Watch This on DVD: "The Damned United" (2009)

Netflix is simply brilliant, and without it I would probably miss out on a lot of worthwhile films -- like the 2009 British biopic "The Damned United."  I put it on my Netflix queue to stream on my TV for no good reason other than I (a) like sports films for the most part, and (b) noticed that the lead was being played by Michael Sheen, and he had been very good in "The Queen" and "Frost/Nixon" (both also worth your time).  Can I say, I watched it last night as I was editing some papers, and I was delighted.  It's a fantastic movie.

Ostensibly it's about British soccer/football history and one of its most famous figures, football manager Brian Clough.  The movie, though, is far more than that, and much more than your standard "road-to-glory" tale.  It is a fascinating story of success and failure on the soccer pitch, but above all it is an absolutely riveting character study of Clough (brilliantly portrayed by Sheen).  And you don't have to be a soccer fan to appreciate it, which is one of the great features of the film.

The rest of the the review and the trailer below the fold:



Clough is a great man of great extremes who dances with both meteoric success and total failure. The real adversary isn't as much The Other Teams or even Clough's professional rival Don Revie (Colm Meaney of Star Trek "Chief Miles O'Brien" fame).  No, the actual and most dangerous foe is internal -- Clough's own restless, reckless, mouthy, overwhelming ego.  He is in the end his own worst enemy.

I'll stop now before I give too much more away, but I'll note here the solid performances of British acting stalwarts Timothy Spall as Peter Taylor, Clough's long-suffering assistant manager, and Jim Broadbent as Sam Longson, chairman of the Derby County football team.

See two nice reviews here and here.

RottenTomatoes gives "The Damned United" a stunningly fresh rating of 94%.

MM gives this movie a grade of A.

"The Damned United" runs for 98 minutes and is rated R for some salty language.