The Class of 92 (2013)

The Class of 92, a cinematic documentary detailing the rise to prominence and global sporting superstardom of six supremely talented young Manchester United footballers (David Beckham, ... See full summary »

Directors:

Benjamin Turner, Gabe Turner

Stars:

David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs

Cast

Credited cast:
David Beckham	...	Himself
Nicky Butt	...	Himself
Ryan Giggs	...	Himself
Gary Neville	...	Himself
Phil Neville	...	Himself
Paul Scholes	...	Himself
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tony Blair	...	Himself
Danny Boyle	...	Himself
Eric Cantona	...	Himself
Eric Harrison	...	Himself
Mani	...	Himself
Zinédine Zidane	...	Himself

Storyline

The Class of 92, a cinematic documentary detailing the rise to prominence and global sporting superstardom of six supremely talented young Manchester United footballers (David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Phil and Gary Neville). The film covers the period 1992-1999, culminating in Manchester United's European Cup triumph, and will dramatically interweave and mirror the highs and lows of its football odyssey with the immense social and cultural changes taking place in Britain at the time.

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Taglines:

The Players Who Inspired A Generation

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Genres:

Documentary | Sport

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Certificate:

6

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 November 2013 (UK)

Also Known As:

Oi Bebides tou '92

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$1,250,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Boundless, Fulwell 73

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Follows the rise to stardom of the legendary "class of 92", comprising of David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville and Nicky Butt.

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Goofs

When Paul Scholes is performing his football 'ident' (trying to pass the ball into a circle of cones) it's alluded to that this is at Carrington, as the 'Making of' on the DVD confirms. It is not, it's at Churchill Fields in Greenfield, Saddleworth, a short way from Paul's house.

User Reviews

The kids are alright

It was trenchant Scottish football analyst Alan Hansen who famously said "You'll never win anything with kids" after Manchester United heavily lost their first Premier League game of the 1999 season, when manager Alex Ferguson replaced almost half his team with young players in their early 20's who'd come through the clubs own youth academy seven years before (apart from Gary Neville, who was actually Class of '93). However with Ferguson's tough-love style of management and chaperoned by United greats like Eric Cantona, Roy Keane and Peter Schmeichel, talented youngsters like David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Ruan Giggs all came of age as the side famously picked itself up and completed a famous treble of the championship, FA Cup and in particular the European Champions League, after a gap in the club's history of 31 years, when they scored twice in the last five minutes to steal victory from the jaws of defeat against a superior Bayern Munich team in the night.

This documentary offers individual profiles of the players, mostly, as you'd expect, involving lots of mutual admiration, with reminiscences of their early days at the club and focusing in particular on the matches that proved crucial at the season's climax as they chased their three trophies.

The three other players of the six featured, the defensive Neville brothers and midfielder Nicky Butt, for me weren't anywhere near the same class as the other three, but to be fair they all became international players too and certainly fitted well into the club set-up. They all, too, seem like decent blokes, genuinely friendly amongst each other, even latter-day multi-media superstar Beckham and there are some fascinating clips of them all getting their start in the youth team. Nice too, to see the youth team couch getting his due here.

The story of the team's fantastic season and the part this group of young talent played in it is pretty well-known and apart from one or two shaggy-dog stories about initiation ceremonies, avoiding boss Ferguson's attempts at imposing a strict curfew, little new was revealed behind the scenes, I felt. I'm not sure either the attempts to align the club's rise in fortunes with the emergence of "Madchester" music of the time with Oasis, Stone Roses and even the Blair government of the day were convincingly made, leading to some odd interviews with the Roses bassist Mani and ex-P.M. Blair himself, "getting down with the yoof" as they say.

I actually felt there was a better story in the background, if they'd made a film about the boys from 1992 who didn't make it, here regathered with the super six for a just-for-the- cameras reunion kick-about. The absence of key figures as interviewees of the likes of Ferguson and Keane was noticeable plus I've no idea what Zinedine Zidane was doing in the mix either.

Nevertheless I enjoyed this red-tinged wallow in nostalgia as it was unquestionably a great team and I got to see again some great football moments like Beckham's famous half-way line goal against Wimbledon or even more so, Giggs' amazing solo effort against Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-final. I might have preferred a little more of that over some of the mutual backslapping waffle which over-proliferated things elsewhere, but this was almost as entertaining a ninety minutes as the team itself used to serve up back in the day.