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Fantastic!

Excellent but underrated film

Absolutely brilliant

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

The story, being a factual one is a great background to see. How the focus role Clough rise to his highest level, plunged into nothingness, all with his great ambitions, and ultimately reunite with his tandem to regain what was lost and even surpassing those, is the whole idea of this biography. The dramatization of Clough's rather irritating character is also done well through the nice direction. Michael Sheen really got into character of being irritating. He got his facial expressions nicely in the length of the movie. Timothy Spall, Jim Broadbent and Colin Meaney acted out nicely the critical conflicts that utterly define the center focus of Clough's character.

It's July 1974. Leeds United is the dominant team. Manager Don Revie (Colm Meaney) leaves his United job to take over England's FA team. Brian Clough (Michael Sheen) takes over the Leeds Unite job and changes the prevailing dirty style of play. He had a hostile history with Revie and the changes cause lot of friction within the team. The movie flashes back 6 years to see Clough struggling as the manager of Derby County. Peter Taylor (Timothy Spall) is his loyal assistant.This is more than a soccer movie. This is a great character study. It owes a lot to the masterful acting from Michael Sheen. Colm Meaney is also terrific as the movie baddie. There is no need to be a soccer fan to see this human story. It's definitely not just the usual sports movie.

The Damned United tells the more or less true story of Brian Clough's catastrophic 44 days as manager of Leeds United. As with many movies based on a true story some facts are changed, embellishments are made. But the heart of the real-life story remains. And what a story it is. Those unfamiliar with the story may wonder why a movie was made about a man who failed. That is certainly not the typical sports movie narrative. But the story of Brian Clough is so much more than those 44 days. And this movie tells that story very well. We see his triumphs, we see his misery. We see him at the pinnacle and at the lowest depths. Through sheer force of personality Brian Clough made himself a success. And then that same forceful personality would be his undoing.Michael Sheen plays Clough and turns in a truly outstanding performance. Clough's personality and brilliance shine through in Sheen's performance. The haughty pride, bitterness and resentment which were a part of Clough are also laid bare. Clough was certainly a flawed character but an undeniably fascinating one. Sheen brings him to life perfectly. There are some key supporting players who help. Timothy Spall plays Clough's right-hand man Peter Taylor. Jim Broadbent plays a club chairman. And Colm Meaney plays the villain of the piece, Don Revie, the Leeds manager whom Clough is obsessed with bettering. In truth of course Revie is a villain only in Clough's mind. Revie's teams won but in Clough's mind they did not win the right way. Clough was out on a crusade to win soccer matches properly, without resorting to the dirty tactics of Leeds. All well and good until you go to Leeds yourself and tell your new players they're a bunch of cheaters.Rather then tell a straightforward tale, following Clough from his successes at Derby to his disaster at Leeds the film jumps back and forth in time, between the two story lines. We see Clough floundering at Leeds, jump back to his glory at Derby, then go forward to Leeds again. The film maintains this setup throughout, bringing the two stories together wonderfully. Even with all the back and forth the story still flows very well. And doing it this way ties everything together much better. Rather than seeing a simple rise and fall we are taken on quite a roller coaster ride, the highest of highs followed by the lowest of lows and back again. Seeing Clough's struggles at Leeds gives a different perspective when we then see him at his best at Derby. All the way through Sheen is spot-on in every moment. He owns the character. The likes of Spall, Broadbent and Meaney make their contribution but make no mistake this is Sheen's film through and through. There are some little quibbles to be made with the film. You do wish they could have stuck a little closer to the truth at times, some of the events here are twisted around rather unnecessarily. The facts of the story should have been good enough, the movie is let down somewhat by some of its fiction. The soccer action we see is not always convincing but it works well enough. And we really only see limited bits of action anyway. This is not a film about the players, not about the sport, but about Brian Clough. We see Clough succeed beyond anyone's wildest expectations at little Derby and we see him cut down to size at big, bad Leeds. It is a film which provides a compelling look at a truly fascinating man. Brian Clough is such a great character, the flawed hero you can't tear your eyes away from. The Damned United is a movie which does that hero justice.

"You are a bloody disgrace!" hollers actor Michael Sheen as he explodes in the role of Brian Clough - the larger than life character, who in real life was arguably one of the greatest football managers ever.Sheen produces an incredible performance to re-create the persona of Clough. In The Damned United, he completely captures Clough's arrogance, his humour, his humility and his incredible professional drive. For those too young to remember the outrageous genius of Clough in his prime, then this movie encapsulates not just Clough but the whole halcyon era of 1970s football. This is a time when football was about glory and not money. It was a period when players played for the jersey and clubs were packed full of characters - Clough was undoubtedly one of, if not the biggest and most talked about character of them all. In fact thinking back Clough's charisma makes Mourhino look like a ball boy!Sheen plays Clough without parody not the easiest thing to do given that Clough was one of the most parodied figures of the day. So much so that it became a staple of impressionist Mike Yarwood's BBC1 Saturday night prime time show in the 70s. It's great credit to Sheen that he avoided what could have been an easy option. Instead what we get is the talented Mr Sheen giving us the real deal, the accent, the mannerisms, the realness that Cloughie himself would have admired.As a film, this is superbly put together with old footage, snappy editing and a clever use of the graphics of the time -the old vidi-printer is used very effectively in relaying the back story of Clough's teams'successes.Though the backdrop to the story is football, this isn't really about football. It's a character study of a unique man and his friendship/partnership with his closest colleague - Peter Taylor played by Timothy Spall - an actor who is true drama heavyweight and not just physically. Spall as always delivers a strong performance and provides good foil for Sheen and most importantly does no devious scene stealing when there must have been a temptation as Taylor too was a big character.The plot weaves flashbacks of Clough's heady days as Derby Manager with his 44 day ordeal as manager of Leeds Utd - then Britain's top club side. The script is true and pacey, the cinematography well done, the soundtrack is apt if not memorable (surpisingly for the 1970s) and the set designs/wardrobe are authentic.Having read the book, the film admittedly bears only mild resemblance. The book gets more into the head of Clough and is a very tunnel visioned and bitter point of view of his short time in charge of England's top football club. The book is much darker and less sentimental than the film, but both are equally enjoyable and entertaining.Whether you are football fan or not, if you claim to be a film fan and you don't see The Damned United then as Mr Clough himself would say, "You are a bloody disgrace!"