The Damned United (2009)
Goofs
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Anachronisms (9) |
Audio/visual unsynchronised (1) |
Character error (1) |
Continuity (2) |
Errors in geography (1) |
Factual errors (29) |
Incorrectly regarded as goofs (2)
Anachronisms
Sam Longson says that Dave MacKay has "broken more bones than Evel the Knievel." It's unlikely in 1968 Longson would have known about him as Evel Knievel only became popular in Britain in the mid 1970s.
Allan Clarke is named as a scorer in the 27.01.68 game but he didn't become a Leeds player until 1969.
During the scene where Brian Clough remains in his office during the 2-1 win over Leeds, the crowd can be heard singing a song to the tune of Tom Hark by The Piranhas. Whilst this is an oft heard tune at football games, the Piranhas cover of Tom Hark wasn't actually recorded until 1980.
When Brian Clough joins the Leeds team in training for the first time the Bridgewater Place building, built in 2007, can clearly be seen in the background.
In the final scene, a modern, solar-powered Pay & Display parking meter is clearly visible in the seaside car park.
In the scene where Leeds United travel down to play Derby for the first time, The shot shows fans rushing to greet the players. In the background you can clearly see a man wearing a current JD sports bag, A modern Addidas tracksuit and baseball cap, clearing having just walked in on the scene.
In the car scene where Brian Clough is going to try and sign Dave McKay, Pete (Timothy Spall) is seen eating a salt and vinegar packet of crusader crisps. Crusader crisps are a Netto own brand product, and Netto first opened in 1981, a few years after the film was set.
Brian Clough had a talk with the team in the tunnel facing the pitch. This was filmed on location at the real Elland Road stadium in Leeds. Visible was the East Stand with its two tiers and the North Stand- behind the goal - both sections were all seated. When Clough was at Leeds United the North Stand would have been completely terracing (ie standing space) and the East Stand would have had standing space at the bottom and seating at the top. It was obvious that the stadium was not a 1970s stadium
When the Leeds players confront Brian Clough in the tunnel at Elland Rd, the new East Stand can be seen behind Clough. This stand was not built until 1990. Also the tunnel they are standing in is not the one used by players to run onto the pitch.
Audio/visual unsynchronised
At the end of the 1968 season when Derby won the Second Division, the audio heard is players singing 'Glory, glory Leeds United' whilst the visual depicts the Derby County players in the baths and changing rooms.
Character error
Duncan McKenzie is depicted as an idiot in "The Damned United' when in reality he was - and still is - an articulate and witty man.
Continuity
As Clough and Taylor are talking at the Derby training ground, with the rows of terraced houses behind them, two people behind Clough clearly in the picture, disappear on the close up of Clough. The dog and walkers also vary position throughout the scene.
Brian Clough and Peter Taylor are shown walking along the seafront when they travel to Brighton. When they are filmed looking out to the Channel it can be seen they are walking on level ground. When the shot switches to the opposite direction, it is clear they are walking along a road with a definite downwards slope to it.
Errors in geography
In the film you see a pier call Brighton Pier, yet in the 1970s this was called the Palace Pier or even Brighton Palace Pier. It was also a completely different looking pier to what was seen, it has been refurbished and changed many times since.
Factual errors
The tie against Leeds shows Derby being so badly fouled by the Leeds players they have to field reserves against Juventus. While Derby did suffer some injuries in the tie against Leeds that year, it actually came before their quarter-final match against Spartak Trnava, which Derby still won despite missing some key players. Moreover, the injuries were not as serious as implied in the film, and all the injured players had recovered by the time of the eventual 3-1 defeat by Juventus which was with a near full-strength Derby squad minus two players who were suspended.
The 'snub' of Clough by Don Revie probably never happened as it has never been mentioned by Clough in any of his memoirs and Revie's son Duncan feels it would have been completely out of character for his father to do such a thing.
In the montage of footage of actual matches showing Derby's rise to the Second Division championship in 1968-69, one of the games is against Everton. Everton haven't played in the Second Divison since 1953-54. The footage is from 1969-70 when both were in Division One. Everton won the league that season.
The 3rd round F.A Cup tie between Leeds and Derby on the 27th of January 1968 depicted in the movie was played in Leeds, not in Derby, making the entire 'Brian cleans up the Baseball Ground' sequence fictional.
The commentator introduces Leeds as the League champions before the 27.01.68 game, but Manchester United were the reigning champions at the time.
As Derby are seen to rise up the table when they overtake Hull City, Hull's points total decreases. Hull have never had points deducted so this would be impossible.
The commentator says that Derby deposed Leeds as League Champions in 1972, but Arsenal were the title holders before Derby.
After being beaten by the Italians, Clough blames the defeat on Leeds. In reality Clough felt that Juventus somehow influenced the referee to favour their side and afterwards berated not Leeds, but Juventus.
When Billy Bremner was punished after his sending off in the Charity Shield he was represented by Maurice Lindley, not Brian Clough. Kevin Keegan who was also at the hearing said that Bremner, who is shown as belligerently unrepentant in the film apologized to him and was close to tears after the sending off
After his sacking, Clough and Revie appeared on a Yorkshire TV Calendar special 'Goodbye Mr Clough'. Revie's participation was not a surprise to Clough as the movie claims. The depiction of it in 'The Damned United' bears only a passing resemblance to reality with the writers inventing most of what was shown on screen. Most notably, the 27.01.68 'snub' was not mentioned by Clough.
It is implied in the film that Brian Clough never managed Brighton & Hove Albion, but he did manage the club alongside Peter Taylor for most of the 1973-4 season. The team finished 19th this season.
An action scene depicts the Leeds side conceding a goal to Luton Town and post match scenes that depict Luton players celebrating a victory with a caption saying Leeds 0 Luton 1. While the match is correctly portrayed as the game that precipitated the sacking of Brian Clough the actual result was a 1-1 draw.
The 27.01.68 game was won fairly by Leeds with goals by Jack Charlton and Peter Lorimer, not Clarke & a Lorimer penalty as the film claims.
Brian Clough stays in the dressing room and Peter Taylor tells him they won 2-1. Derby did not beat Leeds 2-1 during Brian Cloughs managership, in fact the first game they played at the Baseball ground against Leeds after getting promoted, Derby won 4-1.
Clough is shown signing Duncan Mackenzie after the Charity shield game, but Duncan was signed before the season started and played in the game as a substitute.
The dive by Billy Bremner to gain the penalty in the 27.01.68 game never happened.
The impression is given that Roy McFarland was injured and substituted in the 27.01.68 game when he wasn't and played the whole match.
Dave Mackay is named on the team sheet for the fictional game against Leeds prior to the Juventus game in 1973 and is the only Derby player not to support Clough's reinstatement as manager. In reality Mackay had left Derby County in 1971. Alan Hinton is also named as in the team for the Leeds game, but he was injured at the time.
Leeds are depicted as inflicting so many injuries that they were subsequently beaten by Juventus in the European Cup. Actually the subsequent European game was against Spartak Trnava, and a contemporary report, archived at the Derby County website, reports only one serious foul during the Leeds-Derby game in question, inflicted by Colin Todd of Derby on Billy Bremner of Leeds.
A game against Leeds is described as being four days before the 1973 European Cup semi final in Turin versus Juventus. Derby actually played Arsenal on that particular Saturday. The events shown in that game are completely false and notice that no score for that game is shown.
When Clough is insulting the Leeds players about their style of play they don't respond, but in truth they did defend themselves against his accusations.
The player described as Clarke in the 27.01.68 game wears 3 on his back while Clarke usually wore the number 8 when he eventually joined Leeds United
Brian Clough is shown to sign Colin Todd as a direct response to the 5-0 defeat at the hands of Leeds United in 1969. In reality, Todd didn't sign for Derby until 1971, at the start of the campaign that saw Derby win the league title.
Derby are shown getting beaten 5-0 by Leeds in their first game against Leeds in the 1st Division. In fact they lost 2-0 in that first game, they lost 5-0 3 years later.
In some scenes we see the players tunnel, especially when Clough is being berated by Bremner and other players, behind Clough we can clearly see the much more modern two-tier stand which was built in the early 1990s, yet this film is set in the mid 1970s.
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.
Tony Gubba is used as the voice of a commentator during the montage sequences during for various seasons between 1968 & 1972. In reality Tony Gubba didn't commentate on his first game for the BBC until January 1974, when he commentated on a FA Cup 4th round tie between Manchester United & Ipswich Town.
Dave Mackay left Derby County in the summer of 1971 to take over as player-manager of Swindon Town. After one season in charge he left Swindon to take over as Nottingham Forest Manager, and it was from Nottingham Forest he left to replace Brian Clough as Manager at Derby in November 1973. He was not a player at Derby as shown in the movie when Brian Clough resigned in October 1973.
The sequence showing the penalty spot being re-painted during a game at the Baseball Ground did happen, but in reality it didn't take place until April 30th 1977 in a game against Manchester City , almost four years after Brian Clough had left Derby as Manager. Colin Murphy was Derby Manager during that game (after he replaced Dave Mackay in the autumn of 1976). Also John Motson was the real commentator at the game not Tony Gubba as shown in the movie.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs
Brian Clough is shown smoking in the film. His family maintain that he never took up the habit. However in a documentary made in the early 1970's Clough spoke about smoking too much and trying to quit. Perhaps he was careful about not smoking in the company of his family.
Brian Clough seems to resign on behalf of Peter Taylor in the film, but English law makes it impossible to resign on behalf of another person. However, the Derby board may have been unaware that Taylor's resignation letter was a forgery created by Clough, or may have simply not cared about its origin.
