A remastered release fo Anderson's gritty debut feature.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8956 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-11-03
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Formats: Black & White, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 131 minutes

Synopsis
Adapted from David Storey's novel of the same title, THIS SPORTING LIFE is a gritty, unblinking look at life in the coal mining region of Northern England as seen through the eyes of Frank Machin (Richard Harris). Produced by Karel Reisz, who made the acclaimed film about working class life SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING, and directed by Lindsay Anderson, THIS SPORTING LIFE brings realism to both the brutal violence of the Rugby matches it portrays and to the emotional and physical violence in the character's lives.


When Frank Machin leaves the mine where he has always worked and signs a contract with a professional Rugby team, he hopes to gain social standing and respect. But he finds the hero worship of the drunken fans distasteful. While the owner of the team praises Machin as his star player in the privacy of the locker room, he snubs him in public. Machin's need to love and be loved is compellingly conveyed by Harris with the same startling immediacy as is his raw physical power. He forcefully seduces his landlady, Mrs. Hammond (Rachel Roberts), into a doomed love affair. As things continue to go downhill for Machin, the film captures the mood and feel of this gray industrial area in muted tones, achieving a documentary authenticity. The night time shots use a silvery shine, enhancing the feeling of human alienation. Though this parable of working-class life in England is hardly uplifting, the combination of its vibrancy, Harris's sexually charged performance, and Anderson's edgy visual style give it a place not only among the great sports movies, but among the best of all British films.

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Customer Reviews

It's cliched up north
Lindsay Anderson's This Sporting Life now seems more a mishmash of influences than an enduring classic. There's a very strong influence from Truffaut's 400 Blows, a dash of the British Free Cinema movement and a lot of melodramatic kitchen sink `realism,' while the accents are all over the place - set in Wakefield, Yorkshire, the accents veer from Ireland, Wales and all points north. The flashback structure now seems too forced a device to really allow you into the story for far too much of the running time, although the sledgehammer subtly of Roberto Gerhard's crashingly over-the-top monotonal avant-garde score doesn't help by constantly overstating the it's-grim-oop-north clichés as Greek tragedy.

Richard Harris' Frank Machin is very much in the angry-young-man mould of the day - if anything he manages to be more unpleasant than Saturday Night and Sunday Morning's Arthur Seaton and Look Back in Anger's Jimmy Porter combined, an inarticulate brute who thinks he can bulldoze his way to Rugby success (he can) and into landlady Rachel Roberts' heart (he can't, but it's hard to see why he'd want to), so naturally he's heading for a pre-ordained fall. Which, seen today, is part of the problem. The film follows the classic formula of all the kitchen sink films of the day, culminating in what can either be seen as the victory of the system or the triumph of the old moral censorship code - that such characters must always be seen to be punished or to repent. No surprises, not much impact but a surprisingly decent cast.

One of British cinema's best
A superbly subtle film - on the surface all aggression and showboating - but with Richard Harris' excellent performance we dig into the psyche of a man frustrated by his social position and lack of opportunities. Attaching himself to the needy, Frank Machin constantly feels he must prove his worth, to show that he can take care not only of himself but those who most need it. When he comes up against the reserved and terrified Mrs Hammond, who attracts him with nothing more than her vulnerability, his persistent generosity and physical attention (that goes far beyond what is acceptable in 1950s, Northern England) finally crushes her and destroys all he has done for himself.

With attention also drawn to the small but powerful class divide in northern industrial towns, the film is far more delicate than most of its contemporaries in blending these worlds together rather than highlighting their differences. It is only when they come too close, as a result of Machin stubborn ambition, that the danger of crossing that divide becomes apparent.

Machin is a thoroughly absorbing character, played by Harris as both simple (reading boyish adventure novels and buying a flashy car) and complex (his anguish at not penetrating the frosty exterior of Mrs Hammond but his indifference to her children). Equally as engaging is Rachel Roberts who brilliantly switches from frosty fear to loved-up shyness, whilst always staying mysterious and aloof.

There are also strong visual stimuli for the ever-changing relationship, most particular Mrs Hammonds' dead husband's boots that appear and disappear depending on her affection for Machin. Add to that the fur coat, expensive car, or, most powerfully, the ominous spider that appears at a crucial moment. The latter is representative of the more surreal, artistic moments in what is otherwise a perfect example of realism. Anderson's direction often takes the ordinary and frames it in an extraordinary manner, reflecting the characters' emotions and succeeding in bringing an artistic eye that displays a great knowledge of the simultaneous movements of the French and Eastern European new waves.

All in all, it is a story of ordinary lives with a powerful man attempting to effect all around him and better himself. It is superbly acted, amazingly directed and powerfully written. It is a highlight of the British cinema boom in the early 1960s and outdoes the more predictable 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' and 'A Kind of Loving'.

Not worth watching
Dated and dull sports film with over the top 60s emoting. Wait for it to hit the telly instead.