MovieChat Forums > This Sporting Life (1963) Discussion > One of the most overrated and overacted ...

One of the most overrated and overacted films I have ever seen!

posted 18 years ago by randomposter123
8 replies | jump to latest

I recorded this from TV the other night (BBC are showing a Summer of British Film Season to any Yanks reading) and have only just watched it, and after all the hype I was expecting a early 60s British masterpiece, but I felt very disappointed.

I'm not one to generally slate movies for the hell of it, but this movie was extremely dull and slow paced. Don't get me wrong, I love 'real movies' as opposed to action movies and so forth, yet this one just took the biscuit! It was so slow, melodramatic, tedious and off-kilter that is was a real drag for me to watch until the end.

While I applaud the gritty honesty of this movie, however I think that not only were many of the scenes way over the top (the constant rowing at the end, and the hospital scene to name but two melodramatic low points) but both Harris and Roberts acting were also extremely over the top, bordering on a working class version of 'ham.'

I dunno, I just felt let down. Harris was duly intense in this film, but the movie was misdirected and Harris himself was terible in some scenes with his Irish accent really coming to the fore.

I would give this film 5 out of 10. Not a good film in my opinion.

Armstrong and Bain are the true legends

[–] elliot-1 17 years ago

It wasn't great. It was overacted, and in the end I was left with a feeling of "so what"?

[–] moonlake-1 17 years ago

I disagree. I think it is a brilliant film. The acting is perfect and the film packs a tremendous emotional wallop. There were so many great films made in England in the sixties.

[–] onepotato2 17 years ago

I agree. I was thinking "Oh go write some poetry, you sensitive clod!"

2 problems:
- too, too many scenes covering the same ground, and...
- too little to cover

Harris sucks in this, clearly doing a cut-rate Brando/Streetcar impression. It's hard to say which storyline was less vital, the rugby, or the Rachel R love interest. Soooooo tepid, yet so overwrought.

[–] epa101 17 years ago

I agree that it is not a good film although I am not sure where you had heard "all the hype" from. I grew up around Wakefield, where this film is set, and no-one my age [I am 23] has heard of this film. It is just too old-fashioned and slow-moving. Yorkshire towns are quite proud of their films: Barnsley has Kes, Sheffield has the Full Monty, Scarborough has Little Voice. Wakefield has disowned This Sporting Life because most people under the age of 40 just find it as boring as hell to watch all the way through.

Also, I wish that the main actors had made just some effort to sound as if they were from Yorkshire. The only time that you hear Yorkshire speech in this film is from the minor characters.

[–] g_rudge 17 years ago

i live in wakefield, and agree, wakefield couldnt care less about rugby league, its rugby team, or the fact that this film was filmed there

as a supporter of wakefield trinity wildcats, i have come to realise that now they are wanting a new stadium and whatnot to better the club and the team, ive realised wakefield (the city and its people) couldnt be bothered about rugby league (or even union) and its team.

Also they couldnt care about this film, im 17 and have only seen it once, i watched it with my grandad (who pointed out all the locations in wakefield where is was filmed) and because it was a few years ago now, i really honestly cannot remember it, i mustve been 12 or 13...

love is a losing game...

[–] omari322 16 years ago

I have to agree with you because I just watched it and was more than a little disappointed that I wasn't drawn into the story. I think the flashback structure hurt because although I could follow the shifting scenes there always seemed to be more that wasn't revealed. Why did Mr. Hammond kill himself? How did Frank come to lodge at her place? What was the deal with Dad? What was Mr. Hammond's link to Weaver?

I watched this movie a few nights after 'Saturday Night, Sunday Morning' which IMO covered the British working-class, early '60's material much better. I got what drove the angry young men Finney and Harris portrayed but Finney's character was better served by his story much more than Harris'.

'Cause I'm Black you think I did it?

[–] nephihaha 16 years ago

Why did Mr. Hammond kill himself? - Because he thought his wife and children would get the payout for an industrial accident.

How did Frank come to lodge at her place? - He needed somewhere to live. This used to be pretty common. She needed the rent money to support her children.

What was the deal with Dad? - It's hinted by Mrs Hammond that Dad is a bit gay. Did you not notice that? He's also involved with the rugby club in some way.

What was Mr. Hammond's link to Weaver? - They lived in the same town, and had probably encountered each other through work, or socially.

[–] FrankRandle 14 years ago

"Dad" was a stereotype of a common working class character in the 1960s. Men like him had treated the club (football, rugby, boxing etc) as their real 'home' without the wife. "Dad will have been a presence at the club for 60 years. He will have probably been a menial member of the staff in his younger days (changing room guy or general dogsbody. As he aged his role would become more nebulous and have no real job-description but he would be admired as a lonely old chap who represented a direct line with the old virtues and ideals of the club that by the 1960s were disappearing.
Treated as a bit of a joke by youngsters and cynics he was a constant amongst the post-war cultural changes. I do think that today we look for homosexual motives that 50 years ago just didn't exist. "Dad" was a harmless, lonely old man and had a simple-minded habit of hero-worshipping the young men who were good at something he loved and had no talent for. Different times. All the clubs had their "Dads".

Hammond's link to Weaver is central - he was a lathe operator at Weaver's firm. Weaver was pleased that he only paid the widow and orphans a pittance as workplace compensation was denied because of Hammond's alleged contributory negligence. Even though he knew Frank was lodging with the widow he nevertheless boasted to Frank Machin how pleased he was with screwing Hammond's widow out of a just pay-out. To bosses like Weaver, Hammond was a nobody and his death at the firm was not allowed to impinge on MR & Mrs Weaver's opulent home-life. This cruel behaviour was not likely to endear him to Machin.