Soccer heroes and hooligans score

MUN Cinema Series

By Mildred Pierce

A lot of people are waiting to see this marvelous biopic called The Damned United. With the huge international appeal of football you’d think this film might have reached the mainstream theatres, but, once again, someone doesn’t know what he or she is doing.

In any case, MUN Cinema wisely knows there is a hungry audience in town for this film based on the true story of a living legend, Brian Clough, legendary and notorious manager of the English national team, Leeds United.

The film stars the gifted Martin Sheen in the lead role as the irascible manager, Clough. Sheen is a pretty amazing talent, with a huge capacity for convincing and far-ranging expression, as he has demonstrated in recent work, such as Frost/Nixon.

He’s a modern method actor, who gets totally inside the characters he is playing. To date, his most famous roles are all based on real living and breathing people, not an easy feat.

As played so brilliantly by Sheen, Clough emerges in this story just as the English fans came to see him – as an anti-hero. Having turned a small provincial team in Derby into a champion powerhouse through wiliness and sheer persistence, Clough grows into the role as an unconventional coach, pushing the boundaries, growing cockier, and flaunting his victory in the face of the cash-worried owners.

We see the hunger with which he fights to establish his team as the most competitive in the country and in Europe, drawing on a lot of working-class rage to do so.

It’s the early ‘70s, and football is dominated by Leeds United – a team being managed by a legendary bully whom Clough grows to hate with the passion of a schoolboy who’s had sand kicked in his face.

In a way, The Damned United shows us that above all, his spite and anger at what Leeds comes to represent in his imagination motivates him far more than anything else. Important to the drama and to an understanding of what made Clough tick is the troubled friendship with his sidekick, Peter.

They love each other fiercely, way more than they probably love their wives who are shadows in the frame. But their (non-erotic) intimacy comes with a price, and Clough has to deal with his own complicity in the strain on their relationship.

A turning point in Clough’s life is his own promotion to become manager of the very Leeds team he had so despised. How does one go from hating a team to having to champion it overnight? This question also provides the context for Clough’s personality which is always under the microscope here.

Colm Meaney stars as the despised Leeds coach, offering an equally intelligent performance, matching Sheen grimace for grimace. As directed by Tom Hooper, The Damned United is very entertaining, whether you care about soccer/football or not. It gets at something real, something we are moved to care about.

The Damned United plays on Thursday, Feb. 4 at Empire Theatres Studio 12 in the Avalon Mall. Tickets go on sale at 6:00 pm and showtime is 7:00 pm. Tickets are $10 regular admission and $9 for students.

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