Perhaps it stems from our history and subsequent, fiction-based representations of that (the patriot, the tough cowboy, etc.), but most Americans are a nation centric lot. Sure, there are those who favor imported over domestic products -- which is certainly true in the manufacturing sector since less and less is actually made here anymore -- but the vast majority think America rules and the rest of the world be damned.
That sentiment is especially true in sports. While most everyone has at least some working knowledge or familiarity with the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball and such, few know anything about sports in other countries. Take, for instance, football (a.k.a. soccer as it's known here in the States).
Yes, some foreign athletes from that world have become household names in the U.S. (Pele long ago, David Beckham more recently), but that's mainly because they came here to play. For the most part, the rest of the players in various sports, the teams they play on, the rules and the history are all foreign (literally and metaphorically).
That might change, at least to some small degree, with the release of "The Damned United," an entertaining and well-acted look at a famous -- at least overseas -- incident in the history of English football. Namely, that was when Brian Clough took over the manager's position -- noted at the beginning of the film as the most coveted job in England -- of the best team in the land, Leeds United.
Being set in the 1960s and '70s will mean the tale is ancient history for today's younger sports fans, but the temporal position has no real bearing on the story (save for historical accuracy, fashion and abundant smoking) or one's potential enjoyment of it. Instead, the pic is fueled by the universal story of an ego run amuck and fueled by an intense and essentially one-way rivalry.
Namely that's Clough's real-life character terrifically played by Michael Sheen. Aside from his recent stint in the latest installment of the "Underworld" film franchise, the actor has made a thing of recent playing famous Brits. While the football manager might not be as well-known outside the sports arena as Prime Minister Tony Blair or interviewer David Frost, Sheen makes him a quite interesting if tragically flawed character.
If there's only one misstep from the filmmakers -- director Tom Hooper working from screenwriter Peter Morgan's adaptation of David Peace's novel "The Damned Utd" -- it's that we never really see what drove Clough to be so motivated (besides feeling he was snubbed of a handshake by Leeds' manager at the time, Don Revie, upon their first meeting), or exactly what he did to achieve such remarkable success on the field from his players.
The film does jump back and forth between "present day" (that being 1974) featuring Clough's tenuous and ill-fated, 44-day tenure with Leeds and various flashback sequences set in the late '60s and early '70s where we see the rivalry formation and subsequent drive to turn his Derby County team into a contender. I've never been a big fan of said temporal hopping, as it usually kills the momentum of one or both portrayed periods, but for some reason I didn't find it terribly disruptive or distracting here.
Maybe that's because the film smartly focuses on the interesting relationship between the manager and assistant manager characters, with the latter played by the always solid Timothy Spall, rather than the actual games as usually occurs in most sports dramas. Thankfully, there's no end of the film match that will make or break the characters and their goals, and one of the better related scenes actually features Sheen's character listening only to the crowd's reaction to a game rather than watch it.
And with the manager becoming so obsessed with besting his rival (nicely played by Colm Meaney) and that man's subsequent legendary status among owners, players and fans that he ultimately undermines everything he's worked for, the film sort of takes on a Shakespearean tragedy aura to it.
Fortunately for the film and viewers alike, that never feels too depressing or stuffy, and the flick ends on an upbeat note. While it might not shake American viewers into suddenly wanting to know about foreign sports and especially English football, "The Damned United" is an entertaining offering thanks to an interesting story and solid to terrific performances. It rates as a 6 out of 10.
![[Screen It]](/images/underground_header.jpg)