures such as Tony Blair and David Frost, Sheens rendition of Cloughie will in all likelihood make him a candidate for individual accolades. Unfortunately, his turn here seems uneven to me. It contains several quiet moments of brilliance and he nails the characters accent and mannerisms. However, at times he appears to be trying a little too hard with the cockiness. There is a certain shimmying of the shoulders which makes it all look like a façade. This might be a deliberate artistic choice, another means of underlining the defensive aspect of Cloughs veneer of self-content, but it doesnt fit well with the story or the memory many viewers will have of the man. Clough wasnt someone who pretended to believe in himself. Despite his moments of self-doubt he genuinely thought he was the best manager in the world. And as the film itself concludes, history proved him right. Ultimately, The Damned Unitedsuffers from the same malaise as all other football movies which have preceded it. There is just no way of getting around this: football looks crap when played by actors and staged for the screen. Director Tom Hooper cleverly opts to show as little fictional playing of the game as possible and uses archive footage to very good effect. Still, as soon as a scene requires some make-believe footy action that queasy feeling of unease returns and suspension of disbelief collapses. For whatever reason, other sports just seem to work much better on the big screen. The Damned United is a decent and entertaining movie that never fully delivers on the dramatic potential of Cloughs legend. It will probably find a wide audience in the UK because it isnt exclusively aimed at football fans, but its hard to imagine that it will make much of an impact elsewhere.
