THE DAMNED UNITED (2009, Blu-ray released February 23, 2010 – MSRP $34.95)
I’m not into sports. And I generally don’t really care for sports movies. But for some reason, I really found myself loving every moment of The Damned United, a little British film about the downfall of a popular football team and their new manager.
Okay, that’s really an over-simplification of the story. The Damned United is really the tale of manager Brian Clough (Michael Sheen) and it’s based on a true story. You see, Clough was the very successful manager of the small Derby County football club in England. But when the opportunity arose to work with his former rival team, Leeds United he couldn’t help himself. Clough jumped ship, leaving his small-time contract and his best friend/partner in the dust in favour of attempting to show up fan-beloved former Leeds manager Don Revie (Colm Meaney), whom he perceived to have slighted him at their first meeting. In the process, Clough loses everything and costs Leeds their crown. The film is more a stirring portrait of a man struggling with his ego than a simple sports movie and worth seeing for Michael Sheen’s incredible performance alone!
The Blu-ray disc is another shining example of what Sony can do with with the format. This thing looks spectacular. The photography is appropriately grey throughout but never drab. Every shot is well composed and the Blu-ray disc makes the most of it. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless audio track is fairly nuanced but effective.
There are a ton of special features on The Damned United Blu-ray disc including a very thorough and informative commentary track with Sheen, director Tom Hooper and producer Andy Harries that covers all aspects of creating the film. The Changing Game: Football in the Seventies is a great 20-miute primer on the game for those of us who really don’t follow sports and for sports fans ignorant of the history of the British clubs. I really enjoyed the 10-minute Creating Clough: Michael Sheen Takes on ‘Old Big ‘Ead’ featurette as it gives a stark and surprising look at what a talented chameleon the actor can be. A 16-minute “making-of” doc, nine deleted scenes with optional commentary, “Cloughisms” (Four TV appearance scenes shot to be dropped into the film), trailers and BD-Live functionality round out this exceptional disc.
Not little at all! You enjoyed it because it’s written by Peter Morgan – who is a genius (Frost/Nixon, The Queen, Last King…). And check his IMDB. He’s working on Bond next.
[...] can’t believe how much I really loved this movie. Like I said in my review, I loathe sports and I possess an even greater loathing for films about sports. The fact that I [...]
[...] can’t believe how much I really loved this movie. Like I said in my review, I loathe sports and I possess an even greater loathing for films about sports. The fact that I [...]