The Damned United Review

I spun this DVD off my Netflix queue last night, and since it's sure to annoy the Soccer Haters among you (personally, I'm more Soccer Indifferent), let's get into it.

TDU is the story of Brian Clough, a legendary British manager who was kind of the Billy Martin of English football. (And if you are too young to remember Martin -- sigh -- maybe Larry Brown.) The film was written for lead actor Michael Sheen, who absolutely owns this role as Clough, and operates on a parallel timeline as we see Clough's past in the equivalent of the minor leagues, and his rivalry with Don Revie.

Clough was extraordinarily brash, loved to play with the press, and had career-threatening disdain for his employers. He was also more than ably supported by his assistant, Peter Taylor, who supplied him with players and sanity when the ego went too far off the rails. But the useful thing about the movie is that you really don't have to know much about the game to enjoy it. If you've ever been young and confident, and placed in a situation where you are fighting the underdog battle, or clashed with management that cared more about money than excellence... well, Brian Clough is going to be right in your wheelhouse. And if you've ever been in a situation where you were in the presence of a cocky jerk who sorely needed comeuppance, there's that too.

Sheen runs this right down the middle, giving it the right touch of reality and entertainment, and he's ably supported by the rest of the cast, especially Colm Meaney as Revie. The film is too smart to let Meaney go into full cardboard antagonist mode, and the care to detail that the film goes for -- especially the shabby conditions that the English Premier League endured in the '60s and '70s, where many of the pitches were mud slogs -- is telling and appreciated. There's actual drama here, more than a fair amount of humor, and just good film mmaking. Shooter says check it out.

One final bit: my favorite scene of the movie isn't actually in the film. It's a deleted scene where Clough takes a unique approach to his underperforming team at halftime. Defintely check it out if you spin the disc.