The Damned United

monkey9 · 27-03-2009 12:09AM #1

Anyone going to see this? It looks quality from the scenes i've seen and Michael Sheen seems to have Clough down to a tee!

Quint · 27-03-2009 12:15AM

Who plays Johnny Giles? Will be worth watching just to see that.
But don't expect anything factual

stovelid · 27-03-2009 12:16AM

I heard Tom Humphries hated it which is more than enough validation for me.

Im_No_Superman · 27-03-2009 12:18AM

Bought the book today. So I'll give that a read first before I go see it.

monkey9 · 27-03-2009 12:24AM

I can't remember the name of the person who plays Giles. Reading a bit about it other day and the director was saying that because Giles sued the author of the book, they minimized his role in the film because they couldn't take the chance of him hating this one too.
Heard a review of it on Today FM this morning and the reviewer was saying that they make Giles out to be a bit conniving. Also, the bloke who plays him is taller than Giles (but that just seems to be getting into specifics).
I haven't read the book, but by all accounts it's a novel based on factual events of Clough's 44 days as Leeds Utd's manager. The book is meant to be a bit heavy whereas the film is more lighthearted.
It's getting great reviews and i can't wait to see it.

daithijjj · 27-03-2009 12:41AM

Quint wrote: »

Who plays Johnny Giles? Will be worth watching just to see that.
But don't expect anything factual

Chap called Peter Mcdonald plays giles.

cruiserweight · 27-03-2009 12:44AM

monkey9 wrote: »

I can't remember the name of the person who plays Giles. Reading a bit about it other day and the director was saying that because Giles sued the author of the book, they minimized his role in the film because they couldn't take the chance of him hating this one too.
Heard a review of it on Today FM this morning and the reviewer was saying that they make Giles out to be a bit conniving. Also, the bloke who plays him is taller than Giles (but that just seems to be getting into specifics).
I haven't read the book, but by all accounts it's a novel based on factual events of Clough's 44 days as Leeds Utd's manager. The book is meant to be a bit heavy whereas the film is more lighthearted.
It's getting great reviews and i can't wait to see it.

AFAIK Giles law suit was to make sure that the book was recognised as fiction based on fact rather than fact

Iang87 · 27-03-2009 01:09AM

dunno if i'll go see this. According to the documentary last night on UTV no1 really close to clough sees it as a true portrayal of him or any1 else in it. Johnny Giles described it as fiction based on fact which doesn't sound very good.

I do like Martin Sheen though and from the clips i seen of the film looks like he done a super job

Mr.Nice Guy · 27-03-2009 01:16AM

Quint wrote: »

I can't remember the name of the person who plays Giles. Reading a bit about it other day and the director was saying that because Giles sued the author of the book, they minimized his role in the film because they couldn't take the chance of him hating this one too.
.

As long as there's plenty of moral courage and honesty of effort I'm sure John will be happy.

I did see the Clough documentary on UTV last night and really enjoyed it. Sounds like the book is a load of tosh as it portrays many elements which are totally out of character with Clough himself. Seems like it's basically the world of Brian Clough according to this author.

leninbenjamin · 27-03-2009 01:20AM

supposed to be very loose with the facts alright, and there are certainly complete fabrications in it, the court case proved that. don't know if i want to see it tbh.

monkey9 · 27-03-2009 01:29AM

It's in no way a biography, but je$us it looks entertaining!!

therecklessone · 27-03-2009 01:32AM

daithijjj wrote: »

Chap called Peter Mcdonald plays giles.

Also played the role of Git opposite Brendan Gleeson in I Went Down and Tomo in Paths to Freedom.

MementoMori · 27-03-2009 01:40AM

Having read the book I wouldnt really recommend it. Overall it's not very well written and parts are tricky to follow and it gets very repetitive. It tries to get into the head of Clough and doesn't really succeed. Only after I finished did I realise that it was written by the David Peace. I read Tokyo Year Zero, which was a crime novel, by him as well and thought that wasn't great either. I'm hoping that it ends up as a case of the film being better that the book. The trailer looks decent and Shannon is always worth a watch.

x in the city · 27-03-2009 01:47AM

Gotta see this myself...

Clough was a legend of a manager

wandatowell · 27-03-2009 02:05AM

defo worth a watch

daithijjj · 27-03-2009 02:19AM

therecklessone wrote: »

Also played the role of Git opposite Brendan Gleeson in I Went Down and Tomo in Paths to Freedom.

Havent seen either of those but someone said to me that he was in a few episodes of 'spooks' tv series.......never watched that either but im gonna try and get to see this, the only sour note for me is the family arent behind it so i suppose we will have to just take it as fiction, doesnt seem right to me but should be entertaining. Sheen was pretty good as david frost in frost/nixon and tony blair.

Xavi6 · 27-03-2009 03:07AM

Really wanna see this, though my head is already filled with hopes that it's gonna be another Mike Bassett and I know it isn't!

BaZmO* · 27-03-2009 09:37AM

leninbenjamin wrote: »

supposed to be very loose with the facts alright, and there are certainly complete fabrications in it, the court case proved that. don't know if i want to see it tbh.

They're calling it Faction. I suppose, to a degree, most films are. Tom Humphries has fairly slated the inaccuracies in his Irish Times column (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/theticket/2009/0320/1224243084534.html), but more so because he's a Leeds fan and it doesn't show his club in the greatest of lights.

I'm really looking forward to seeing it (might go tonight), Sheen is an amazing actor.
Apparently they've decided not to go down the showing the actors playing football route so we're saved from the cringe-worthy-match-winning-last minute-overhead-kick-goal which is normally the case in Football movies. Instead they just show actual clips.

everdead.ie · 27-03-2009 11:37AM

BaZmO* wrote: »

Apparently they've decided not to go down the showing the actors playing football route so we're saved from the cringe-worthy-match-winning-last minute-overhead-kick-goal which is normally the case in Football movies. Instead they just show actual clips.

Ah yes the classic picture of foot hits ball and ball hits net nothing in between:rolleyes:

Quint · 27-03-2009 12:06PM

Iang87 wrote: »

dunno if i'll go see this. According to the documentary last night on UTV no1 really close to clough sees it as a true portrayal of him or any1 else in it. Johnny Giles described it as fiction based on fact which doesn't sound very good.

I do like Martin Sheen though and from the clips i seen of the film looks like he done a super job

That documentary was class. It also made Giles look bad though. He wanted Clough out and wouldn't put in any effort for him. Also when Giles tried to say Leeds weren't dirty and they showed a few of his tackles, and even other leeds players said they were dirty.

monkey9 · 27-03-2009 12:48PM

Quint wrote: »

That documentary was class. It also made Giles look bad though. He wanted Clough out and wouldn't put in any effort for him.

No honesty of effort from Giles???

Quint · 27-03-2009 12:58PM

monkey9 wrote: »

No honesty of effort from Giles???

Giles says he did a lot of things in his playing career he's not proud of. Apparently he broke some young players leg and ended his career to teach him a lesson. Dunphy mentioned it in one of his rants.

SectionF · 27-03-2009 01:12PM

I'm a Leeds supporter, fan follower, but I really would like to be able to turn on a radio or open a newspaper without having to learn all about Cloughie and Revie all over again.

Hats off to the PR people: they have the media, and not just the sports hacks, eating out of their hands.

MementoMori · 27-03-2009 01:29PM

monkey9 wrote: »

No honesty of effort from Giles???

You can understand why he took the courtcase in fairness given the stuff in the book given there are parts of the book which seem to be simply the imagining of conversations between Clough and Giles (or The Irishman as Clough constantly refers to him in his head)

BaZmO* · 27-03-2009 01:53PM

Im_No_Superman wrote: »

Bought the book today. So I'll give that a read first before I go see it.

monkey9 wrote: »

I can't remember the name of the person who plays Giles. Reading a bit about it other day and the director was saying that because Giles sued the author of the book, they minimized his role in the film because they couldn't take the chance of him hating this one too.

Apparently as part of the court settlement they had to re-draft the book, so I'd imagine the first print edition is the one to get, even if a lot of it is made up.

DvB · 27-03-2009 03:04PM

To be fair i have a first print copy of the book & i'm pretty sure it stated it was a 'Fictional Account' of the period in question. This may have changed in subsequent editions to be clearer though based on the court case(s)

As for the author David Peace, personally speaking i enjoy his work and have read all of his books, though i must admit his writing style is one few people seem to manage to get to grips with and can find hard to follow, the damned utd was by far the easiest to follow however & IMO was an enjoyable read. I'm looking forward to seeing the film which i genuinely hope is true to the book & not 'real life events' which are likely to be far less entertaining.

BaZmO* · 27-03-2009 03:07PM

DvB wrote: »

To be fair i have a first print copy of the book & i'm pretty sure it stated it was a 'Fictional Account' of the period in question. This may have changed in subsequent editions to be clearer though based on the court case(s)

Plus isn't a lot of the book suppose to be coming from Clough's thoughts? That alone would show that it's fiction, or as they've labelled it "Faction"

DvB · 27-03-2009 03:46PM

BaZmO* wrote: »

Plus isn't a lot of the book suppose to be coming from Clough's thoughts? That alone would show that it's fiction, or as they've labelled it "Faction"

There's certainly parts of the book that are clearly a work of fiction, Cloughs personal thoughts are IMO to be filed under that heading.

Everyone i know who's read the book and discussed it with me has referred to it as a fictional novel & certainly not as a biographical record of the man or the period.

bullpost · 27-03-2009 03:59PM

I'd like to see it purely to enjoy the period recreation.
Watched the documentary the other night and it clearly showed just why Clough was so great.
Leading a modest sized club like Notts. Forest to 2 European cup triumphs (remember thats only one less than man utd) was a work of genius.

He was also a brilliant character with a quick wit - He reminded me a lot of Mourinho but more entertaining.

KerranJast · 27-03-2009 05:16PM

Quint wrote: »

That documentary was class. It also made Giles look bad though. He wanted Clough out and wouldn't put in any effort for him. Also when Giles tried to say Leeds weren't dirty and they showed a few of his tackles, and even other leeds players said they were dirty.

Clough lost the dressing room the minute he walked in and abused the team. These weren't a rag tag bunch of journeymen like he took over at Derby and Notts Forest. They were league champions with some very experience and talented players in the squad. As a Leeds fan I'll freely admit the team were a tough tackling side. That's what made them a very effective defensive side. Going forward too though they were brilliant. They had the likes of Allan Clarke, Eddie Gray, Johnny Giles, Peter Lorimer & Mick Jones banging in some cracking goals.

invincibleirish · 27-03-2009 05:24PM

I'll definitely watch it at some point alright, i didn't particularly enjoy the book mainly because Clough is depicted as a schizo ogre. Fair enough Pearce has stressed that it is a fictional interpretation and the movie has received great reviews but old big head certainly doesn't come out of it smelling of roses.

The Damned United

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