Last night I went to see The Damned United, essentially the story of Brian Clough’s disastrous 44 days as manager of Leeds United in 1974. It stars the ever-present Michael Sheen as Clough, and Colm Meany as his nemesis, Don Revie.
Damned United poster image
The story begins as Clough arrives at Leeds to replace Revie, who has just been appointed England manager having led the Yorkshire club through a period of unassailable success in Division One. The new manager’s first act is to head to a local television station for an interview in which he decimates Revie’s and Leeds’s domestic success and reputation and underlines the fact that the team has won nothing in Europe.
The narrative then takes a series of twists through time delve into the background of the acrimony between Clough and Revie, the relationship between Clough and his assistant Peter Taylor (expertly portrayed by Timothy Spall) and some background about Cloughie the family man.
We learn that a Revie snub in 1966 led to Cloughie’s resentment, that Cloughie’s success is completely reliant on Taylor’s insight, and that Cloughie has an insatiable desire for success that is often his greatest asset and his greatest weakness. We learn that by 1974, hubris had a new name: Brian Clough. Cloughie had a knack for appearing on television and upsetting establishment and enemies alike through a combination of inflammatory statements about his own greatness and unflinching commentary on his rivals’ weaknesses, especially Don Revie. In fact, there’s even a clip of Muhammad Ali saying that Brian Clough talks too much!
Now, there’s a funny thing about this film. It caused me to recall a film tutor I had while at my writing course back in the mid 1990s who hated when British films took on American/Hollywood storytelling templates. Although they were British by place and nominally by subject matter, they ultimately followed Hollywood narrative structures.
The Damned United is transparently like this. It is an American movie. It’s not so much that it’s backed by Columbia (and BBC Films) but its structure through and through is American/Hollywood through and through. Young individualist takes on old establishment and ugly nemesis with help of non-imposing sidekick, wins, becomes arrogant and finds redemption. There’s even a touch of ‘Luke, I am your father’ about the relationship between Revie and Cloughie.
Perhaps Columbia wanted to make sure had a film American audiences could relate to. We have amiable sidekick, fat Spall, whom you imagine had the movie been transplanted to America, would have been played by a ‘kindly’ black actor, perhaps Morgan Freeman, while Tom Cruise’s Clough rises and rises with his help, finally letting his hubris get the better of him, dumping his right hand man, failing without him, and having to make a redemptive apology at the end. And as if to make sure there’s a happy ending, we learn that Revie’s stint as England manager was a disaster and that he ended up in disgrace in the United Arab Emirates, while Clough and Taylor went on to great success domestically and in Europe with Nottingham Forest Football Club. The evil sensei must lose.
Ah, but is it a good film? It’s enjoyable. There are funny moments, such as a scene in which young Clough as Derby County manager in 1966 lays out the visiting team’s changing room for an FA Cup visit by Revie’s Leeds: along with a towel and an orange per player, he also lays down an ashtray. Cloughie’s quotes are also fabulous (“I wouldn’t say that I’m the best manager in the country, but I’m in the top one” – pardon my accuracy on the exact wording), and Sheen’s impersonation is spot on. You get the sense of the mischievousness of the man, his vulnerability, his arrogance and his ability to upset and rile, while Spall is there, rock solid, the ‘real father/good father’ perhaps.
The big Leeds players, bedecked in their purple training suits, are almost a template for Malfoy and his Slytherin contemporaries, mind you, with Billy Bremner a particularly nasty piece of work, brutal and malevolent. They are henchmen to the ‘evil’ Revie.
The Damned United will certainly appeal to folk old enough to remember the days when football pitches were mud pits, players had a tab in the dressing room at half time, and playing the man rather than the ball was an accepted part of football in Northern Europe, especially the UK. For those with less interest in football, the Hollywoodness of the telling will make it easier to follow. Meany, Sheen and Spall provide an acting masterclass, in addition.
Essentially, it is a decent and enjoyable film, well worth watching.