So here we go with the first guest review to be featured on the Chronicles of Nat by myself, the infamous Christmas spoiler Tony. Today I will enlighten you all on a lesser known (but quite enjoyable) film entitled The Damned United. I shall start by telling you all to run out and see it before I begin my review, being as the film will more than likely not be showing anywhere in Huntsville by the time I finish writing this.
With the intro out of the way let’s get on with the review…
The Damned United is a film about the English football (soccer) manger Brian Clough and his ill-fated tenure as coach of one of England’s most storied clubs…Leeds United. The film includes a who’s who cast of English actors. You won’t know their names but you will certainly recognize a lot of faces from other successful films. The actor who plays Brian Clough in the movie is Michael Sheen. You may recognize him from some of his more recent films including: Frost Nixon (as David Frost), and the new Twilight movie New Moon (as Aro). The film shows us how Brian started out coaching the small club (with a somewhat barren trophy case) Derby County (pronounced Darby) against his archrival manager Don Revie at Leeds United, who at the time is the most successful club in England. We see how Brian leads Derby County through the ranks to become on level footing with Leeds United. And with the sudden departure of Don Revie from Leeds to coach the English national team, Brian is offered a once in a lifetime opportunity to coach Leeds (who he has bitterly hated through the years). Brian accepts the position in the sole attempt to one-up Don Revie. The rest, as they say, is history.
Michael Sheen as Brian Clough
Nat and I decided to go see this last Friday after the Auburn / Alabama game. We were in pretty good spirits after the Tide’s victory, so what better way to celebrate than to see a movie, right? We headed out to Hollywood 18 (the only theatre in the state showing it) that evening hoping to beat the crowds. Turns out we only had to beat 3 other folks since it was only the 5 of us in the theatre to see The Damned United. I felt the movie did a good job of explaining things to folks (like Nat) who don’t regularly follow English football (soccer). I was quite pleased with the film and would recommend it to you all as well. So unless you’re planning on seeing the film today, Thursday 12/03/09, catch it on DVD when it comes out. It was a pretty (damned) good film!!
P.S. Nat agrees and I don't care for soccer.
1 comment:
Nice job Tony!
Probably won't see the movie though not because of your review but because it's not a chick flick!
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