Brian Clough was an enigma: a man whose record as a football manager was (given the resources at his disposal) second to none, but who relied on his assistant Peter Taylor to spot players, had no great technical expertise and whose approach to man management was decidedly eccentric. He was brilliantly quick minded but also an alcoholic; a supposed socialist who was accused of taking unauthorised commissions on transactions; and a man who went to Leeds United, a club he hated, and was famously sacked in just 44 days. David Peace's ambitious novel, 'The Damned United', offers one imaginative take on Clough's psychology during this period; but as a film, it's a poor effort. Michael Sheen, Tony Blair in a number of other screenplays by writer Pter Morgan, doesn't quite convince as Clough, and makes him seen more like a blustering fool than an intelligent man. Of course, that famous Graham Taylor documentary may have punctured our illusions about so-called football genius; but still, I was looking for some clue as to what Clough did well (except, of course, at Leeds) and didn't get it. Bad wigs abound. And Clough's complex relationship with Taylor is reduced to a piece of routine male bonding, with Tomothy Spall playing Talor as a man with the charisma of a lead balloon and whose importance to Clough remains totally mystifying. From Peace's book, one gets a view of a talented and ambitious man who over-reached himself, an unique individual both arrogant and exposed. This translation lacks the depth; and sadly, therefore, also the point.
Review of The Damned United
