Review of This Sporting Life (1963) by Leighton W — 12 Apr 2009

I really want to use the word 'Griitty' to describe this film but it's much more than the highs and lows of life in professional sports in Northern England in the 1960's.

It's the story of rough diamond Richard Harris, a coal miner, who's talent on the Rugby league pitch earn him plaudits and adulation from the Wakefield supporters and board room alike.

Harris is brilliant as the young man pent up with agression and emotion and unable to express himself other than through outbursts of rage and passion. It may sound cliche but it's a engaging performance and certainly indicitive of it's time.

Rachel Roberts is very good as the uptight young widow with whom Harris lodges. The exchanges between Roberts and Harris are tense and for want of a better word, real.

Lindsay Anderson's direction is assured and the narrative maybe initally confusing but once grasped is a great story telling tool.

I have a sneaking suspicion that if one of the crop of filmakers who seem intent on remaking a lot of classic films fall accross this they could put it forward for remake. It's easy to see why, but given today's modern athletes and the lifestyles and riches they have, it would never work (Just watch, if you really feel you have to and I would not recommend it, Goal!, as an example of why it would not work).

Recommended.