The Damned United
Review
by Anthony Morris
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The Damned United
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In The Damned United, it is 1974 and UK soccer club Leeds found themselves without a manager.
Don
Revie (Colm Meany), the man who had steered them to success after
success for more than a decade, had been chosen to manage England.
But
instead of going with his chosen successor, the board instead picked
his biggest rival and the man who had lifted second division team Derby
to the top of the rankings, Brian Clough (Michael Sheen).
It must have seemed like a smart move at the time...
But
with a team that hates his guts and without his assistant Peter Taylor
(Timothy Spall), Leeds' new manager is adrift. Soon the team are facing
down their worst beginning to a season in well over a decade - and for
Clough, that spells ruin.
There is a lot of potential here but
by mostly just staying on the surface this ends up feeling more like a
potted history than anything really biting.
The rivalry
between the two managers is handled well, as is the bond between Clough
and Taylor, but Clough's collapse as Leed's manager remains something
of a mystery: supposedly he wants to do things his way, but his way
doesn't seem to exist without Taylor.
And if he is the power behind the throne, why does this film want us to side with Clough?
Soccer
fans will get more out of this than most, simply because once past the
performances this doesn't really delve deep enough to provide much for
non-soccer fans to get into. And after all that, the male bonding at
the end - their wives having seemingly vanished without trace - feels
like a cop-out.
It is a nasty story full of nasty people: a nastier film would have been a much better one.
3
out
of 5
The Damned United
Australian release: 15th October,
2009
Official
Site: The Damned United
Cast: Colm Meaney, Henry Goodman, Michael Sheen
Director: Tom Hooper
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