At the beginning of The Damned United, a film whose title
refers to the colloquial name for Leeds United, the team is in the
First Division, at the top of the English Premier League. The year is
1974, and the team’s famous manager, Don Revie, has just been tapped to
take over the England National Team, leaving open one of the most
coveted managerial positions in football (or what most Americans know
as soccer). Enter the tenacious Brian Clough, newly appointed to the
job and still spewing residual vitriol about Leeds. Over the next hour
and a half, the film connects the dots of Clough’s career and pieces
together his rivalry, perceived or otherwise, with Revie.
The film flashes back to 1968, when Revie (Colm Meaney) was the
ever-prosperous manager of the First Division Leeds, and Clough
(Michael Sheen), along with his humble and underappreciated assistant
Pete Taylor (Timothy Spall), were managing the Derby County squad,
flailing at the bottom of the Second Division. In a random lottery
pick, Leeds is chosen to play against Derby, a fact that thrills the
provincial Derby County team. But when an exceedingly enthusiastic
Clough feels that he has been slighted by Revie, the scene is set for
Clough’s rivalry against Revie, Leeds, and anyone or anything that
stands in his way.
Some British critics have panned the film, both for toning down
novelist David Peace’s depiction of Clough’s superiority complex and
for adjusting the facts. It should come as no surprise that the Brits
are more than a little touchy about their nation’s most beloved sport
and its history. For our part, the film can stand alone more easily as
a fascinating biopic about a character whose blind ambition, unchecked
arrogance, and ham-handed approach to managing is ultimately
destructive. (“I wouldn’t say I’m the best manager in the country, but
I’m in the top one.”)
Only after a hearty helping of humble pie do the tides turn in his
favor, and then only with the help of Taylor. Clough’s ego having
apparently clogged his brain for years, he suddenly realizes he cannot
go without Taylor. One of the best scenes involves some deserved
groveling and a tinge of well-intended humiliation. Having abandoned
Taylor in Brighton to become the manager of Leeds, Clough comes
crawling back, where Taylor gets him to beg, “Please, please, baby,
take me back.”
Massaged facts and unfamiliar subject aside, the film is highly
enjoyable for all moviegoers, football fans or no. Director Tom Hooper
makes the most of a sometimes bleak, retro scene. In the 1970s,
Britain’s economy was suffering. As a working-class sport, football did
not always boast the best facilities, and let’s not mention Britain’s
penchant for rain and cloud-cover. But Hooper makes something beautiful
from this palette. The acting is superb, particularly Sheen and Spall.
The always excellent Jim Broadbent does a sharp, bristling turn as the
often undermined owner of the Derby County team.
For those of us who are football fans, the film highlights a time
when the sport was financially challenged; when the perfect green pitch
of today was a mud pit; when the thought of paying a professional
footballer 300 quid a week was preposterous. But the film makes it
clear that British football was on the cusp of all those things, and
these changing times provide a fitting backdrop for the vicissitudes of
Clough’s career.
