FILM CHALLENGE: 127) The Damned United

127) The Damned United

Director: Tom Hooper

Year: 2009

Plot Summary: A look at one of the most successful managers in Britain, Brian Clough, who took Derby County to Division One and later risked his career in a turbulent 44-day reign as the coach of Leeds United.

Football pictures are usually among the worst that British cinema has to offer. From Green Street and Football Factory to Awaydays and Mean Machine, this genre of cinema usually offers nothing more than a testosterone fuelled romp that is over-stylistic and completely void of intelligence. However, with The Damned United, director Tom Hooper has finally crafted one that is smart, funny, engrossing and offers a great study into one of the sport's most beloved icons: Brian Clough.

Screenwriter Peter Morgan has been very successful in the past at humanising famous icons. Whether it's Tony Blair in his TV drama The Special Relationship, Queen Elizabeth II in the Oscar winning movie The Queen or US president Richard Nixon in his big screen treatment of his notorious confrontation with journalist David Frost. Here, he does exactly the same, not only showing us the Brian Clough who led little club Derby County to the first division, but showing us the man who, so driven by revenge after his managing idol, Don Revie, refused to shake his hand, he ambitiously took on Leeds United's reign as Division One champions.

In many ways, it feels wrong to call The Damned United a football film because so little of the action takes place on the pitch. Instead, we focus more on these aforementioned personal battles as he fights with Derby County's chairman and struggles to balance his family life and friendships in determination to fulfil his ambition. He's a fascinatingly egotistic yet loveable character and one that Michael Sheen pulls off brilliantly. Like his performance as Tony Blair, he doesn't just impersonate the man but actually gets into his psyche and becomes him.

What glues it all together, however, is the friendship between Clough and his trusty colleague Peter Taylor. This provides the heart of the story and the typically football like homoerotic relationship they share provides much humour and warmth to The Damned United.

Great performances, clever writing and confident direction make The Damned United a very entertaining movie to watch whether you're a football fan or not.

4/5

By Daniel Sarath with 2 comments