This Sporting Life (1963)

Prolific British filmmaker Lindsay Anderson weaves this small, evocative tale of young life at the crossroads in early 1960s Northern England. A rough, sullen young man (Richard Harris) working in the local coal mines begins to make a name for himself as a star rugby player, but even as he begins to fall in love he cannot escape the harsh realities of the bleak life around him. The rugby sequences in the film are striking, but no more so than the depiction of downtrodden people living in the shadow of industry and corruption that too often crushes their spirit. Harris in one of his first roles, is remarkably effective as an unlikable but sympathetic figure trying against hope to savor the small joys life has to offer, and the film also features the debut of renowned actress Glenda Jackson. One of a series of working-class, character-driven British imports, This Sporting Life is one of the best on the field. --Robert Lane Amazon.com

A reference in British Film

Once again Criterion Collection have achieved a masterly job. This is a first-class transfer of an impeccable print of Anderson's masterpiece (the quality of the black and white photography is simply stupendous), and the bonuses include rarely shown Anderson films: one of his very first shorts (Meet the Pioneers) and his very last film (Is That All There Is?). It is a pity there is no equivalent in region 2 dvds. On top of that the audio commentary and the accompanying booklet include less rare but truly interesting material. A landmark in the history of DVD editions of British classics. April 15, 2008

an early Richard Harris classic

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

This Sporting Life, directed by Lindsay Anderson, is based on a novel of the same name by David Storey who also wrote the screenplay. It is about a rugby player named Frank Machin played by a young Richard Harris (who was known for his role as Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies and subsequent death causing the character to be recast. I know him best from the 1998 Russian film "The Barber of Siberia" which is overdue for an official US release). Much of the film is in flashbacks. The flashbacks are brought on after Frank receives a mouth injury while playing and is taken to a dentist who anesthetizes him while fixing his mouth. Frank lodges with a widow and begins to become infatuated with her but unable to express his feelings for her. This frustrates him and he becomes angry often. I did not like the ending of the film, but overall it is nicely made.

The DVD has some excellent special features on two discs one of which I became very interested in.

On disc one,there is audio commentary by Paul Ryan and David Storey, and a theatrical trailer. On disc two there is a 2004 BBC Scotland documentary about director Lindsay Anderson, an interview with Lois Sutcliffe Smith, an early collaborator and friend of Anderson, and finally, three other films directed by Anderson.

"Is That All There Is?" was made in 1992 and is Anderson's last film. It is an autobiography. The other two are documentaries. They are "Meet the Pioneers" (1948) and "Wakefield Express" (1952)

"Meet the Pioneers" is a documentary about the company Richard Sutcliffe Ltd. which manufactured conveyor belts for coal mines and includes information about the company's founder and namesake, Richard Sutcliffe. This got me interested his company I borrowed a long out-of-print biography about him through an interlibrary loan and later found a used copy for sale.

"Wakefield Express" is a documentary about the town of Wakefield England which later became the town the movie This Sporting Life took place in.

I found the special features, especially the mining documentary to be excellent and almost overshadowed the film on the DVD.

I highly recommend the DVD. March 9, 2008

Richard Harris's Career

Richard Harris: Early Roles

Though Richard Harris starred in a couple of classic films in the 1990's (The Field, Unforgiven) his career has been highly inconsistent and many of his 70's and 80's roles were just plain forgettable. He is, nonetheless, an actor with undeniable appeal and an actor who is revered by other actors if not by the general public. I think this is mainly due to his early work. The two films that I associate Harris with are Lindsay Anderson's This Sporting Life (1963) & Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert (1965). Both of these films are must-sees for cinema fans. The Anderson film is perfectly suited to Harris' raw talent and temperamant as Harris was himself a pro Rugby player. Personally, however, I prefer the Antonioni film which casts a much matured & much mellowed Richard Harris who has refined his talent & temperament and his acting style. Nonetheless, the Anderson film is every bit as good as many critics say it is even though its hard not to think of the more appealing Brando film On the Waterfront while watching it. In This Sporting Life, Harris essentially plays the animal side of himself (with a dose of Brando thrown in for good measure); in Red Desert Harris is forced to draw upon the more refined side of his character and the performance is fascinating; in Red Desert Harris' character is, in turns, hot with interest & emotion and cold with indifference.

Richard Harris & Marlon Brando as Working Class Heroes

Like Brando, Harris posseses an abundance of both proud masculine prowess & sleek feminine grace; and both actors find compelling ways to use their natural qualities. Some criticize Harris for copying Brando's acting style and I think that is a fair criticism as there are a handful of scenes that are very much Brando impersonations, but I also think that the Harris performance and the film overall cannot be dismissed as merely a British take on method acting or a British re-make of On the Waterfront. While both films are about working class athletes, they are each about very different kinds of characters in very different kinds of social systems and each character has very different kinds of hurdles to overcome. On the Waterfront has a lot going for it because Brando plays a much more likable character than does Richard Harris and this is partly because the Brando character really has no awareness of just how corrupt the game and humanity are until it is too late. The oft quoted revelation scene in On the Waterfront is justly famous. But the Harris character in This Sporting Life never really shows any vulnerability because he is never fooled by his handlers. He is smart enough to know what he's getting into when he signs up with the City League; he knows who he works for; how much he gets paid; and what the game is all about. There is no real moment of innocence lost because there never was any innocence to begin with. Harris is excellent (almost as excellent as Brando), but because the character he plays is intelligent he is also less sympathetic than the Brando character who is not. We tend to view Brando as the innocent victim of a corrupt community/sport/nation/humanity while we see Harris less as a victim than as a willing accomplice in his own downfall/destruction. We also tend to think that had Harris's character simply read less sensationalistic literature, or been more of a team player on the Rugby field and off, he would have been more likely to mature in more refined ways and actually develop emotional attachments. This might be a comment about class but its also a way of making it more difficult to read the character simply as a victim of class exploitation.

American and British Social Reality

Finally, what unites these two films is their social content. In the British film This Sporting Life, Harris' character never really thinks social mobility or self-transformation is really a possibility and this is one reason he clings to the very symbol of working class squalor: the single mother with two kids. Whereas in the American film On the Waterfront social mobility and self-transformation is a dream that rarely leaves the Brando character's mind. This is perhaps the key difference between the British and the American visions of class in life and in film. The British are uncomfortable with social mobility and tend to feel more comfortable when class distinctions are clearly demarcated; while the Americans, at least in theory and in art, tend to view people not according to class but according to their aspirations and accomplishments. In the end,both films suggest that class is a social determinant, but neither film really suggests that class is the sole determinant.

One further note: The producer of This Sporting Life was Karel Reisz who later directed a very interesting film that also deals with class & education & identity & self-destruction called The Gambler starring James Caan. February 2, 2008

Gut Wrenching Love Story

This isn't just a great British film this is a great film, period. It would be easy to dismiss this film in the ilk of the angry young man-kitchen sink adaptions of John Osborne or Alan Sillitoe works and you would be sadly mistaken. Granted, the milieu is the rugby fields of working class Yorkshire and star Richard Harris seems to have his fists and jaw perpetually clenched. This is at it's heart a love story between coalminer turned rugby star Frank Machin (Harris) and his withdrawn landlady, Margaret Hammond(Rachel Roberts), albeit a tragically unrequited one. Based on a book by David Storey, the film has an interesting structure. The film begins on the day of a Christmas Eve match where Frank has some teeth dislodged by an opposing player. Sitting in a dentist chair under anasthesia Frank's mind wanders to the past. He ponders his gridiron glory but mostly his rejected overtures to Margaret. Not to say that Frank is the smoothest operator. His first advance to Margaret is practically rape. He takes her out on a date to a swanky restaurant and acts like a complete boor. Margaret isn't completely blameless here, either. Mourning the death of her late husband, she religiously shines his workboots nightly. She allows Frank a few intimacies but gives little of herself to him. When Frank professes his love her response is to spit in his face. It would appear that Margaret after the heartbreaking loss of her husband is afraid to freely give of herself. Frank, in a pensive moment, confides to a friend that he is afraid that he'll never be able to love. Needless to say both Harris and Roberts are superlative and were nominated for Oscars for their work here. Harris lost to Sidney Poitier for "Lillies of the Field" but the underappreciated Roberts inexplicably lost to Patricia Neal for "Hud". Neal's work was good but to my mind it was essentially a supporting role. Debuting feature director Lindsay Anderson's work is nothing less than spectacular. Aside from evoking the grimy working class environment he masterfully orchestrates the complexities of the film's central relationship. "This Sporting Life" is an indispensible work for the ages. January 27, 2008

The Sporting Life: Winning at Rugby, Losing at Romance.

Although Lindsay Anderson (1923-1994) is perhaps best known for his "Mick Travis trilogy" of film collaborations with Malcolm McDowell as Travis: If..., O Lucky Man!, and Britannia Hospital, his 1963 film, This Sporting Life, is just as memorable. Filmed in northern England (Wakefield, West Yorkshire), it tells the story of a coal miner turned rugby player, Frank Machin (Richard Harris), who is not as successful in his personal life as he is at the sporting life. Although Frank equates professional rugby with romancing all the women, he is unsuccessful in his attempts at romancing any one woman. For instance, he sleeps with his landlady, Mrs Margaret Hammond (Rachel Roberts), but he is incapable of having a relationship with her. Similarly, he rejects the romantic advances of the team owner's wife, Mrs Weaver. Ironically, in the drab world in which he lives, Frank demonstrates a real need to love and to be loved. While the film offers lots of action on the rugby field, it regrettably ends with Frank none the wiser, and little more than "just a great ape on a football field." Harris brings a memorable performance to the role of the self-defeating rugby player, Roberts brings an equally strong performance to the role of Frank's missed opportunity at love, and Anderson brings his unmistakeable "edgy" style to the film.

The Criterion edition of This Sporting Life Features a newly restored high-definition digital transfer, audio commentary featuring Paul Ryan, editor of "Never Apologise: The Collected Writings of Lindsay Anderson," and David Storey, screenwriter and author of This Sporting Life, the theatrical trailer, "Lindsay Anderson: Lucky Man?" (2004), a short documentary from BBC Scotland featuring interviews with many of the director's friends and collaborators, a new video interview with Anderson's first producer and close friend Lois Sutcliffe Smith, "Meet the Pioneers" (1948), Anderson's first film, a documentary short about a mining engineering firm, "Wakefield Express" (1952), an early documentary by Anderson about the town that later served as the setting for This Sporting Life. "Is That All There Is?" (1992), Anderson's autobiographical final film, and a booklet featuring a new essay by film scholar Neil Sinyard and an article by Anderson from 1963.

G. Merritt December 10, 2007

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