This Sporting Life

This Sporting Life may be a touch overlong, but it is overall a truly brilliant movie and still hits hard after all these years. It has a very realistic story, and the characters are given so much depth and realism it is hard not to empathise. The cinematography is wonderful, the setting is truly evocative, the direction is superb and the screenplay truthful and honest. There are many superb scenes, particularly some truly remarkable scenes of confrontation that are honest to the point it verges on painful to listen. As for the acting, Richard Harris and Rachel Roberts really do give the roles of their live in This Sporting Life, and are both absolutely brilliant as the ruthless professional rugby player and repressed widowed landlady with whom he can only communicate with through violence, and they are finely supported by the likes of Alan Badel and William Hartnell. Overall, brilliant film with a great cast and a hard-hitting sense of realism. 9/10 Bethany Cox

"This Sporting Life" is one of the most famous of the British "kitchen sink" dramas of the 1950s and 1960s ("kitchen sink" films were very gritty, social realist films which were very popular in Britain at one time).

Frank Machin (Richard Harris) is a brutal, young miner in a city in northern England. Hoping for fame and fortune, he becomes a successful Rugby League football player. He uses his fame and fortune, along with physical violence, to try to force his widowed landlady (Rachel Roberts) to fall for him.

Photographed in bleak black-and-white, the film's scenes of emotional and physical domestic violence are still shocking today. Also notable are the violent, stylishly-shot rugby matches.

The cast are brilliant without exception, especially Richard Harris who manages to invest even his totally unsympathetic character with some degree of humanity.

Great movie.

Ostensibly a sport-drama but the main plot of the movie is as a relationship / human drama. Very thoughtful and emotional plot.

Great, gritty direction by Lindsay Anderson. The use of black-and- white photography helped the feeling of desolation, melancholy and emotional emptiness.

Requires some patience though - starts slowly.

Good performances by Richard Harris and Rachel Roberts, both of whom received Oscar nominations for their efforts.

Worth watching.

There's a very angry lad by name of Frank, miner by day, weekends he's down the flank, quite a vile kind of guy, couldn't like him if you tried, if he had a chain you'd give it a good yank. He lodges with a lady Mrs. Hammond, he rants and raves, and issues her demands, of how to live her life, causing conflict, grief and strife, he's just desperate to ensnare, to trap, then bond. A chance to become pro, is signed and sealed, gives him money he can brandish, ply and wield, force landlady to his ways, bullies her until she lays, she's defenceless, has no cover, she has no shield.

One of the most dislikeable characters you're likely to come across, brilliantly performed by Richard Harris, who only occasionally reminds us of his native brogue, while he destroys the life of his landlady, superbly performed by Rachel Roberts. It's just a shame that people like this still exist today.

You know, the more I watch English movies from the 1960's, the more I fall in love with them, Films like I'm all Right Jack, Darling, Alfie, and now, This Sporting Edge, always feature the U.K. as this gritty place, where living is tough, and the people are tougher. Now, whether that's true to life I'm not sure (though I'd be interested to find out) but I sure get a kick out of these films, and I'm glad to add This Sporting Life to that list.

Richard Harris just acts the hell out of his role as a Miner who finds his forte as a star Rugby player. Let's stop here. Why aren't there any more Rugby movies? Soccer and Boxing are always popular sports in movies, but Rugby seems to be sadly neglected. Perhaps they thought this was the definitive movie on this subject? Anyways, Richard Harris's character, Frank Machin, maybe is a brilliant rugby player, but sort of not so in life, but that doesn't stop him from trying to succeed with what he has. The rich people, who of course, have control over the teams, give him some opportunities to move up in the Rugby world.. Some which he's comfortable with, like dropping his Father like a hot potato, other conditions, he's left wondering how low he has to go to make it big. Oooh.

So while Machin is trying to move up in the Rugby world, at home, he's trying to make the the move on his INCREDIBLY repressed landlady, played by Rachel Roberts. Who's that? I've never heard of her up to this movie, and seeing her in this makes me want to see more of her, because she's fabulous in this.

All in all, a great view.