Offscreen
THE DAMNED UNITED
Tom Hooper
UK, 2009, 98’
The story of the brilliant, but controversial football trainer, Brian Clough.
‘I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the business. But I was in the top one.’ The words of Brian Clough. The Damned United tells a special and humorous tale of one of Britain's most ingenious and controversial football trainers and his 44 days as manager of Leeds United, English football champions of the early 1970s.
Clough began his task without his trusted assistant Peter Taylor and entered a locker room where, to his mind, the players were still loyal to their former trainer and his age-old rival, Don Revie. Michael Sheen (known for his roles as Tony Blair in The Queen and Richard Frost in Frost/Nixon) is brilliant in this fascinating character study of a man driven by his obsessions, a film that will beguile both fans and the hitherto disinterested.
© Sony Pictures