This Sporting Life

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Mark B Why does the North of England always have to be portrayed as a gritty, bleak and soul-less place? Answer: To provide the perfect backdrop for brutes like down on his luck miner, Frank Machin (Richard Harris) who just goes around making other people's lives a misery. Sure, he may be talented at rugby league as he later joins the town's club. But Machin, is a bad mouthed, volatile social misfit, a psychopath. Buying a big Jaguar and a new suit just makes him worse. Frank wants but can't have but he doesn't know what it is he wants. He even resorts to raping his own landlady who hates him. But much as I wanted to, I couldn't stop watching this terribly realistic film-noir. Surely, Harris's best ever film performance. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 12/10/24 Full Review Dylan H I watched this movie because the song "Ancient History" by The Cribs was written based on it and this film was definitely worth it. This movie is a very drab slice of life film that makes the best out of its concept and narrative. This movie did drag just a little but the end was well worth it. "Everyone wants what they can't have" seems to represent Frank's relationship with Margaret, as he is a famous and rich rugby star that has seemingly everything he could want. Instead of basking in his money and the women readily available he instead spends his effort to try and be with Margaret, a widow just getting over her husband's death. Sometimes you may be watching a scene and not understand how it's contributing to the plot, but just stick with it. The scenes are supposed to build up Frank's life and the payoff in the end is well worth it. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 12/08/24 Full Review Anthony J Very good, if quite dated. A grim look at at time long since passed, though human misery and shallowness of life is timeless. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/11/23 Full Review dave s Known for his absurdist social satires, notably O Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital, director Lindsay Anderson made his debut with something quite the opposite – a hard-hitting, gritty slice of life called This Sporting Life. Richard Harris stars as Frank Machin, a former coal miner who, after being discovered during a bar fight, finds fame and fortune in the rough and tumble world of rugby. However, this is not a sports movie. It deals primarily with Frank's difficulty functioning with the norms dictated by society and his inability to develop a meaningful relationship with is widowed landlady. It is a beautifully made film, highlighted by the intense, animalistic performance from Harris. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member A drama about human ugliness! Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review William L Propped up by a focus on a magnetically intense main character, This Sporting Life is certainly a cut above your average kitchen sink drama of the period that chooses to simply lament the conditions of the time and gives out a sense of general hopelessness expecting that alone to be sufficient to be considered avant garde. This film feels like an early draft script for what would eventually become Raging Bull decades later - an athlete who rides a determination based on anger to professional success, only to see his personal relationships fail, simultaneously commenting on the commercial and cruel nature of their profession, less heroes of people than sideshow acts. While engrossing and at times powerful, the narrative does seem one-note at times and occasionally too prolonged for its own good. Harris and Roberts each form an integral part of a toxic and clearly ill-fated relationship, each capable of cruelty and certainly far from flawless, whose distressing realism certainly cause the film to be elevated above other "angry young man" films of the era. (4/5) Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 12/05/20 Full Review Read all reviews

This Sporting Life

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