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Amazon.co.uk Review
Based on the best-selling book of the same name, The Damned United is the story of one of Britain’s finest ever football managers, Brian Clough, and his curtailed 44-day reign at the helm of Leeds United. It turns out it’s also the tale of his formative years at Derby County, the story of his rivalry with previous Leeds United boss Don Revie, and ultimately, the exploration of his relationship with his assistant, Peter Taylor.
The film explores the story by moving backwards and forwards in time, but always at the heart of The Damned United is its trump card. Michael Sheen has already richly deserved an abundance of plaudits in his acting career, not least for his superb portrayal of David Frost in Frost/Nixon, and he carves out another terrific performance here. Taking on the challenge of playing the larger than life Clough, his work here is tremendous, and the highlight of an already-strong cast that also features Timothy Spall and Colm Meaney.
On the screen, the story of The Damned United is actually distilled into quite a straightforward tale, albeit one considerably enhanced by its aforementioned cast. It wisely keeps its running time trimmed, and while you can’t help but suspect that there’s much to the story that’s not explored here, it’s a good, solid telling of a quite extraordinary tale. Sheen won’t, of course, attract Oscar-attention for such a resoundingly British role, but surely his time, on this latest piece of evidence, will come. --Jon Foster
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), English ( Subtitles ), Hindi ( Subtitles ), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Anamorphic Widescreen, Commentary, Deleted Scenes, Featurette, Interactive Menu, Making Of, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Based on David Peace's book, The Damned United portrays the tempestuous 44 days that forthright Brian Clough (Michael Sheen) spent as manager of Leeds United. After alienating the side's star players and a string of awful results, 'Cloughie' was given the boot, but that's just half the story! Brian Clough was one of a kind. In 1974, Clough was already a renowned figure, just as much for his dynamic personality as for his fantastic managerial ability. Having led Derby County to the first league victory in their history, Clough left in a cloud of controversy and, after a brief spell at Brighton, found himself in the Leeds United hotseat after Don Revie's departure for the England job. What followed was the most incredible 44 days of football management! ...The Damned United
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Seconds Out,
By
This review is from: The Damned United [DVD] [2009] (DVD)
Don Revie and Brian Clough were great footballers and great managers, both from Middlesbrough (about 10 miles north of where I grew up) but the film sets them up as tragic enemies in a reputational boxing match in which stinging blow after blow is landed by each to the benefit of neither. David Pearce's novel has Clough as the admirer of Revie who turns against his hero. They battle it out at key points of Clough's early career at Derby County, and at his short career at Leeds itself, and finish it off on TV. Revie leaves for disappointment at England, Clough to be reborn at Nottingham Forest, neither are ever the same again.
Michael Sheen is scary as Clough, Colm Meaney brilliant as Revie, both sound like their counterparts and even begin to look like the originals. The Leeds squad is recognisable even to me at this remove; and so is the pre-Thatcher world of self-made men running British sport with all the witless charm that they ran their businesses. The attitudes, the accents, the fashions and the locations are spot on; yet this is not a sports film, you see very little soccer, it's an old fashioned tragedy about rivalry and hubris, about genius and the deadening effect of the mediocre types who seem to run sport (as they run life). The cast are brilliant and the result a great tale.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Read the book!,
By
This review is from: The Damned United [DVD] [2009] (DVD)
Of course I enjoyed this film. I'd followed the career of Brian Clough since his first managerial appointment with the mighty Pools, my home club. I loved David Peace's book and I have to say that the film fails to capture the essence of the book, reducing the central players to caricatures and the film to little more than an admittedly superior drama-documentary. Of course, any film featuring Timothy Spall and the great Jim Broadbent cannot be all bad and Michael Sheen gives a better impression of Old Big Head than Mike Yarwood used to do back in the 70s, but I cannot honestly say that his portrayal touches the tragic depths implied in the book. I know that the Clough family were very unhappy about the way in which he was portrayed in the book, but he comes out of the film relatively well and the real villains here are Messrs Revie (the excellent Colm Meaney), Bremner and Giles. The last two, in particular, are reduced to pantomime villains, unfairly so, I suspect. The football scenes are, to my eyes at least, not entirely convincing, although Mr Sheen, as well as cleaning oodles of things, is clearly no mean player himself. The "fillers" are without exception interesting, as is the director's commentary. I have to recommend this DVD and it is certainly an entertaining way to spend 90 minutes or so,especially at this bargain price, but in truth, it's not a patch on the book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great film,
By Gillybean "Gillybean" (Newcastle, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Damned United [DVD] [2009] (DVD)
I saw this, originally, at the cinema and I was a little sceptical. I assumed it was ALL about football, but I wanted to see it as I knew it had a great cast (Michael Sheen - genius!, Tim Spall - multi-talented). I would recommend this to anyone. Guys will love the football and girls will love the story. The film is not really about football, it's about the relationship between Sheen and Spall's characters. I confess, I haven't read the book - but I really did enjoy the film.
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