THE DAMNED UNITED (2009)

Well, I viewed this last night after I got it out of the local red box. I've been watching LIFE ON MARS (the bbc version) and in episode five of series one, John Simms gives an impassioned speech about the evils of soccer hooliganism. That speech, along with my casual interest in Michael Sheen, lead me to rent TDU and see what the big fuss about football was all about

The performances were solid (Sheen in the lead, and the evil cop from LOM bbc version as the evil coach), and the history was interesting. It wasn't quite dynamic enough to really grab me (it felt like a very well put together tele-film, at best), but all the same I was entertained and felt liked I learned something by the time the credits rolled

Sheen in particular shone () and his work as the mouthy and self satisfied coach who never heard of the word 'hubris' was quite entertaining. I went in expecting Sheen to just do his normal thing*, but instead it was genuine acting and he managed to show off a side of himself that I'd yet to see in his previous work (BLOOD DIAMOND, QUEEN, THE DEAL). I think he's a fairly talented actor and I'll be keeping an eye on him in the future in case he has more surprises in store.

I'd be curious if any UK Chewers (having more familiarity with the story this is based on) found it more affecting than I did

PS My idea? Change the title to "IN DAMNATION, UNITED"

*By this I mean pull a 'Coach Carter' and just play Michael Sheen as a sports leader, without much acting beyond what's already there in his personality.

My god, that was Colm Meaney? He sure has aged. You see, when I was watching LOM I kept thinking to myself "Man, that evil cop sure looks and sounds like Colm Meaney". Now I had the opposite problem last night I guess. Thanks for catching my slip up, Weasels Rip Your Flesh
I found it interesting and I think I appreciated the same aspects of the film you did, I just think that like you point out, it's your national obsession and it's hard to get myself into a head space where I can understand rioting over soccer. All the same though, good flick!

Yes it was definitely pretty slick and some of the rain soaked speed ramping would not have looked out of place in a Peter Berg movie, I think it's just the scope and relative lack of "big" scenes that make me think it's natural home might be a smaller screen rather than a packed theater. It's more of an intimate character study about one man's hubris than a sports movie, when you get right down to it (IMHO). Sheen elevates the proceedings though, no doubt about that

Although I thought that approach where they'd have Clough sitting in his office, with the light from the windows getting blocked out by standing ovations every time a goal was scored was quite clever

To answer your question, I guess it's not so much that I don't understand it, as much as it seems really odd

I guess to me rioting or violence in general over sports is completely alien. I can understand getting worked up over your home team, but any person who would commit an act of violence over sports is suffering from some sort of cognitive problem

As far as soccer goes, I guess unless you're American it's kind of hard to describe why the idea of a soccer riot is so particularly difficult to fathom. In my nation, people get more worked up over tennis then they do soccer. Soccer is, to my mind, something that school children play in place of Lacrosse or Little League. I know that people in other countries take it very seriously*, and I am not at all trying to disparage the sport, it just seems (to me at least) like rioting over foursquare.


*For the record, I think Soccer seems like a cooler sport than football, except that I'd have to say that football (with all it's starts and stops) is probably the more cinematic of the two