A frustrating film, good, brilliant cast, but a bit of tinkering here & there and it could've been outstanding.
The big problem with the film were all the glaring errors, the goofs list illustrates most of them perfectly. I'm all for a bit of poetic license & the odd change here and there - to enhance the film, but the problem here was that they added nothing - and in fact to the contrary made the film look a little amateurish & ill researched.
Dave Mackay, for instance - had left 2 years before Clough departed Derby - and it added nothing by the film having him still as a player at the time, entire fixtures, oppositions & players were fabricated when portraying the actual events would not have diminished the film in any way.
The structure of the film seemed a little unbalanced. I wasn't convinced by the switching of timelines, certainly not to the level it was - and the time devoted to the Leeds era needed to be weighed far heavier than the Derby era. The 44 days were not dealt with as extensively as they could have been.
The other issues, were fairly minor ones: Timothy Spall played his role terrificly, as ever - but didn't always convince as Taylor.
Also - and I will look into this, but it seemed with the rolling league table (which was an excellent means of illustrating the progress) - that at the time of the 1968 FA Cup match (which I assume to be 3rd round & in January?) Derby were in the bottom 3 - yet ended as the 68 Champions (of old Div 2) - that's a hell of a rise in less than 4 months - and I wouldn't have thought possible, if I read that correctly.
Clough, Revie & Broadbent as the chairman, who I'm less familiar with - were all brilliant in their roles.
Still a good film, definitely recommendable - and could well be the best football film I've seen but needed another draft.
A high 6/10.
The big problem with the film were all the glaring errors, the goofs list illustrates most of them perfectly. I'm all for a bit of poetic license & the odd change here and there - to enhance the film, but the problem here was that they added nothing - and in fact to the contrary made the film look a little amateurish & ill researched.
Dave Mackay, for instance - had left 2 years before Clough departed Derby - and it added nothing by the film having him still as a player at the time, entire fixtures, oppositions & players were fabricated when portraying the actual events would not have diminished the film in any way.
The structure of the film seemed a little unbalanced. I wasn't convinced by the switching of timelines, certainly not to the level it was - and the time devoted to the Leeds era needed to be weighed far heavier than the Derby era. The 44 days were not dealt with as extensively as they could have been.
The other issues, were fairly minor ones: Timothy Spall played his role terrificly, as ever - but didn't always convince as Taylor.
Also - and I will look into this, but it seemed with the rolling league table (which was an excellent means of illustrating the progress) - that at the time of the 1968 FA Cup match (which I assume to be 3rd round & in January?) Derby were in the bottom 3 - yet ended as the 68 Champions (of old Div 2) - that's a hell of a rise in less than 4 months - and I wouldn't have thought possible, if I read that correctly.
Clough, Revie & Broadbent as the chairman, who I'm less familiar with - were all brilliant in their roles.
Still a good film, definitely recommendable - and could well be the best football film I've seen but needed another draft.
A high 6/10.