Tonight's bout of insomnia drove me to finally crack open the "Damned United" DVD I was given by a friend a while back, and frankly I'm perplexed.
I assumed (and, perhaps foolishly, was anticipating) a nuanced portrayal of the complex personality of Brian Clough, insofar as we know/knew him; instead, the film basically delivered a brutal 90-minute character assassination of the man followed by a brief interlude over the end credits instructing us to love him after all - which makes me wonder if love (albeit conflicted love) was what I was supposed to be feeling in the first place. If so, the makers really missed their mark, because he was portrayed as an utter twat throughout, and without any prior knowledge I'd have quite readily come away thinking he was a pompous nobody who got exactly what he deserved.
Maybe it comes down to Michael Sheen's apparent decision to play the man himself as a Welsh-sounding Tony Blair, mannerisms and all, but still: if the filmmakers' intent was to engender even the slightest sympathy for Clough among its viewers, it didn't work with me at least. All very odd.
