The Damned United

[When Saturday Comes 0]

I know this should be in other football, but no one seems to really look there - and it is slightly Norwich related.

Read the book and watched the film in the last week, what are peoples thoughts?

More importantly, according to Wikipedia Chesterfield''s Saltergate was used as the filming location for The Baseball Ground, Wembley, Bloomfield Road and CARROW ROAD - at what point were we even in the film?! (unless I''m being really dumb, didn'' notice us)

[Herman 9,691]

I haven''t seen it yet.It is getting a mixed bag of reviews.Is it worth checking out??

[Fuglestad 0]

I thought the book was pretty dire to be honest. A novel based on real characters. Conveniently most of them are dead, and you can''t libel the dead. It doesn''t really have any basis in fact but it uses real people. Nobody would have read this book if it didn''t have Clough''s name attatched, but there''s no real reason to base it on Clough, it should have been a fictional manager but then that wouldn''t have sold or got a movie made. Most of the "events" in the book have been dis-credited, and it includes very few of Clough''s fantastic quotes. I hear the film "paints him in a different light to the book", well why not just make a film on Clough''s life then, why promote this badly written novel any further.

[Mister Chops 7]

The film is pretty much okay, it''s the kind of film you expect to see on BBC2 in the middle of the afternoon on Boxing Day.  Great performances by the guys playing Clough and Peter Taylor.The best book I''ve read about Brian Clough is called "Provided you don''t kiss me" (I think) and is really warts and all, but probably the best insight I''ve read into what working with him and for him was like.

[Beauseant 0]

[quote user="Mister Chops"]The film is pretty much okay, it''s the kind of film you expect to see on BBC2 in the middle of the afternoon on Boxing Day.  Great performances by the guys playing Clough and Peter Taylor.

The best book I''ve read about Brian Clough is called "Provided you don''t kiss me" (I think) and is really warts and all, but probably the best insight I''ve read into what working with him and for him was like.

[/quote]

 

Agree with that. It''s written by a local reporter who was very close to Clough and is particularly interesting on the fall out with Taylor. One of the better football books I''ve read.

[mastoola 183]

the movie is good. well worth a watch.

[Hackney Canary 0]

[quote user="Fuglestad"]I thought the book was pretty dire to be honest. A novel based on real characters. Conveniently most of them are dead, and you can''t libel the dead. It doesn''t really have any basis in fact but it uses real people. Nobody would have read this book if it didn''t have Clough''s name attatched, but there''s no real reason to base it on Clough, it should have been a fictional manager but then that wouldn''t have sold or got a movie made. Most of the "events" in the book have been dis-credited, and it includes very few of Clough''s fantastic quotes. I hear the film "paints him in a different light to the book", well why not just make a film on Clough''s life then, why promote this badly written novel any further.[/quote]Have to disagree with you, Fugs - it''s an outstanding novel by one of the finest, most interesting and innovative novelists we have. It may not hold fast to the facts of Cloughie''s life, but as an attempt (and that''s all any novel can ever be) to get into the mind of an individual with (possibly) megalomaniacal tendencies I found it an exhilirating read. And there''s nothing wrong with making fiction of a real person''s life - we all do it everyday when we create our perceptions of people from a hodge-podge of rumour, hearsay and tittle tattle. It''s how this board survives. However, if The Damned United didn''t float your boat, maybe have a crack at some of David Peace''s other books: the red riding quartet is a corking collection for instance. Not cheery, mind, but definitely corking.

[BIC 0]

[quote user="Hackney Canary"][quote user="Fuglestad"]I thought the book was pretty dire to be honest. A novel based on real characters. Conveniently most of them are dead, and you can''t libel the dead. It doesn''t really have any basis in fact but it uses real people. Nobody would have read this book if it didn''t have Clough''s name attatched, but there''s no real reason to base it on Clough, it should have been a fictional manager but then that wouldn''t have sold or got a movie made. Most of the "events" in the book have been dis-credited, and it includes very few of Clough''s fantastic quotes. I hear the film "paints him in a different light to the book", well why not just make a film on Clough''s life then, why promote this badly written novel any further.[/quote]Have to disagree with you, Fugs - it''s an outstanding novel by one of the finest, most interesting and innovative novelists we have. It may not hold fast to the facts of Cloughie''s life, but as an attempt (and that''s all any novel can ever be) to get into the mind of an individual with (possibly) megalomaniacal tendencies I found it an exhilirating read. And there''s nothing wrong with making fiction of a real person''s life - we all do it everyday when we create our perceptions of people from a hodge-podge of rumour, hearsay and tittle tattle. It''s how this board survives. However, if The Damned United didn''t float your boat, maybe have a crack at some of David Peace''s other books: the red riding quartet is a corking collection for instance. Not cheery, mind, but definitely corking. [/quote]Completely agree with Hackney Canary on this. The film was ok I thought, relatively entertaining, but the book is a superb interpretation of the dark mind of Cloughie at what was a bizarre time in his life and is written in an extraordinarily powerful way. So it''s based on fictions, half truths and facts. It doesn''t matter. The book is supposed to be a window on the mental workings of the man, not a biography.I''d recommend you watch the film, then read the book. I did it the other way around and I left the cinema fairly disappointed as it was significantly lighter than the book.

[missing in action? 0]

its shitthe acting performances were good but it was historically inaccurate and made cloughs career to be made by peter taylor...

[Gingerpele 0]

I like the film, I didn''t and guess i still don''t know much about Clough and especial the others in the film, and i thought it was quite intresting,...

[Davness 0]

I have the book sitting somewhere waiting to be read, the film was bloody fantastic!

[Fuglestad 0]

I really thought it was just solidly, determinedly dark. I cannot imagine him being so thoroughly depressed and most of all out of control as the book depicts him. As for being written in an extraordinarily powerful way, I thought it was lazy to be honest. All the "down the corridor, behind the stand, to the office, to the chair, his corridor, his stand, his office, his chair." nonsense.

Sorry I''m being a bit scathing I just always thought Clough was pretty good at laughing things off, as he did on TV the night he was sacked. It is also true that he got a massive (£100,000) I believe pay off and was rather bemused by the whole thing, he knew he''d get another chance.

Provided You Don''t Kiss Me is excellent, and I''d like to see a heart-warming biographical film, before I see a film based on something, Clough, Leeds United and football as a whole would be better off forgetting.

I''m a sentimental fool, who will give the Red Riding quartet a pop.

[Fuglestad 0]

Oh and he didn''t smoke by the time he took the Leeds job. But using smoking as a lazy way of depicting the 60''s and 70''s is what we do nowadays.

[When Saturday Comes 0]

The facts don''t lie though, Clough was only successful when he had Taylor by his side.

I''ve ordered Provided You Don''t Kiss me, have heard lots of good things about it.

[ncfcfaithful 0]

I thought the film was ok but not something i''ll go out of my way to watch again.

The actors playing Clough and Don Revie stole it for me.

The Leeds players just looked terrible. In fact they looked about as similar to the real life people as the waxworks in Yarmouth!!!!

A bit OT but make sure you see ''Looking for Eric'' it really is a fantastic film.

[John 0]

Haven''t seen The Damned United yet, but Timothy Spall is a bloody great actor, and i rate Michael Sheen. Just on the basis of those 2 i''d like to see it.The issue i may have with it is whether the script does indeed do the characters, and the performing actors justice. Personally i have my doubts, as that''s a lot of expectation to live up to.

[Jimbo_Jet_Set 0]

[quote user="ncfcfaithful"] A bit OT but make sure you see ''Looking for Eric'' it really is a fantastic film.[/quote]

Agree with this. Watched it on the plane back from Japan. Brilliant movie