Travelling in Nottingham

The Damned United

The Damned United

97 mins
Dir: Tom Hooper
Starring: Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Jim Broadbent

Even those who know little about football will have to admit that Brian Clough was something of a legend. Winning two European Championships back to back with Nottingham Forest is still considered to be one of the greatest achievements in the history of the beautiful game. But prior to this epic success was an infamous 44-day stint at Leeds United.

The Damned United uses Clough's Leeds career as the skeleton, and fleshes it out with flashbacks of his rise to fame at Derby County - from bottom of the second division to champions of the first.

In Clough's younger days he was a big talker, lapping up the limelight and regularly commenting on football matches for TV; especially willing to give his critical opinion on "dirty Leeds" and their dishonest style of play.

The film sees the perpetual "real-life character actor" Michael Sheen return to our screens as Ol' Big Head, with a slightly dodgy accent and even dodgier facial expressions. We know that Sheen has a flair for method acting, but more often that not it felt like Itchy was watching a painfully smug version of Tony Blair.

Sheen's face has been too rigidly typecast, and the actor is rapidly become a caricature of himself; more elastic Jim Carrey than classic Carey Grant. Although his portrayal of Clough's intense working relationship with Peter Taylor (Timothy Spall), there was almost a frisson of sexual excitement between the pair which seemed at odds with the film's general tone.

Another concern is how far the movie blurs the line between truth and fiction, given that it is based on the book by David Peace, a novel that has since been denounced by Clough's family and friends for its "outrageous and mean spirited" portrayal of the ill-fated manager in ITV documentary, Clough.

Although the comparison of Clough's ambition to that of a 70s macabre Macbeth worked well, itchy couldn't help but question just how real this personal vendetta against Don Revie was.

For those who saw actual footage of the Yorkshire TV standoff between Revie and Clough the first time around, it is easy to see how one-sided scriptwriter Peter Morgan's vision is. As Don Revie walks away with his head held high, Clough is sat amidst the cameras that betrayed him. In reality, Clough makes his rival aware that he simply wanted to better the former Leeds manager, with a team that played fairly.

An enjoyable Brit flick, but true fans may be disappointment by the extent of poetic license used to dramatise Clough's story.

Sally McIlhone

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