Dir. Tom Hooper, UK, 2009, 97 mins
Cast: Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Colm Meaney
Review by Carol Allen
The acid test for a film set in the world of football is if it appeals to people, who have little interest in the “beautiful game” and indeed can remember little if anything in this case about football politics in the sixties and seventies. And this one succeeds with flying colours. Because it's not about football as such, but about the friendship between Brian Clough (Sheen) and his right hand man Peter Taylor (Spall), which Clough betrays as a result of his obsessional rivalry with Don Revie (Meaney), former manager of then reigning league champions Leeds United ? the job that Clough took over in 1974.
Clough's downfall as shown in this film is the classic story of a man brought down by hubris. Screenplay writer Peter Morgan is a very clever writer ? the structure of the film, with the present as 1974 and then going back and forth from that to the past to show us the roots of that present, works very well in clarifying the Clough's motivation, right from the moment when as the young manager of a then unsuccessful club, Clough is snubbed by Revie. It's crystal clear that this is the incident, which starts the whole drama. The film's also beautifully written. Sheen gives another virtuoso performance as the cocky and charismatic Clough. He's a very clever actor, working once more in what has become an established writer/actor team. When playing a real life character, he demonstrates a great skill in identifying his salient physical characteristics, as here with the period hair do, Clough's habit of rubbing his eye socket, the rather smarmy smile, cock of the walk attitude (“I was in the top one”) and nasal accent and then getting behind those to the person who embodies those characteristics. It's another Sheen virtuoso performance. Spall gives good support as Taylor, unobtrusively letting Clough take the spotlight, in a performance that's both totally convincing and engaging of our sympathies to the extent that we feel his hurt, when Taylor is betrayed by his best mate.
There is less opportunity for Meaney as Revie to go into his character, as we see him through Clough's eyes, but he's a strong and evil presence as seen from that point of view. There's a crackling television duel between them towards the end, where Clough, sacked as Leeds manager after a mere 40 four days, is still cockily needling his rival, and effective cameos from Jim Broadbent as Sam Longson, chairman of Derby County, the club Clough built up and then deserted for the Leeds United job and Henry Goodman as Leeds Chairman Manny Cussins. There's not a lot of female input into the story, apart from fleeting appearances from Liz Carling and Gillian Waugh as Clough and Taylor's wives. This is very much a boys' story and it's a good one.
As to the claims that David (Red Riding ) Peace's novel, on which the film is based, misrepresents Clough and the other characters ? a controversy which seems to have surfaced as a result of the film ? I am not in a position to comment. This is though a feature film and not a documentary, as indeed were Morgan's previous recent movies based on real events (The Queen and Frost Nixon). And as far as what appears on screen is concerned, this is lively and very entertaining drama.
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