The Damned United – Blu Ray Review

The Damned United

Even if you only have a passing interest in football the chances are that you would have heard of Brian Clough. He was an immensely successful football player and manager having scored 197 goals in 213 appearances for Middleborough and 54 Goals in 61 appearances for Sunderland before being injured in 1962, an injury which essentially retired him as a player. In 1965 he became manager of Hartlepool and with the help of his assistant Peter Taylor was extremely successful with them as well as Derby County and Eventually Nottingham Forest where he took the small team on to win the  European Cup in 1979 and successfully retain it in 1980.

The Damned United is interesting in that it shows us two periods of time, firstly when at Derby County with Peter Taylor it shows us their enormous success taking a club from near the foot of the 2nd Division all the way up to the 1st Division and Secondly it explains the unsuccessful 44 days when Clough became manager at Leeds United. This position was surprising in that Clough had for some time been critical of Leeds United style of play as well as their Manager Don Revie. Clough took over from Revie at Leeds when he became the England Manager.

But onto the film itself.

I was wondering what to expect with this film, I like football, and I was familiar with some of the names (mainly from the Panini sticker books from my youth) but I would not say that I am a massive football fan, however Michael Sheen is an actor that I enjoy watching and with him having some success at playing other famous public figures I hoped that the film would be entertaining and something that I would enjoy.. I wasn’t disappointed although I do think that opinions will be split over the movie. On one hand the purists will be spitting bullets at the historical inaccuracies in the film, indeed Johnny Giles actually successfully sued the publishers of the book stating that many of the things that were portrayed in the book, and hence the film, never actually happened. But for those people that see it only as an entertaining movie will for the most part enjoy it, and I don’t even think you have to be a football fan to like it.

As mentioned earlier rather than concentrating on one period of time the Damned United is a film that focuses mainly on two opposing periods of time in Cloughs management career, firstly the overall successful period of time he and Taylor had at Derby County and secondly the torrid 44 days he had with Leeds United in 1974, but outside of this the film is more about Brian Cloughs relationships, be it with the Chairman and board of directors within clubs that he manages, his players or his assistant Peter Taylor and I think it is here that the film gets its charm, and also the reason why you don’t have to be a football fan to enjoy the film. The real life Clough was known as “ol big ead” he was outspoken and this often got him into trouble with his bosses and although Sheen shows glimpses of this fiery nature for the most part he plays him as a likeable, if sometimes cocksure guy.

The Damned United

Timothy Spall is also good as Peter Taylor, in fact Clough was not as successful a manager without Taylor and this is seen in the on screen relationship between these two actors, where Spall and sheen have a good rapport with each other that gives credibility to their characters.
The other main actors are the brilliant Jim Broadbent, who plays Sam Longson, the Derby Chairman and a very good Colm Meaney who undertakes the part of Don Revie the Leeds/England Manager Both (I think) are underused in the film, particularly Meaney who is firmly on the sidelines whilst Broadbent gets a little more screen time and is particularly good when at loggerheads with Clough which happens mainly of the transfer of players that Clough buys without Longson sanctioning them.

I do not really know where to place this film; it isn’t really a biopic as such because we don’t find out masses about Brian Clough the man. You will see some of his faults, you will see his cocky nature and get glimpses of the obsession he had with Don Revie and Leeds United and why that obsession came to the fore but it is a little bitty in that respect so people unfamiliar with him will not get the whole story, and it also isn’t a football film as we don’t see much actual football, additionally although the film is called The Damned United indicating the 44 days he spent at Leeds the movie doesn’t really spend much time with him at Leeds either. The common theme seems to be his initial respect and then ultimate dislike for Don Revie and I suppose the Dammed United is a snapshot of that more than anything else.

Something I personally found endearing and indeed made me want to find out more about the man himself was his statistics as a player and a manager come up toward the end of the film and they are pretty impressive, and after witnessing those I for one have to agree that Brian Clough was indeed the best manager that England never had.

The Damned United

Extras:
The disc comes with a decent amount of extras. He have the almost obligatory commentary with Director Tom Hooper, actor Michael Sheen and producer Andy Morris, we then have a set of 9 deleted scenes. These can be viewed with or without the directors commentary; I viewed then with it on, you can also choose to play all or view each individually.

We then have “cloughisms” which I believe just shows us the interviews that Michael Sheen did as Brian Clough for the TV shows within the film. After which there is a 16 minute making of; this was quite interesting as all the main actors get their say about the film. Creating Clough :  Michael Sheen takes on “ol big ead” is my favourite extra, Michael Speaks about how he researched Clough and speaks a little about the man himself whereas remembering Brian is another short extra that shows us the man himself, the odd interview and such like. Lastly we have changing game which is almost an add on documentary with a few 70s football players and they discuss how the game has changed since the days of old and how football these days is simply a money gravy train.

Picture:
I found the picture quality was superb, the hue has a little of that washed out feeling that 70s TV was all about and yet everything is crystal clear and bright. The night shots, for example when a football match was played at night in the rain looked beautifully clear and daytime shots were full of detail.

Audio:
My AMP isn’t compatible with HD specific audio streams so I listened in 5.1 Dolby Digital which was beautifully clear and concise. Not that there is a massive amount of dynamic range needed in the film the dialogue and soundtrack were evenly balanced.

The Damned United

Overall:
An extremely enjoyable snapshot of an interesting man’s life, It may help to know about or be interested in football but certainly not a pre requisite (My missus doesn’t like football and she enjoyed this film) and although not the greatest football film around, I do think it is in the top one.

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