Yesterday's Hero

One of those films so utterly banal and predictable as to be almost enjoyable on that account alone, the soccer world of Yesterday's Hero seems now nearly as distant as that of the superior Arsenal Stadium Mystery of forty years earlier. A time when virtually all weekend games kicked off at 15.00 on a Saturday, muddy pitches on some grounds from early winter on, teams rather than 'squads' and when you could pronounce all the players' names. A wealthy owner signing a player over the head of the manager would also look absurd back then, but now seems commonplace, so in that regard the film is prescient.

Not a big fan of Ian McShane but he's excellent here, giving the only really convincing performance and blends in well with the footage from the Forest/Southampton League cup final. (To me he has a passing resemblance to the superb England goalkeeper of the era, Peter Shilton.) Neither Adam Faith nor Paul Nicholas were great actors to say the least, the latter also turning up in another Jackie Collins' epic The World Is Full Of Married Men, released shortly prior to this. So for fans of Ms Collins and Mr Nicholas, 1979 was their year.

The opening credits of this movie feature some of the most evocative scenes of what is was like to be part of grass roots football in the 1970's. Grimy rooftops give way to a chugging freight train whose journey passes by a football ground where a game is taking place in an absolute quagmire. The ball should be white but is plastered in mud as are all the players. This is the way it used to be. Those from the locality will recognise the ground of Maidenhead United. Unfortunately that is the high point of the movie as thereafter it becomes a cheesy & predictable story of of a drunken ex-pro footballer who gets the opportunity to make good one last time. Actually, Ian McShane is very good in the role although his gait in the football action sequences is not that of a gifted footballer. Sam Kydd plays his father. Were there any British movies of that era Sam Kydd wasn't in?

Yesterday's Hero is Rocky meet George Best via Elton John and Saturday Night Fever. It certainly was an oddball film which explained why the British movie industry was dying by the end of the 1970s.

Rod Turner (Ian McShane) is the over the hill womanising football player who is fond of the booze. He gets a chance to play with a lower league side owned by a pop star Clint Simon. The team is having a great run in the FA Cup and Turner has the experience if not quiet the legs anymore.

Only the manager Jake (Adam Faith) hates Turner and the feeling is mutual.

The movie is basically will the team reach the FA cup final. Can Turner keep off the booze and the self destructive lifestyle. Will the songs get better.

The movie is filled with disco themed songs sung by Paul Nicholas who plays Clint and the token American Suzanne Somers who is the perky Cloudy.

While the team are doing well, Clint is on an around the world tour. You know this as Clint goes 'Hello Amsterdam' or 'Hello Stockholm' but the stage looks the same wherever they go.

As for Adam Faith. He is the most unconvincing football manager I have seen.

The script by Jackie Collins was merely functional and she toned down the sauciness. Director Neil Leifer was too inexperienced. You can tell from the training footage sequences. It is no Rocky.

At least McShane gave a committed performance and it would had worked better if the script was good and the songs were excised from it.

One of the last films I ever reviewed for the Sydney Sun many years ago. Just on a quarter of a century since, the fondness hasn't grown I have to say!

McShane is passably good as the ex soccer star with a heavy dependence on the frosty brew and who dreams of the big comeback! Nope, this wasn't a biopic of Georgie Best. An adaptation of a Jackie Collins story no less - which should give you some idea of its classical pedigree.

Dear old Adam Faith (pop icon of the early 60's - WHAT DO YOU WANT, POOR ME and for a fortnight, Sunday Mornings' most requested song on the Jean Metcalfe hour.....SOMEONE ELSE'S BAYBEE!) plays Jake Marsh trying to help McShane in his quest. Kind of a BUDGIE role for him!..know wot I mean?

What DOES tag this as a memorable production. Can you believe a seventeen year old Cary Elwes no less as a disco dancer? It was his first screen appearance. Long long way from the London of the 70's to LIAR LIAR and TWISTER!

No great shakes of an Aussie/UK co-production. Think you could be hangin' out for a while waiting for the dvd!

YESTERDAY'S HERO is an odd little film about a washed-up drunken footballer trying to get his life back on track. I watched it for two reasons: one is that I've been getting into these 'kitchen sink' type dramas recently and I was expecting more of the same, and two, I'm a massive fan of Ian McShane and I was looking forward to seeing him in a different role from the usual gangster tough guys and the like. I think it's fair to comment that McShane makes this movie. He completely convinces as the former star and gets the viewer on side despite not playing an entirely sympathetic hero. He's thoroughly believable and the consummate professional as always. Sadly, the rest of the film can't match his talent. The film was written by Jackie Collins and has a high level of cheese and schmaltz in it that I wasn't expecting.

Worst of all are the random disco dancing sequences which are shoe-horned into the plot at random intervals and which seem to go on and on endlessly. These feature American starlet Suzanne Somers and Adam Faith teaming up to perform a number of cheesy duets with some of the annoyingly catchy tunes playing repeatedly throughout. Now, I'm a fan of '70s music so I liked the tunes here, but they're completely out of place compared to the rest of the film which goes for a gritty atmosphere and they slow things down considerably. It's almost as if they were added in as an afterthought following the success of Saturday NIGHT FEVER and they do a disservice to McShane's central plot line.