From the Academy Award-nominated writer of The Queen and Frost/Nixon, The Damned United is based on the incredible true story of Brian Clough, one of England’s greatest soccer managers and his 44 controversial days at the helm of reigning champs Leeds United. Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans and Twilight Saga: New Moon) triumphs as Clough starring alongside a winning ensemble cast that includes Timothy Spall (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), Colm Meaney (Layer Cake) and Jim Broadbent (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince). This inspiring and humorous sports drama is about the power of friendship in the face of adversity and the stubborn will of one man to play by his own rules.

You don’t have to like football (or soccer, as we call it in the U.S.) to enjoy The Damned United, because this sharp, funny movie isn’t about sports any more than Citizen Kane is about running a newspaper. The Damned United is about ego–specifically, the large and driven ego of Brian Clough (Michael Sheen), the manager of a low-rung football team who, along with his assistant Peter Taylor (the always superb Timothy Spall, Secrets & Lies), brought his team to the top rank. At which point Clough self-destructed, even as he seemed to be given the keys to even greater heights: he was hired as the new manager of Leeds United, perhaps the strongest team in England, replacing his longtime rival Don Revie (Colm Meaney, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine). The Damned United bounces back and forth in time, deftly laying out Clough’s rise and fall, transforming a man who initially seems an unbearable, domineering jerk into someone you feel for deeply. After Frost/Nixon and The Queen, Sheen practically specializes in playing real people, but his performance here is utterly stellar, by turns brilliantly comic and subtly moving. The movie lets the relationship between Clough and Taylor unspool organically, until the love and anger between them starts to fray and collapse. This is a riveting and ultimately invigorating story, psychologically compelling and with more twists and turns than a crime thriller. Simply a great movie. –Bret Fetzer

Stills from The Damned United (Click for larger image)

A compelling rewarding movie, destined to become a classic.

The book The Damned Utd which anyone should read that finds this movie interesting along with a number of others on the subject uses a lot of creative license as well but the big difference is that in this movie, Clough is basically a hero as well as being the sport icon he was in the seventies. In the book and surely there is some truth to it since Clough surely suffered from alcoholism in his life, Clough somewhat self-destructs especially in the second half of the book.

First off, we need to remember that the movie and the book “The Damned United” are both works of fiction, the movie loosely based on the book and the book loosely based on the truth and to go one further, there also exists an additional book We Are the Damned United: The Real Story of Brian Clough at Leeds United, as indicated an indeed realistic portrayal of Clough’s brief rule at Leeds United. This movie though seems to reach out at portraying much of the essence of the story of the ‘Damned United’ and scores points for doing so. Clough wanted a clean, talented and honest soccer game, he in fact, discouraged his players from lively ‘hotdog’ types of celebrations in real life as just one example of his coaching. Clough’s philosophy towards the game can be analyzed in some of his famous quotes such as upon arriving at Leeds, he told the players “You can all throw your medals in the bin because they were not won fairly” used in the movie.

What I do enjoy in the movie is that in the book whereas some essentials might become lost or obscured was how in fact, Cloughie’s success truly was in large part to his co-partnership in managment with Peter Taylor, a teammate of Clough going back to his playing days in Sunderland and/or Middlesbrough, Taylor who was a goalkeeper sounded out Clough way back then on ideas and would say things to him to give him confidence. Another famous quote by BC was his saying and yes, it is in the movie, “I wouldn’t say I was the best manager in the business. But I was in the top one.” Now, what does this mean? To me, it dawned on me that he probably means that he was “in the top one” in being mindful of his collaboration with Peter Taylor, the two of them as one. Events did not exactly transpire as indicated in the movie but the depiction is nonetheless, basically accurate in the ‘big picture’ of how things were.

The story goes on from here as books on Brian Clough are now a virtual cottage industry with even a sub-category of the ol’ Leeds team as well, Leeds, traditional enemy of the Monarchy in English history as well of all things I’ve heard. One should probably start out with Provided You Don’t Kiss Me: 20 Years with Brian Clough as required reading on Clough, penned by the journalist Duncan Hamilton who spent close to 20 years with the ‘Gaffer’ (manager, coach) at the Nottingham Forest club and was the William Hill sport book of the year. Questions some viewers have about this movie are answered in the books which though I have gone on about and this is the movie, the books give us an idea of whether we are seeing a truthful representation. There are also a number of videos around one can watch of the actual interviews presented in this movie. Brian Clough surely had his downside as well but for the most part, in this movie, he is a hero and it’s a fair place to start studying the man. In light of the recent incident so well reported on over the past week involving the mishap with the Wales and Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey, something you might not know if you only see the movie is that in fact, around 1959, Brian Clough’s brilliant career as a player came to an end as the result of his leg being broken. He does allude to his career in the movie by stating something like “I scored 251 goals in 274 games”, a phenomenal record. His being denied a further career as a player and it coming to such a sudden end, probably added an impetus to him to coach as well as he did. Yes, he was probably “the best manager England never had” but being as outspoken as he was, he also enjoyed a sprite career as a TV pundit while still managing and Clough derided the then-manager for England, Sir Alf Ramsey, criticisms Clough later felt some regrets over making when England were eventually eliminated from making the 1974 World Cup and Sir Alf Ramsey was dismissed. That’s why that although Clough is a coaching legend and often highly likeable, there’s definitely 2 sides to the story and at times, he could be a polarizing figure, as reflected also during his tenure at Leeds and as the reason for his departure from Derby County and not being selected as manager for the England team. Sir Alf Ramsey by the way, was in charge of England’s triumph in 1966. Still, polarizing or not, to be a manager anywhere, you are bound to encounter difficulties, if it be in Bob Bradley’s position with the USA National soccer team or any other.

Of course, anyone who sees the movie ‘Queen’ is probably struck by Michael Sheen’s close resemblance to Tony Blair, so I was skeptical at first on how well he could do Brian Clough. After reading about Clough in a number of books and magazines and watching actual video footage of the man, Sheen does in fact, do a convincing job. The cinematography additionally is quite fantastic in this movie. “Goal”, “A shot at glory” and “(Escape to) Victory” may have a bit more soccer action but this movie has the action combined with the managerial duties of Taylor and Clough and that makes this a real winner.

The extra features are outstanding and tell one a lot more about this movie including a segment giving a contrarian view of Leeds United versus being the dirty team that they are portrayed to be in the view of Brian Clough. It is worth evaluating to be even-handed in viewing these past events because, yes, this is a point of debate even until today. I’d give it additional high marks for authenticity, the special features point out the stadium used in the movie is from Chesterfield who still retain the same old time stadium with terraces at least for now, add in a pouring rain at some of the matches as one can still see at a number of Premier League games being played nowadays and the setting is very realistic. The only thing I wonder about is if the gold of the Derby County Team would have seen their original stadium painted in the green color scheme (the name of the original stadium the Derby County Rams played in was called of all the things, the Baseball Grounds).

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