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The Damned United (Tom Hooper, 2009)
As one would expect from the man who wrote the screenplays for films like The Queen and Frost/Nixon, some of the characterization here is relayed via dramatic recreations of media events. The first substantial glimpses that we get of Clough and his predecessor Don Revie (played here by Colm Meaney) are in a televised interview and a press conference, respectively. Scenes like these are the least interesting parts of The Damned United, and it’s to the director’s credit that he resists including more of them. At times, Morgan’s script seems so beholden to verifiable fact that it feels more like a term paper than a fictional film. By choosing to show us ninety-odd minutes out of a six-year history, this movie inevitably begins to feel like a truncated assemblage of facts that most of its target viewers are likely to already know. Hooper’s direction helps to lessen this sensation somewhat. He shoots many of the scenes using long shots, and when he goes in for a close-up, he often creates an off-kilter or deliberately symmetrical visual effect that resists an easy comparison to what a person watching British television back in the 1970s would have seen. Much of
The Damned United’s subtlety and
history, I imagine, will sail over the heads of audiences that aren’t British.
The meticulous recreations of key games that Clough oversaw while in charge of
the Derby and Leeds teams will similarly be more thrilling to those already
interested in the minutiae of the sport of soccer. With a standing obligation to
explain the obvious to non-fans, the abbreviated runtime becomes a liability.
Clough goes from underdog to pariah and back again in a matter of moments. The
plot structure, which reveals Clough’s eventual assumption of the position as 39 Jeremy Heilman 09.04.09
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Screenwriter Peter Morgan continues his dowdy, meticulous dramatization of
recent history with Tom Hooper’s The
Damned United. Recounting the tenure of Brian Clough, 44-day manager of
British pro-football club Leeds United, and the unlikely journey that led to his
post, the movie emerges as a picture of a pigheaded man whose sheer force of
will almost seemed capable of taking a country by storm. It’s a showcase role
for actor Michael Sheen, who presents an egocentric, narcissistic figure without
ever overplaying or relying on mimicked sound bites. We sense his character’s
concern when faced with the fact that his team’s performance is largely out of
his control once the players take the field as much as we understand his hubris
in taking credit for that same team’s performance. This is as good as Sheen has
been, frankly. His Clough is a man who seems comprised of equal levels of class
anxiety and determination. His work helps somewhat to anchor a movie that often
struggles to stir emotional interest in its slavish recreation of sports
history.