THE DAMNED UNITED Grade: B+
It’s a good thing to be without prejudice when watching an infamously beloved sports team take on the underdog that has worked so hard to join its division. It’s a great thing when a movie tries to go exceed expectations. Unlike most sports movies, “The Damned United” isn’t about a tough coach turning a squad of underachievers into champions; it is much different.
The movie revolves around English football (soccer) legend Brian Clough, a former star-turned-pretty-boy manager. In 1974, Clough, played by Michael Sheen (“The Queen,” “Frost/Nixon”), took over as the manager of Leeds United, a powerhouse in the league’s First Division. When the team lost five of its six games, he was fired after a mere 44 days on the job. It was a humiliating moment for Clough, who had garnered so much praise from football fans.
The film opens to Clough arriving for his first day of work at Leeds stadium. He astonishes his new team by saying, “As far as I’m concerned, you can throw all those medals you’ve won in the bin, because you won them all by cheating.” To disparage your team on the first day is nothing short of a surprise. However, to understand Clough’s feelings towards the team, we must revisit his first match against Leeds when he was the new manager of Derby County. On that day in 1967, Clough had scrubbed the aging Derby stadium clean and dressed to impress the top notch Leeds United, manager Don Revie (Colm Meaney), only to be neglected by Revie without so much as a handshake. It didn’t make it any easier that Derby had lost 2-0 to a team whose playbook consisted of cheats. It was the ultimate insult for the upstart young manager, who’d grown up admiring Revie and finally thought himself on equal footing.
This is just one theme that “The Damned United” deals with. It also follows a tale of obsession and revenge. The audience is juggled back and forth like a ball in play between Clough’s doomed tenure at Leeds and his earlier experience transforming a wretched Derby County into a respectable upper-division competitor. Clough’s Derby team makes itself known as a team that plays the game beautifully and fairly. He makes his team known not only by winning games, but by his arrogant public persona. The cocksure Clough is someone who would declare with a straight face, “They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I wasn’t on that particular job.”
Though it is ostensibly about football, the film — based on David Peace’s novel and directed by Tom Hooper from Peter Morgan’s script — shows barely any on-field footage. Instead, it is much more interested in Clough’s relationship with his right-hand man Peter Taylor, played by Timothy Spall (“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”). Taylor is the yin to Clough’s yang. He is an unpretentious assistant whose knowledge of football was unparalleled at the time. Taylor is the brain behind Clough, a brilliant man who advises him on player personnel, tactics and strategy. We’re led to believe that, before the relationship soured, Taylor was an essential component.
It is Clough’s ambition and moral blindness that eventually tears the two apart. By the time Clough took over at Leeds, determined to transform the widely loathed champions into a universally adored squad, he had driven away Taylor. While Clough enchanted fans and played the media, he took for granted the man who helped get him where he was.
After Clough’s downfall, it is the life-altering power of “bromance” that finally lifts him back up. We learn in the epilogue that he and Taylor would reunite professionally and turned the 13th place Nottingham Forest club into a championship team. Their relationship is what ultimately lies at the emotional heart of the film.
“The Damned United” includes a great cast of actors. Stephen Graham and Jim Broadbent shine through the managerial shroud. Graham plays the crass captain of Leeds, while Broadbent plays Sam Longson, the owner of Derby, who is similar to Jerry Reinsdorf. He reminds us that at some level, professional sports are a retail business.
These great performances play out against the bizarre, alternate universe of ‘70s English soccer. While the acting and directing is exceptional, the themes weigh on the heavier side. The audience may wonder if the film is a portrait of the artist-as-manager or an odd couple romance. Regardless, “The Damned United” is unlike any sports movie you have ever seen.
You can reach this writer at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
