The Damned United (2009)

The Damned United is not your typical sports film. It's much more than that. It's a study of contrasting personalities. Set during the 60s and 70s, the movie details the conflict of two very different managers of rival football (soccer) clubs i.e. Brian Clough and Don Revie. Don Revie (played by Colm Meaney) is the manager of the top ranked and virtually unbeatable, Leeds United. They are the Damned United of the title. Brian Clough (played by Michael Sheen) is the very outspoken, but extremely talented manager of a second tier team, Derby County.

At the start of the film, Revie has accepted the position of manager for Team England. That leaves the position of Leeds United manager open and the job is offered to Brian Clough. The film traces Brian Clough's rise as Derby County manager and fall as Leeds. Of course, he finds much more success after his tenure at Leeds United. But, that's another movie. Most Americans might ignore a film about English football thinking the subject boring. This is not the case. It's a marvelous character study and a fantastic movie. Michael Sheen's performance as Brian Clough is absolutely riveting. He's a very talented and versatile actor with roles as diverse as David Frost, Tony Blair and even Lucien from Underworld. I found myself fascinated by Clough's obsession with Revie. That obsession is what drives the plot. The adapted script is extremely well done by Peter Morgan. He also wrote the screenplays for Frost/Nixon and the Queen. It's an extremely literate script with sharp dialog.

One thing I will mention is that while Colm Meaney did not have as much screen time as Michael Sheen, he makes his presence felt as Revie. He's a marvelous character actor who has big shoes to fill with this role. All the characters in this film are larger than life. Now, what makes this story interesting is that you eventually learn that Brian Clough's obsession with Revie arose from a perceived slight at a match. Clough says that Revie refused to shake his hand at the end of a game. Is that what has been driving this man ? That obsession is what keeps you glued to your seat. Michael Sheen is just that good at playing Clough. He's a foul mouthed ball of energy.

And this movie isn't just about the conflict between Clough and Revie. It's also a very good portrait of the friendship between Clough and his co-manager, Peter Taylor played by Timothy Spall. These two are also contrasting personalities. Peter Taylor was Brian Clough's anchor. He kept all of Clough's eccentricities in check. He's the sensible one. They were a team and when they had a fall out, that left Clough foundering.

One small detail I found interesting was the accents of the performers. Most Americans are used to hearing the polished accents of BBC English. There's none of that here. The movie is filled with rough Northern accents that may seem jarring at first, but eventually grow on a person.

This is a movie I hope more people will watch because it really is a fascinating subject. Is it true to life ? I'm sure it's a dramatization of the facts. However, that does not detract from the movie. You expect movies to take a certain amount of poetic license. Make time to see this movie, you won't regret it.

"The Damned United" has turned out to be an impulse buy that is paying me back dividends. Michael Sheen plays Derby county/ Leeds United manager Brian Clough, A straight talking egotistical man who, along with this partner Perter Taylor(Timothy Spall), had an uncanny talent for taking sub par teams and turning them into champions. The film bounces around his time line by telling how he became a successful coach by leading Derby County, took over the reins of Leeds United from his arch enemy Don Revey(Clom Meaney)and eventually failed and fell into disgrace. Michael Sheen really shines in his roll as Clough and it was a joy to see him return to a roll that seems tailor suited for him. He had a bad run with this rolls in those lame Vampire/Werewolf flicks. He and Spall are the glue that hold the film together and had great chemistry. I didn't know about Clough's story before I watched this film and it's a truly remarkable one. What he did was like talking the Detroit Lions and making them Super Bowl champions. A virtually impossible task. Clough was one of those iconic "love him or hate him" type of characters that pop up in sports every once in a while. I liked him right away and his cocky way of telling his bosses off, keeping his players in line and his consuming hatred for that bloody Don Revey are a true joy to witness. "The Damned United" is a solid film with a cast made of superb actors. A must see.

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This is a brilliantly filmed, original movie. Based on David Peace's spare, gritty novel, it brings alive the ill fated 44 day managership of Brian Clough at Leeds United, explaining why he was such a controversial choice to manage the club given the long acrimonious history between Leeds and Derby when Don Revie was the manager of football's champions Leeds and Clough was at the helm of young pretenders Derby.

Michael Sheen shows off his brilliant skills in conveying real life characters (he has given similar treatment to Tony Blair, David Frost and Kenneth Williams); and recreates Brian Clough in his own image, a slightly camp, antagonistic manager frequently undermining his own chairman.

The filming recreates many of the tropes of the 1970s ashtrays laid out with half time oranges in the dressing room, Wizard boys comics, psychedelic wallpaper and makes the film a hugely enjoyable piece of ersatz period drama.

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The Damned United looks and smells and sounds like a sports film, but it is ultimately a Shakespearean tragedy imbued with deep romance. That the tragic hero at its center, Brian Clough (Michael Sheen, brilliant), is wearing soccer shorts instead of a crown doesn't minimize the grandeur and pathos, indeed, the epic quality of his fall from grace. That the similarly epic love is between two middle-aged men likewise doesn't diminish it. This is one of the sweetest, most heart-breaking stories of hubris and, ultimately, the redemption of love we have seen in a long while. (Really!)

The setting is 1970s England, where much as it remains today soccer rivalries are fierce, and matches are cause for national celebration or mourning. In this heady world of winners and losers, of glamour and legends, a young, cocky manager, Brian Clough, is newly promoted to Leeds United. Leeds United was, in 1974, the top English team, and Clough has big shoes to fill Leeds' former manager, the beloved Don Revie (Colm Meaney), has left to manage the national English team, and he leaves behind him a wake of trophies and a team of fiercely loyal players. Clough, odiously arrogant, swoops in on the very wrong foot, with complaints about Leeds' weather ("Wish I was still back in Majorca!" he exclaims obnoxiously) and radical rules such as that former manager Revie's name must never be mentioned quickly alienating the players, the owners, and the fans. Clough's tenure at Leeds, indeed, was a complete failure: under him, Leeds lost games, fell to the bottom of the division, and he was quickly sacked after 44 days.

The film underpins this tale of torturous disaster with a flashback to when Brian Clough, together with his partner, Peter Taylor (Timothy Spall), managed the unknown Division II team, Derby United, to unknown heights of glory. Spurred on by insatiable ambition, as well as his hurt pride at losing to Leeds without even an acknowledgement of a handshake by Revie, Clough drags the team up from the Division II nether regions, eventually catapulting it to the top of the Division I. It is here that England begins to take notice, and Clough's ego begins to swell.

The story is beautifully told. It manages to project this classical weight of tragic flaws and doomed anti-heroes without ever becoming bogged down by it. Some sequences such as Derby United's rematch against Leeds, as experienced privately by Clough, locked in his office are incredibly sweeping. Indeed, it is in scenes like this as well as the media interview Clough gives with Revie where typically "British" filmmaking is used to great effect. That is, by opting for subtlety and the quiet roar, i.e. less is more, the power of these moments in Clough's life is greatly felt. Michael Sheen's acting is likewise brilliant; the look on his face when Revie, on live television, explains why he failed with Leeds was gut-wrenching.

Similarly, the love between Clough and Peter Taylor is palpable from the beginning their shared joy, boyish tackles and Taylor's loyalty and unacknowledged importance are obvious to the viewer, if not to Clough himself. Indeed, as Clough powers ahead on per Taylor's words, and per the usual classical drama his doomed, misguided quest, it becomes more and more obvious how important Taylor is to Clough. There's a great scene when Taylor chastises Clough for being too ambitious, describing it like a sleeping monster that, when awoken, manages to swallow everything up even the beautiful. The later falling out between Clough and Taylor on the sunny shores of Majorca underscores this wonderfully.

By the end of the movie, we were dying to see the two men, the "damned united" of Derby, finally reconciled, and the film for all its wallowing in defeat and destruction and vengeance and tragic flaws does have a slightly more upbeat coda. Overall, an absolute joy.

*Review originally published at The Post-Punk Cinema Club:

Want The Damned United (2009) Discount?

Before giving us Best Picture THE KING'S SPEECH (2010), Tom Hooper made the glorious, British "football" biopic, THE DAMNED UNITED.

You needn't know of Leeds United, 1970's-era English football, or even manager Brian Clough to adore this film. Morgan's screenplay (based on David Peace's novel) creates a most compelling triangulation of adult male friendships and rivalries.

Clough (played to perfection by Michael Sheen) adores his dutiful right-hand man, Peter Taylor (Timothy Spall), while despising his rival Don Revie (Colm Meaney). When he takes over for Revie (who leaves Leeds to coach the English national team), Clough's on-the-field failures lead to a falling out with his friend.

UNITED is a joyride of a sports film. There is the thrill of competition and the agony of defeat, of course...made all the more so by the inner turmoil that drives the talented Clough, who is haunted by father-figures from opposite ends of the spectrum.

Sheen's performance here could have been just brash and cold, yet it is his portrayal of Clough's desperation and vulnerability that gives this film a beating heart and a loving soul.

THE DAMED UNITED is classic Tom Hooper in that way; damnable famous men resized to next-door neighbor scale.

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