This Sporting Life
Made
in 1963, this is a classic screen adaptation of the hard hitting David
Storey novel about violence and its effect on the quality of life.
Richard
Harris and Rachel Roberts are outstanding as Frank Machin, the
professional Rugby League player who hopes, as he leaves his mining job to
gain social respect but only succeeds in carrying the violence of the
football field into every area of his life, and Mrs Hammond, the frigid
and withdrawn woman with whom he lodges and inarticulately conducts a
joyless affair.
As well as examining their relationship in minute and painful detail, the
film begins with him getting his teeth kicked in and gets steadily more
brutal.
It�s
about hard playing and hard drinking too. Wakefield folk will recognise
many locations including scenes in the Dolphin pub with Beverleys beers
featured prominently. Trinity�s stand has a Beverleys logo on its roof
whilst Thrum Hall has Samuel Websters. The film is directed by Lindsay
Anderson who
began film making with a series of short documentaries in and around
Wakefield in 1952. The cast also includes Arthur Lowe, and William
Hartnell the first Dr Who.
The
film is now sought after item by film buffs but you can get it through
Amazon - I got my copy from www.films2door.co.uk
�RKW
from
the Winter 2005-6 edition of O-to-K