This Sporting Life (Lindsay Anderson, 1963): UK

Reviewed by Byron Potau.  Viewed on DVD.

Lindsay Anderson’s 1963 film, This Sporting Life, is a rough and gritty film with moments of poignancy, and is carried by a powerful performance from Richard Harris, making it one of the finest of the “angry young man” British films of the sixties.

The film begins violently on the football field as Frank Machin (Richard Harris) gets his teeth knocked out during a rugby game.  Much of the story that follows is told in flashback as Frank sits unconscious in the dentist’s chair getting the broken teeth pulled.  Frank convinces “Dad” Johnson (William Hartnell), who is a scout for the local rugby team, to get him a tryout.  When Frank impresses enough to be signed by the team, he thinks he has finally broken out of his class and into a higher society.  He continues to try and woo his widowed landlord Margaret Hammond (Rachel Roberts), but she is extremely bitter and hostile, and still in love with the memory of her late husband.  Even when she does give in to Frank, she is only able to give him sex, not affection.  Frank soon comes to realize that despite the considerable money he is making, and the fancy car he now drives, the world just sees him as an “ape on a football field.”

Richard Harris won the Cannes Film Festival’s Best Actor prize in 1963 and received an Oscar nomination for his gutsy, loud, barbaric, yet heartfelt performance.  He comes across as, and even resembles, a young Marlon Brando.  His performance is the heart and soul of the film.  Rachel Roberts also received an Oscar nod for her performance, but her character is so angry and unable to enjoy anything that she is terribly off-putting.  Still, Roberts does make her an interesting character.  William Hartnell as the scout that gets Frank his chance and morally supports him afterwards is also a fascinating character, but unfortunately he disappears halfway through the film.  Yet Hartnell does enough to make this character stick in your mind as an old man clinging to whatever life he can because he does not have much left of his own.  Lindsay Anderson’s direction is excellent in keeping a gritty sense of realism with the performances and the many real locations used in the film.  Scenes of the players’ camaraderie and rough housing in the locker rooms lend the film an authenticity.  Writer David Storey, who had been a former rugby player, adapted the screenplay from his own novel and his own experiences seem to have given the story much substance that only adds to the realistic quality of the film.  Denys N. Coop’s cinematography is able to show the grime of the lower class houses, pubs, and the mud-covered football field, but is still crisp enough to lend a real appreciable beauty to the compositions.  The film succeeds on several levels, but can be a bit dour at times.  However, it is worth seeing for the strong performance of Harris, and can be appreciated for several other qualities as well.