tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

Starring: Michael Sheen, Jim Broadbent, Timothy Spall, Colm Meany, Giles Alderson
Director: Tom Hooper
Release Date: October 29, 2009
Running Time: 97 miin
MPAA Rating: R
Distributor: BBC Films

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"The Damned United" is a "based on a true life story about sports", in fact a great one, but director Tom Hooper finds it necessary to fulfill the film with off-field drama and tension, relying very little on the actual game of soccer. The lack of on-field action isn't missed at all because there is a hypnotizing portrait of hatred being presented, and that is the film's main priority. Mr. Hooper perceives a myriad of vanities within a single human being which ultimately lead him being reduced to a man without a moral center, establishing himself solely within his own mad ambitions. This represents a tale Shakespeare or the Greeks would examine, where one man is so consumed by his own conceit that he not only dares to wreck his own soul but that of an entire industry (soccer). Sound like a sports movie? More like a film persistently attacking the foolish ideology of a fragmented soul that is lead blindly down a path where hubris awaits.

This hatred found its core within English soccer manager Brian Clough (whom this movie faithfully portrays), whose great accomplishments from 1968-1980 are torn to asunder by the film. By slyly making his championship seasons and bringing Darby United out of the gutters of second division and into first repudiate, the script (by Peter Morgan) finds more sorrow in Clough's (Martin Sheen) failures and how extraneous to the soccer world he became. His corrosive behavior, full of pride and vanity, made him obstinate in his choices, indulging in immoral values to benefit his own luster. Rarely has a sports related film so relentlessly perceived the disenchantments of a coach, relishing every chance it gets to show the eroding humanity of a man who would perhaps amount to nothing save his vibrant passion of always wanting to outslug his opposition.

In 1974 Clough was given the job of managing Leeds United, one of soccer's most prestigious programs. After Don Revie (Colm Meaney) stepped down after a legendary career at Leeds he believes Clough is the best replacement. He has a sick fascination with Revie by both admiring his achievements and scorning disdainfully at his human makeup. The two are inhuman to each other, bitter rivals. Like two kings vying to control a single piece of land, always detesting the other's scheme and hoping for the other to fail. Clough willingly accepts the role as Leeds manager only to benefit his own social-standing; to show England that he can easily dust Revie's accomplishments under the carpet and mold his former team say they come to represent Clough's team and not Revie's.

From 1974 the film jumps back to 1968 showing past events chronicling Clough's rise of fame (fame that is menacing) in the soccer world with assistant coach played by Timothy Spall. Then it leads to Clough getting the Leeds job. This back and forth direction gives the film more magnitude. By tracing back in time to the beginning of the Clough/Revie rivalry what is elaborated upon is the steady progression the two take toward hatred. Given the movie is based on true events the dramatic pull is relentless thanks to a magnetically potent script by the great Peter Morgan. Morgan has the natural ability of recreating history, as he done with "Frost/Nixon" and "The Queen," and structuring it so it arouses delights and teaches instead of seeming absolutely soulless and distorted like other true-life stories such as "Amelia."

Be it the characters that Mr. Sheen has recently played (Frost confronting Nixon and Tony Blaire confronting Queen Elizabeth) there may be a drift insinuating that his latest, Mr. Clough, can confront Revie. Turns out to be that Revie is Clough's most despised opponent. With this confrontation Sheen's character is conquered with intoxications representing insolence at its most profound. To witness this profundity and compare it to Clough's nuanced and anxious nature found in the flashback scenes one can call Sheen's performance compelling and complex, showing the extremities of both respect and disrespect.

To see the dissolution of a soul and watch the slow, gathering progress it travels by can be sorrowful (director Hopper keeps the mood by capturing a de-saturated environment). Of course we see this happen in film many of times, but when it actually involves a coach imparting from the conventional means of coaching to pursue a career motivated by mad ambitions, then we can step back and view "The Damned United" as a picture that flaunts failure. This embellishment on a genre that suffers from mechanical conventions brings about a pleasurable feeling. Something we don't want to escape from.

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