The Damned United ... Damn Good!
By Lee Godfrey
Posted on March 3, 2010
It stole the show at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival and was released on DVD in North America last week. Finally I might say. I did not have the opportunity to see the flick while in theatres, but ran to pick it up in blu-ray the moment it came out. This could possibly be the best soccer film of all-time. Victory fans let not get your knickers in a knot! Michael Sheen (The Queen, Frost/Nixon) is brilliant in portraying legendary Manager Brian Clough. Director Tom Hooper did a fantastic job on jumping back and forth between years at the right time trying to illustrate the mindset of Brian Clough as he managed Derby County from the depths of the Second Division of English football to the top of the First Division, taking over the title from Don Revie’s (Colm Meaney, Star Trek: The Next Generation) mighty Leeds United. The story is not so much about Clough’s 44 day run as Manager of Leeds, but rather the relationship or lack thereof Clough had built up in his mind between himself and Don Revie and Clough’s friendship with his right-hand man Peter Taylor (Timothy Spall). Revie who managed Leeds for 13 years before Clough’s arrival had become a father figure at the club basically setting up Clough to fail before he began. The dialogue and actual game footage cut into this movie gave it a real sense of living a moment in time. I don’t want to give too much away for those who have not seen the flick, but for me the best part of the movie was towards the end when Clough was trying to patch up his relationship with Peter Taylor. Brilliant scene. 4 stars for The Damned United and a must see for all soccer fans.
This movie also brings up the debate of what are the top soccer related movies of all-time?? Here are my top ten picks!
1) The Damned United
2) Victory
3) Green Street Hooligans
4) The Football Factory
5) Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos
6) Fever Pitch
7) Goal
8) Bend it Like Beckham
9) A Shot at Glory
10) The Game of Their Lives
Comments
Latest Posts
GOLTV Blogs
Bio
Lee Godfrey brings an extensive amount of soccer broadcast experience to GolTV where he is the host of the station’s original Canadian news program Extra Time.In the summer of 2007, Lee served as GOLTV’s studio host for both the FIFA Under-20 World Cup and the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Prior to joining the team at GOLTV, Godfrey honed his skills as a soccer reporter at Rogers Sportsnet. During his tenure at Rogers Sportsnet, he filed regular stories for Soccercentral and served as a sideline reporter for the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup, the 2004 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship Qualifier and the 2006 FIFA Men's World Cup Qualifier.
During the course of his career, Godfrey has made several trips to England and Scotland to cover Canada’s national team players as they pursue their soccer careers.
Apart from his journalism skills, Godfrey is also an accomplished sports producer having overseen the production of what many considered to be Canada's greatest moment in international soccer – their unlikely, but remarkable run to the 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup title. In addition, Godfrey has produced Canada's qualifying games for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship qualifying tournament and the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup of Soccer.
Prior to joining Rogers Sportsnet, Godfrey was the Assistant Director for TSN’s Soccer Saturday and the 1998 FIFA World Cup.