The Damned United (2009)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Tom Hooper

Writers:

Peter Morgan (screenplay)
David Peace (novel)

Release Date:

27 March 2009 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Sport

Plot:

A look at Brian Clough's 44-day reign as the coach of Leeds United.

Plot Keywords:

Leeds | Yorkshire | Football | Soccer Star | England

Cast

Michael Sheen	...	Brian Clough
Colm Meaney	...	Don Revie
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Giles Alderson	...	Colin Todd
Mark Bazeley	...	Austin Mitchell
Christopher Boulstridge	...	Colin Boulton
Bill Bradshaw	...	Terry Yorath
Damian Broadbent	...	Emlyn Hughes
Jim Broadbent	...	Sam Longson
Mark Cameron	...	Norman Hunter
Elizabeth Carling	...	Barbara Clough
Martin Compston	...	John O'Hare
Ryan Day	...	Simon Clough
Joseph Dempsie	...	Duncan McKenzie
Isabella Eades-Jones	...	Elizabeth Clough
Wayne Ewart	...	Tommy Smith
Stephen Graham	...	Billy Bremner
Stuart Gray	...	Eddie Gray
Alex Harker	...	Allan Clarke
Colin Harris	...	John McGovern
Nathan Head	...	Photographer
Carl Hicken	...	Alec Lindsay - Liverpool
Mark Jameson	...	Head Groundsman
Tomasz Kocinski	...	Roy McFarland
James MacColl	...	Luton Town Player
Lesley Maylett	...	Paul Reaney
Brian McCardie	...	Dave Mackay
Peter McDonald	...	Johnny Giles
Ben McFarlane	...	Kevin Keegan
Chris Moore	...	Paul Madeley
Stephen Nicholas	...	Alan Durban
Paul O'Brien	...	Phil Thompson
Paul O'Brien	...	Phil Thompson - Liverpool
Tom Ramsbottom	...	Trevor Cherry
Laurie Rea	...	Terry Hennessey
Jimmy Reddington	...	Keith Archer
Stewart Robertson	...	Archie Gemmill
Maurice Roëves	...	Jimmy Gordon
Alex Rogerson	...	Phil Boersma
John Savage	...	Gordon McQueen
Timothy Spall	...	Peter Taylor
David Stevenson
Oliver Stokes	...	Nigel Clough
Matthew Storton	...	Peter Lorimer
Liam Thomas	...	Les Cocker
Danny Tomlinson	...	David Harvey
Keiran Waite	...	Ron Webster
Gillian Waugh	...	Lillian Taylor
Craig Williams	...	Joe Jordan

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:15 | Ireland:15A

Company:

BBC Films

Goofs:

Factual errors: Derby County's rise up the Second Division table in 1968-69 is cleverly shown by superimposing a league table that clocks up points over a montage of footage of their games. However, the table almost always clocks up two points at a time. Derby drew a number of games over the season so the table should have risen by only a single point on occasion.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "De wereld draait door: (#4.124)" (2009)

Not bad, young man.

The life of the egocentric one gets the big screen treatment - another feather in his cap, and one to put over Shanks, Busby, Mercer, Allison, Paisley etc. The fact he shares the spotlight with Don Revie would be his only disappointment. One may find the numerous anachronisms and inaccuracies distracting, i.e. Dave Mackay had left Derby before Clough and Taylor's resignation, and that 5-0 Leeds triumph came the year after County's championship triumph (or robbery as devout Geldard Enders would maintain) - I know, I was there that great day wallowing in revenge for the previous year's injustices.

Without resorting to caricature, Sheen effortlessly conveys Clough's rampant narcissism and hubris. His obsession with Revie is portrayed as something he needs to work out of his system before getting his life back on keel. Revie is depicted as such a cartoon villain that one is almost disappointed that he doesn't appear clad in top hat and black cloak, chuckling evilly as he twirls his moustache and ties Cloughs' two sons to the railway line. Colm Meaney is uncanny in his depiction of the Elland Road supremo and his face captures the haunted look of the man who must have felt the fates were against him at times. Spall seems physically miscast as Taylor but puts across the fact that Pete was Clough's often unheeded moral conscience - a fact illustrated by how Clough went to the bad in his later years at Forest when Taylor wasn't around. Jim Broadbent is every provincial businessman made good as Sam Longson who must have needed the patience of a saint in his latter years at Derby.

Occasionally, the script's pace works against it. Clough and Taylor have barely signed the contract with Mike Bamber when they're off to Majorca. It might have been better to have a scene or two showing their tribulations at Brighton which increased Clough's desire to snatch at the first decent offer that came his way. I still remember hearing the humiliating defeat they suffered at home to Bristol Rovers on the coach back from Elland Road on the radio - and the ensuing hysterical laughter. To think, one year later, we were laughing the other side of our faces.