Film Review
Although it received mixed reviews and was a commercial disaster on its
first release,
This Sporting Life
is now considered one of the defining films of the British New Wave and
arguably the best example of the so-called kitchen sink drama.
The film's realism owes much to the fact that it was scripted by David
Storey, who was a professional rugby league player before he turned to
writing. In a remarkable feature debut, director Lindsay Anderson
paints a harrowingly grim picture of British life in the early 1960s,
achingly vivid in its portrayal of a country divided by class and still
struggling to emerge from post-war austerity. The film's
resounding failure at the box office proved to be the final nail in the
coffin as far as social realist drama in British cinema was concerned,
at least until Ken Loach appeared on the scene with his realist
masterpiece
Kes (1969).
Two things particularly mark
This
Sporting Life out as a great film - a remarkable central
performance from Richard Harris and the film's striking visual
design. As the brash class-conscious Frank Machin, Harris
perfectly evokes the frustrations and pent-up angst of an angry young
working class man desperate to escape from the dismal social milieu he
was born into. In what is assuredly the finest screen performance
of his career, Harris brings something of the raw energy and visceral
intensity of Marlon Brando's early film roles, as well as a profound
sense of emotional realism, a kind of half-strangled humanity.
Although Machin is an egoistical little thug with very few redeeming
features, Harris succeeds in rendering him sympathetic, so that his
moments of inner suffering are keenly felt and hard to forget.
Whilst it is not easy to get past Richard Harris's dominating tour de
force performance, the film also offers some impressive supporting
contributions, which add a great deal to its searing
authenticity. Rachel Roberts is heartbreaking as the widow who
tragically cannot allow herself to return the love of the man who
adores her. William Hartnell gives a remarkably poignant turn as
a scout whose motive for helping Machin has a subtly homoerotic, and
again tragic, tinge to it. Alan Badel and Colin Blakely are no
less convincing as the ruthless club owner Weaver and Machin's buddy
Maurice, whilst Arthur Lowe is memorable in the first of his five films
for Anderson. Over the course of the next decade, both Hartnell
and Lowe would go on to become major stars of iconic British television
shows,
Doctor Who and
Dad's Army respectively.
Complementing Harris's tortured performance, the film's second
masterstroke is the inspired way in which it is shot and edited, so as
to make its subject that much more stark and brutal. Denys Coop's
sombre black and white cinematography brings a striking reality to the
film, giving it the abrasive texture of a hard-hitting documentary, whilst
Roberto Gerhard's unconventional otherworldly score lends a bleak
poetic quality. The sharp editing (particularly of the football
match sequences) accentuates the violent nature of the film's
protagonist and the world he inhabits - to the extent that you almost
feel as though you are being repeatedly hit in the face by a
football.
Another distinctive feature of the film is its unusual narrative
structure, which inter-cuts present and past experiences through the
use of the flashback. This merges the boundary between reality
and imagination to the extent that you can never be quite sure where
the one ends and the other takes over. The disjointed narrative
adds to the impression of a life that has become fragmented by cruel
experience and shattered hopes, into muddled shards of
consciousness. Every element of the film's unsettling composition
has the effect of drawing us
further and further into Machin's rough, loveless world, imprisoning us
in a vortex of never-ending despair. With its uncompromising
realism, harrowing performances and barbed poetry,
This Sporting Life is undeniably
one of the great achievements of British cinema, a film which, like the
sport it portrays, is as exhilarating to watch as it is emotionally
draining.
© James Travers 2010
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Lindsay Anderson film:
If.... (1968)
Film Synopsis
Frank Machin is a young coal miner in the Yorkshire town of Wakefield,
but he has big ambitions. With the help of an elderly football
scout, he makes such an impression on the owners of the local rugby
league club that they cannot resist signing him up for the
season. Frank's success on the football field earns him prestige
and easy money but does not satisfy his emotional needs. He is
love with his landlady, Mrs Hammond, a young widow with two children
who still mourns the death of her husband. Although he showers
her with gifts and manages to talk her into sleeping with him, she
remains aloof and disdains his success. Having sustained a severe
facial injury during a Christmas Eve match, Frank looks back on his
recent past and realises he has lost far more than he has gained.
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.