Review for This Sporting Life

This Sporting Life tells the story of Miner Frank Machin who also plays for the local rugby team and rises in the ranks to be a valuable star player. He lives with Mrs Hammond, a widow who has two children and seems to spend most of her time pushing Frank away, rather than accept his affection.

As Frank becomes more famous and wealthy, he begins to reassess his life and the thing he wants most in it is Mrs Hammond. This leads to some bitter moments between the two as she tries to let go of the memory of her husband and allow Frank into her life.

This Sporting Life is such a British Film that when you discover how successful it was you may be a little taken aback. I watched and thought it was a wonderful film in the vein of Look Back in Anger and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. This was the kind of gritty, realistic drama that Britain was producing at the time and it seems that in America after the leaps they made with films such as On the Waterfront, they were able to accept this type of film.

Richard Harris, who plays Frank and Rachel Roberts, who plays Mrs Hammond went on to received Oscar and BAFTA nominations, with Roberts winning the BAFTA and also a Golden Globe nomination. Harris went on to win the Best Actor Award at Cannes and Director Lindsay Anderson was nominated for the Palme d'Or. The film itself is not one that instantly comes to mind when you think of the greatest, but in terms of performances I would say both would easily be in the Top 100 Film Performances of all time.

The plot of the film is so simple that what is more amazing is how it doesn't feel like over two hours. Movement of action from the mine to the rugby field to interactions between characters is just so perfectly tuned that you don't feel any of it dragging. This is mainly due to the enigmatic performance by Harris who does not allow you to become bored for a single frame. His interactions with Roberts is at times very subtle and then bombastic as you would expect from him. However, Roberts' performance as the conflicted Mrs Hammond is even more fascinating and towards the end you can see what their relationship and her past is really doing to her.

Lindsay Anderson's Direction is masterful and the scenes of rugby playing looks almost like a real team playing. This if mainly because most of them were from a real rugby team, but it never felt like something that was staged. Instead it looked like footage that the BBC would show when they are going through the latest rugby scores. The gritty realism of the film is perfect and Anderson does not wander into the surreal and post-modern effects which he would later perfect in his film If...

Considering how well received and respected this film the lack of any real features is a little disappointing. I had expected a Commentary by a noted film critic or someone who had been involved with the film, interviews with those who had worked on the film, or been inspired by it.

Instead all that is included are four picture galleries, which don't real do much. These are split into Production Images, Behind the Scenes, Portrait Images and Promotional Images. Unlike other films where a picture gallery may show how effects were achieved this consists of a silent few minutes of just random shots from the film or the behind the scenes. Only the Promotional Images are interesting just to see how they promoted the film, but as it is less than a minute it is slightly disappointing. Also included is the Original Theatrical Trailer which is fine, but nothing special.

This Sporting Life is a remarkable film, let down slightly by a rather lackluster release. It is certainly one of the greatest British films ever made, but I would certainly say that if we are just talking about performances this film contains two of the greatest performances ever committed to film. If you are a fan of classic British cinema, then this is certainly one that I would recommend.