The Battle of the Sports Movies

Invictus and The Damned United are both recently released sports movies but that take very different approaches.

Directed by Clint Eastwood, Invictus is a relatively straight forward sports movie telling the classic underdog story but in the very political climate of South African apartheid. The movie is very well acted; Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon do a great job. Eastwood uses the rugby story to showcase the brilliant political leadership of Nelson Mandela making Invictus a very interesting movie. I loved the scenes with Mandela’s bodyguards and watching the way that the black and white policemen had to learn to work together to protect their leader.

The style of the movie is very classic and straightforward. At times, the story-telling can be clichéd: the “ghost” of Mandela that Matt Damon sees in the prison cell lacked subtlety. The only other thing that could have made the movie better was the music. Some of the lyric were cheesy, and so much more dramatic climax could have been achieved with more nuance.

The Damned United was a much smaller release telling the story of losing manager rather than a winning team. Brian Clough, played by Michael Sheen (Frost in Frost/Nixon), who rose to become one of England’s greatest coaches and his fall from grace after a short 44-day stint as the coach of Leeds United, England’s best team. Clough and his right-hand man, Peter Taylor, have shown that they can rise from the bottom of the heap to greatness,but Clough approaches his new team with a righteous contempt for their “dirty” tactics. Clough’s hatred actually comes from Leeds’ former coach, Don Revie, who treated Clough arrogantly many years in the past. As the plot unfolds, Clough begins feed off his own arrogance, and his relationship with Taylor deteriorates. Clough soon finds himself without a job, and is forced to return to Taylor on his knees.

The Damned United is a very interesting sports movie in that it illustrates how losing reveals a person’s true character. The cinematography and style of the movie are modern and interesting. The acting in this movie is superb, and the writing and character development are excellent. As the title suggests, the movie does contain a lot of explicit language.

I highly recommend The Damned United—8.5 out of 10.