Making The Damned United | Behind-the-Scenes of Movies | HistoryIsOurs

[Applause] [Applause] CA and the final whistle when I say to people I'm making film back Bon CL get back now keep it down they almost invariably smile Brian K was the first football manager who really explored television today we welcome Brian Koff I have his autograph cluf took up the whole page with an extraordinarily flamboyant signature give me a come on there was no sense that he was crushed by the system he wanted to beat the system we can take this lot come on he wanted to be the best but he does it all with a cheeky smile which is very endearing [Music] I read David Pie's book and it's an extraordinary achievement what David's written it's authentic it's powerful it's surprising it's clu like you've never seen him before what I kept from the book was the Dual time frame that device of inter cutting and what what what particularly chimed for me which isn't a major major subplot of the book uh is the personal rivalry between Revy and Club why do I get the feeling this is all about you and Don of course it's just about me and Don always has been I decided to to construct the whole thing as a sort of marriage and infidelity story very much The Underdogs as they face the first division Champions playing today in their a away strip of dark blue shirts and yellow shorts he basically wanted to sleep with the wife as it were of the person who who was most trying to hurt he wanted to succeed with leads in a way that Don Revy hadn't in s it's not about football it's about a man struggling with his demons a man so talented so brilliant but who has his acces heel like many Talent people is himself you know he is his Own Worst Enemy he's such a rich character that you kind of feel his complexity is inexhaustible that makes him perfect for a central character [Music] look it's players loung Brian 10 minutes it was always Michael Sheen I mean he was he was always our choice he was always the natural theat and I think he's delivered a performance of a lifetime it's it's an astonishing performance he studied his subject [Music] morning lovely yorshire weather I tell you it makes me want to jump on a plane right back to meor apart from the obvious research about KF himself and his life and all that kind of stuff I found myself reading about the trickster figure in mythology and and cult leaders and all that kind of stuff so it all kind of feeds in Michael could have played professional football so he he not only has the passion for it but he has the skills for [Music] it might see Dum [ __ ] reevy do that hey it was just one of those wonderful PS hello you asked me to find a player with a good head experienc well I found one it's perfect when you read the script uh Peter Taylor is is there but it's not it's not a big part and I and I and I and I desperately wanted an actor who could could quietly from the sideline slowly build this character up so you realize by the end how important he [Music] is when you just study someone you get a sense of uh where they're coming from you know psychologically you know for instance he you know he's got very um quite shy eyes we need someone with a good head experience I know how a lot would like edas chickens out there today he's a thinker and uh he's the archetype um assistant got to tell him to give you the pp take him out wide COI is uncanny as as uh don Revy well somebody remarked to me when I said I was going to do this that and I I was a really good remark that he was he was a child of the depression I'd like to think I built the club into a family and there must be sadness when anyone Lees a family in order to get on you had to you had to get education you had to you know be disciplined you had to be respectful of your elders and your betters and all that and I think he really believed all those things I do feel that Brian kof I'll not call him K cuz I'll not take him down like that thank you I do believe that he made it more difficult himself than he need have col has this great ability to find find the humor in a situation without without transgressing the re how real a moment is for God's sake go to sleep man where's your dignity don't ring Here [Music] Again Jim phoned us up and kind of basically said I'd like to play the role so we didn't even have to we didn't even have to sort of worry about who who who would do it and of course as soon as suggested it we' thought Sam Longs and Jim bro but it's it's absolutely perfect I think he's one of our great great character actors and if it's true the football is all about money that's the way it's going well that suits us German just [ __ ] fine cuz we're the ones who've got it to have a cast with Michael Tim and then Jim Broadbent and Co me I mean it's you know it's kind of almost The Best of British cast but it's a fabulous cast action we searched long and hard for the for the best footballing actors we [Music] could I mean Steven Graham who plays Billy Brer um play for Liverpool boys you know he was the heart of the team he was he was the engine room you know he never he never backed out of a tackle he scored quite a few goals start again the passing isn't fast enough in all of the films that I've done I've been conscious of the fact that if the football doesn't look right then the whole film can fall flat [ __ ] with you Jesus we've gone for things a little bit more and if that's meant that the day after somebody's hobbling a little bit or whatever I think you've got to take that and suffer for your art come here come on come on hey 50/50 Norman you're de for what Jesus tackle man [ __ ] I'm out with you you said no 50-50s what are you going to do about it [ __ ] me there's one sequence at night in in the rain where leads are kind of murdering Darby you are a bloody his hey you should be the blood we wanted to slow the action down so you can see you know who's really at fault in um in in the [Applause] fouls you want it to look real you want it to be real but obviously you can't hate no one well you try not to anyway ran good luck can good [Music] luck come on come on go let's [Applause] go come on please I wanted it to have an incredibly strong sense of social [Music] realism so we went to look in Le to base there and then we looked all around that kind of area to find any football grounds that um what haven't been done up the nearest ground we could find in the whole country was Chesterfield FC which which is a wonderful ground I mean it's it's still got Terraces it's still got wooden wooden seating you walk into that ground and you kind of felt already transported to a different era an era I know for a lot of people who watch down United you know will be very nostalgic well the biggest thing we had to do was um which was expensive was to make the grass look much worse than it was cuz of course the groundsmen are so professional these days and love their pictures to be perfect and uh looking at all the archive and the pict is I mean it was a Mudfest it was just a [Applause] disaster so then we had to get just tons of this fertilizer stuff and we just paid to put them three four times the amount they would have done we're all on our hands and knees with our little spad spreading it out really and action the biggest challenge of filming football uh is how on Earth you feel the [Applause] stadium and so the novel um solution we came up with is we use dummy human beings uh we hired 2 and a half thousand dummies we dressed them uh in you know flat caps and um Brown and uh dark gray colors [Music] and the extraordinary thing is you know unless you're looking for it you're never going to question it than 2 please have won it [Applause] [Music] now Ellen Roose we had to um well the biggest thing and the most uh uh important thing was to get the sign back C which had been taken you know down years and years ago so uh we had that made by a local metal worker that training pitch at the moment and is now a a car park and is used exstensively as a car par but we used as much Turf as budget would allow and when that ran out we just had to paint the gravel green as far as we could and hope it would work I haven't seen it yet but I'm bling hope it did work let's all get into crisply and people like you see maybe maybe spread a bit so that Michael has aine through to you this is the wonderful scene where where Brian it's Brian K's first day at work and he he walks up onto the training pitch to uh to tell his players what he's all about make it wi I could see I could see Steve I couldn't see Mark yeah so if if if you can make sure you can see me and then that means I'll be able to see you as well he cannot resist in his very first speech accusing them all of cheating you lot may all be Internationals and have worn all the domestic honors there are to win under Don Revy but as far as I'm concerned the first thing you can do for me is to Chuck all your medals and all your caps and all your pots and all your pans into the biggest [ __ ] dust bin you can find because you've never won any of them fairly you've done it all by Bloody cheating the face of Ellen Road and the warehouses within a few years that'll be redeveloped Chesterfield will be knocked down within a few years I had this vision of of of putting a a Britain on film that that is of rapidly disappearing and and and that was so key to my vision it's an intriguing study of you know one of Britain's kind of great 20th century icons disappointed not best my players were heroic out there tonight you kind of know you know he's doomed before he's begun because if you know enough about what he said about leads um and what he felt about leads he realized he was very unlikely to go in there and make us a great hit out of it here to happy [ __ ] families either it didn't work because that lead's team had reached its natural shelf life and Revy knew that and left this involves me leaving lead United it didn't work because of all the many things had said before he went they wouldn't have played football that way if they were happy it didn't work because the players were ready to work forlu and respected his record at Derby but the mity came he handled it so unfortunately next player who mentions it or what he did or didn't bloody do in the good old days or spend a week cleaning my boots it didn't work because he only had six weeks we have to park compy fine it'll cost you 25 Grand you know I just think it was probably a man in the wrong place and knowing probably quite early on that he made the wrong decision on that's it in the end the conclusion is clear that when he was with Taylor he was [Applause] great and when he was without Taylor as as he indeed he is in the lead story and part of this film he wasn't no one Scouts players like up you're the best we saw this place out together H to draw quite a lot of attention to that as we do in this script and and show what Taylor's particular gifts were and how that partnership worked you know that that was attractive to me cuz cluffy got all the credit he only going to [ __ ] me up again aren't he I love you you know I think anyone interested in you know marvel interested in football will be fascinated by Brian KF anyone not interested in football will be fascinated by this great and complex man [Music] [Applause]