Conscious during grueling dental surgery after an accident on the sports field, an egotistical rugby player recalls the highs and many lows of his sporting career in this stark British drama starring Richard Harris. Both Harris and co-star Rachel Roberts (playing a widowed landlady who he romances) received Oscar nominations for their roles, and both deliver fine turns, coming across as real human beings struggling to make it in a world where the odds seem stacked against them. The film's arguable best assets though are its dreamy flashback structure and Roberto Gerhard's terse and unsettling music score -- and neither of these elements is consistent throughout. The music is mostly limited to the first few scenes, while the flashback structure oddly vanishes partway in and the film does not quite have the same edge with events playing out in real time. Between his constant bitterness and elevated sense of self-importance, Harris has a totally dislikeable character and he is consequently most sympathetic when in the dentist chair and forced to reflect. That said, the film is still fairly powerful in the post-dental scenes as Harris has very down-to-earth things to say, realising that rugby is not a lifetime career and stating "I need something for good... something permanent". His scenes in the hospital towards the end are great too, and while quite brutal, the spider sequence truly seems to epitomise the culmination of negative emotions within him. This is quite an unhappy film and not the easiest one to watch, but it leaves an indelible impression for sure.
Review of This Sporting Life
