The Damned United
a review by Jason Wilson
The Damned United (2009)
Directed by Tom Hooper
Written by Peter Morgan based on the novel by David Pearce
Starring Michael Sheen, Colm Meany, Timothy Spall and Jim Broadbent
How healthy is rivalry? We’re taught from a young age that competition is a fine thing. It gets kids involved in sport and introduces them to the cutthroat adult world in the form of dodgeball, baseball and in this case football (or soccer for most around these parts).
We care what the outcome of a game is so much more than seems logical because the game becomes more than just a game. Ask any Toronto Maple Leafs or Montreal Canadiens fans about the rivalry between the two teams. There is a bloodthirsty hatred between the fans of these teams; not only the players but those who watch the games at home and aren’t relying on the team for a paycheck. In fact, the fan has more of a vested interest in the outcome in a way, at least at it pertains to a specific team. A player moves from team to team freely through trades and free agency. A fan doesn’t change allegiances. In most cases, once you find your team, it’s your team for life.
Then there are those that get indoctrinated in the game and obsess over personal success. Brian Clough is one of these men. The Damned United is not about soccer or sport like many sport films are. It’s not about the purity or beauty of football/soccer. It’s not about the success of a team though it focuses on the rise and fall of the teams under coach Clough. It is instead a portrait of obsession, arrogance and greed (but not the monetary kind).
The rivalry between Clough and former coach of Leeds United Don Revie stems from what seems like an innocuous occasion. Clough, coaching lowly (at the time) Derby is snubbed by Revie after a game against the far superior (at the time) Leeds. Revie doesn’t shake his hand or acknowledge his existence. Until that moment, Clough revered the Leeds coach as a god of the sport. Revie was looked at as a giant, and Clough was nobody.
Spite and bitterness drive Clough to turn Derby into a winning team. He obtains players by spending his boss’ money and brashly insults the chairman for being stingy when he complains. It works, and Derby becomes a winner but Clough doesn’t win any friends and his relationship with the club is soon shaky and less certain than before.
As the film is advertised, The Damned United appears to be about the 44 days Clough coached Leeds after Revie left to coach the England national team. But that only puts the plot into its historical context. The film uses soccer/football as a backdrop. It’s the overwhelming need to prove he’s better, more important to the game and more innovative than Revie. It also seems like a plea for his former idol, now arch rival to notice and appreciate Clough’s talents.
Sheen as Brian Clough
What Clough doesn’t realize is that his ambitions overshadow his strengths and blind him to the people who surround him; those that made him the coach and person he is. It wasn’t just his young approach that helped Derby rise from the boot of a secondary league/division to renown in the Premiership. He was but a cog in the wheel and his arrogance got the better of him.
The Damned United is the best film centered on the world of sport in years possibly because it distances itself from the game for most of the movie. There are only a couple sequences on the pitch and never for longer than a minute. It’s not important to see how the team performs in the scheme of it. It’s the rivalry and competition inside Clough and Revie that drive the movie.
Films like Cinderella Man and Miracle opine too freely on the beauty of the sports represented therein while The Damned United doesn’t glorify it. Competition isn’t always healthy. Sport isn’t always about the little guy overcoming the obstacles to achieve greatness. More often than not, rivalry is petty and worthless. In a fantastic sequence near the end, the sheer lunacy of the rivalry is exposed during a television interview with the two coaches. It puts the whole story into perspective and thankfully Clough is not painted as a hero like he might have been in a different filmmaker’s hands.
Jealousy and pride are never good reasons to try to succeed. It taints the final product. Clough achieved great feats with Derby but it wasn’t good enough because he still measured himself against someone else. Someone who really only existed in his mind that kept growing above his own advancements. The secret is to chop that guy down before losing yourself in the shadows.
