I had nothing better to do today, Hockey was cancelled, and I still don’t feel like getting my Christmas Break homework done yet. So I took to Netflix to find a film to watch and review. I’m going to try something different by organizing how I do the review. If you guys like the way I do it, please let me know. Let me know even more if you dislike the way I do it and give me some suggestions on how to perfect my critiquing.
The movie I found was called United, a TV film by BBC on the 1958 Munich Air Disaster that killed eight Manchester United players, and left the team without its greatest squad in years. If you’re a soccer fan, particularly Manchester United, then you may know what went down on that fateful day in 1958.
Perhaps the most well known star in the film was David Tennant, known for his role as The Doctor in Doctor Who, and Barty Crouch in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. David Tennant is an amazing actor and his expressions can change in an instant. I could spend a whole post talking about David Tennant, but there were other actors in this film that were simply amazing.
Jack O’Connell played Bobby Charlton, famous United midfielder, and overall the main character of the film. I found Jack’s act in a role that required immense emotion to be conveyed was done surprisingly well. The film, released in 2011 meant that Jack was 21 during the role, and I believe that the role of Bobby Charlton in this film required a mature actor who could convey everything perfectly. For being a young actor, Jack is going to go places. I wish him good fortune in his future. He was astounding.
Dougray Scott as Matt Busby was a wonderful performance. I liked the deep voice as well. Fun fact here, Dougray Scott was originally meant to be Wolverine in the X-Men movies but was removed after his filming in Mission Impossible went over the original timing. So they went and got Hugh Jackman, who is now making big bucks with those movies.
The movie begins with the Manchester United team watching film that spoke of the young players and their achievements. This being the most successful team of players under the age of 25 is a big deal. Chris Chibnall (writer) did a good job of introducing the characters as such, making their loss later in the film a much more emotionally shocking. This team, with so much intensity and potential, to die so young is a hard thing to bear. Kudos to Mr. Chibnall for giving us the picture of how young these players were and how wonderful they were. It made their loss more emotional.
Aside from the great storytelling, I had a problem with the film’s character focus. There are other people on the team who are not Bobby Charlton, however, it seemed to me that most of the beginning of this film focused on Bobby Charlton. Perhaps because he was the most successful to come out of that crash, but he’s still not the only one who survived. Tell us more about Harry Gregg (Ben Peel) who is the reason why Sir Bobby survived the crash. The first half of the film seemed to almost be all Charlton. I feel that they could have led up to the incident in better fashion than giving Charlton all the attention.
Is this film for everyone? No. If you don’t care for soccer, I’m not sure that you’d care about this either. If you do like soccer, then I bet you may enjoy it. I like soccer (I support many clubs, but I’m a true fan of Newcastle) and it’s the reason why I chose to put the film on. The film is like Remember the Titans for football fans. Or Miracle for hockey fans (I love that movie). It’s inspirational, and worth watching more than once.
Overall, I give this film a 4 out 5.
Overall, out of 5, I’d give this film a 4.
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