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Brian Clough leads his side out at Wembley in The Damned United |
Cloughie’s funny old reign
THE DAMNED UNITED
Directed by Tom Hooper
Certificate 15
IT’S a sign of how well made this film is that even the football sequences look believable.
How to get actors to look like athletes is always a major flaw in any sports movie. Yet even the choreographed moments of this adaptation of the novel about Brian Clough’s disastrous 44-day reign at Leeds United are acceptable.
And they show the care put into this wonderful portrait of one of the most interesting characters ever to come from the game.
We are taken back to the summer of 1974: Brian Clough has left Derby County after falling out with the chairman. He and his partner coaching Peter Taylor are due to join lowly Brighton.
But then the mighty Leeds United come calling, and the lure of following in the footsteps of the great Don Revie is too much for Brian to resist. What unravels is a consideration of the rivalry between Clough and Revie, and a study of what drives genius.
We learn the rivalry between the two stems from a cup match in the late 1960s. We see Clough preparing Derby’s away team dressing room. He carefully places an orange on top of each of the mis-matched towels, and then, as a touch of extra class, lays out an ashtray per person for the Leeds team – it’s a mark of respect. But in return he feels Leeds cheat their way through the tie, and then Revie fails to shake his hand afterwards. It starts a burning dislike of the man and his club.
The Damned United is full of remarkable performances. If the Opta football stats index had been in play for this one, it would be shocked to see the amount of ground the main characters cover.
Timothy Spall may not look much like Peter Taylor, but he offers a marvellous foil to Clough’s ambition. Jim Broadbent is superb as the Derby chairman, his rough Midlands accent smacking against Clough’s North-east bluster. And Colm Meaney, who has few words as Revie, carries the United manager’s air about him well.
However, all are mere bit parts to Michael Sheen’s wonderful characterisation of Clough. While the real Clough family have said they don’t want to see the film, its a shame as Brian comes to life brilliantly, and it is a lot kinder to him than David Peace’s novel was.
Clough is shown as a human being with a special talent, and while people have spoken of him as a flawed character, his love for the game and passion for life shines through. It reminded me of why Forest, during the 1980s and 90s, was a by-word for good, attractive, clean football.
It will also make you mourn for footballing days long gone. It’s not the muddy pitches, the funny-looking kits or the gung-ho tackling that’s missed: no, it’s the competitiveness, the feeling that shocks can happen, that little clubs have a chance. It’s a feeling that even in the “great leveller” of the FA Cup has been lost in recent years as the Murdoch money has brought great wealth into the game, and with it given us the same old faces, over and over, at the top of the tree.
Clough took over Derby when they were nailed to the foot of the second division – that’s the Championship for you youngsters out there – and then taking them to promotion, followed by the title the next year. And it shows so much of what we have lost. OK, back then the game was also about money – the Northern clubs from the industrial areas did well as the factory bosses bankrolled their local sides.
But the figures were not so spectacular. It was a much more level playing field, where the genius of an individual such as Clough could make such a massive bearing on a team. It has to be remembered that Clough not only took Derby to the title, he then went on and took Forest to two European Cups. His genius is respected in this enthralling drama. |
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