Movie of the Week: ESPN 30 from 30 Soccer Stories: Hillsborough

The debut entry in ESPN 30 from 30 Soccer series is a brilliantly crafted, devastating account of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. Ninety three Liverpool supporters died on the 15 April 1989 when they were crushed against the fence due to overcrowding in the pens behind the goalposts for the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. An additional three supporters died later in hospital.

Director Daniel Gordon investigates how and why the disaster happened, he details the process by which the Liverpool fans themselves were falsely blamed for the disaster leading to a 25 year battle  by the relatives of the victims to have the truth revealed. He reveals that there was a systematic program of altering statements by police and other relevant witnesses to hide the shortcomings of police management that was largely responsible for the disaster that day. Gordon explores how this program was aided and abetted by a mass media campaign spearheaded by Rupert Murdoch's The Sun newspaper, whose false headlines and allegations were as confronting as any of the visual images presented in the film, leading to a boycott of The Sun in Liverpool that has lasted to this day.

This is a captivating film. Daniel Gordon uses a mix of interviews with the leading players, including several of the police officers who haven't spoken in public before about their experiences, along with the use of footage from the day to explain in chilling clarity just what went wrong. The relatives who are interviewed are articulate, thoughtful and impressive witnesses who have a story to tell that is important and moving. Gordon does them justice. The film shows confronting scenes of people being crushed, not in close up, but clearly visible. This adds to the drama and tension one feels while watching this film and is critical to helping the viewer understand what happened that day. It is not exploitation.

The tragic irony of the disaster was that, due to an unrelated police scandal, the former police superintendent of the area, Brian Mole, had been transferred out of the position only 3 weeks before the disaster. He had a long and successful history of managing stadium events at Hillsborough, and was well aware of the possible difficulties involved with that management.  His successor, David Duckenfield, did not have this experience and it led him to make a series of highly criticised decisions and non decisions that contributed to the disaster.

At the time, it was common to have supporters at the each end of the field standing and watching in the game in unseated terraces. Due to problems with soccer hooliganism, these terraces had high fences at the front, preventing easy access to the pitch. At Hillsborough, fences dividing the terrace into four pens had also been installed, preventing free movement across the terrace which had been the standard way for people who were feeling crushed to get out. Gordon explores the parade of errors made by the management of the stadium and the police in dealing with the problems involved with the entry to the ground and to the management of the spectators at the Leppings Lane end of the ground, problems that had been apparent to the extent that there had been a near fatal crush at the same end just 8 years before.

The game had been going for 6 minutes when it became clear that there were problems in the pens and play was suspended. As the scale of the disaster became obvious, the head of British Football Association went into the police box, he was told by Superintendent Duckenfield that Liverpool fans had drunkenly broken into a side gate and flooded the pens with people. The side gate had been ordered open by Duckenfield himself, in response to frantic requests from officers outside afraid that people were going to be crushed to death trying to get in. This lie was the foundation of the allegations that Liverpool fans were drunk and that the disaster was their fault.

Gordon investigates the allegations along with the attempts to discover the truth in detail. This is headed by the pivotal contribution of Professor Phil Scraton, an articulate, authoritative interviewee,  whose research led to discoveries which contradicted the official account of events, demonstrating that the official account had been 'sanitised' at best and criminally altered at worst. These discoveries led to an overturning of the original inquest and to the opening of new inquests into the 96 deaths. Therese inquests are continuing at time of writing and the film is not currently available for viewing in the United Kingdom as a result.

Daniel Gordon has created a definitive documentary, a superb account of the Hillsborough disaster that will surely move and anger most people who watch it. This is not a great documentary, it's a  great film. 9/10.

At the time of writing, the film was available here

Lindsay's Movie of the Week: Field of Dreams: A 25th Anniversary Retrospective.

 Field of Dreams was my brother Peter's favourite film. Peter is notorious amongst the brothers for being a sucker for any film that has a boat or plane in it and consequently his opinion of films doesn't always get a lot of respect from his 3 younger brothers. Thus his high opinion of Field of Dreams didn't exactly have me rushing to borrow the VCR off him. It was baseball and I didn't really like baseball, and I certainly didn't like Kevin Costner. Several years later, possibly many years later, in a period of extreme boredom in those pre-Internet days, I finally decided to borrow the VCR off him.

It turned out that I was enchanted.  Kevin Costner was engaging and charming, ideal for the role, Amy Madigan was superb, James Earl Jones was strong and dynamic, Burt Lancaster's brief appearance was a show-stealer, the acting was flawless, the music accompanied the story so beautifully. What really enchanted me wasn't the acting, it was the quality of the story and the film. This was a film that was willing to take chances, that was willing to treat the journey of the heart seriously. A film that was prepared to say that dreams matter, and that those dreams can be very personal and not world shattering. As someone who didn't have a great relationship with his own father, the ending held  special power for me.

Watching it again, I found the movie was, if anything, even more powerful. Burt Lancaster's scenes strike home to an older man,  I can look at moments in my own life where I didn't realise that it was one of the "most significant moments of my life" that was happening. Kristy's first RSVP contact with me, waiting for the results of the pregnancy test, my life has changed and Field of Dreams is very honest about change.

 I look at the relationship the couple had in the film and identify with it - I think Kristy would let me build that field, her support of me is strong, even when she may not agree with me. I'd always wanted to be a good father. Now that I am one, that desire to get it right, to have a better relationship with my children than I had with my father is even more pervasive.

My copy of the DVD includes a wonderful documentary about the making of the film and I have found the documentary to be almost as watchable as the film itself. Discovering that the director and script adapter Phil Alden Robinson found the whole process of making the film to be incredibly stressful and that despite its success, he's carefully avoided making films subsequently adds nuance to the tale being told.

Discovering that it took years to make because most studios were understandably concerned that a film of this nature wouldn't work at the box office, that the part of Terrence Mann was specifically written for James Earl Jones, that tourists have visited the movie site in Iowa from 1990 to this day, that all the cast members seemed to remember the film with much greater affection than an ordinary film simply adds to one's affections for this great film.

The coup de grace was was the revelation that the character of Moonlight Graham was closely based on the real Moonlight Graham, who truly only played one innings of 1 Major League Baseball game before retiring to become a beloved doctor in Chisholm, Minnesota. Would that man have ever imagined, when taking time out to watch a Burt Lancaster film, that he was watching a man who would one day portray him?!

Field of Dreams continues to be a film that moves me and I can only agree with Timothy Busfield who pointed out that there are very few films that move men in the way that this film does. The Shawshank Redemption comes to mind, but it's a rare thing. It's that ability to tug my heartstrings that has made Field of Dreams one of my favourite films of all time.10/10. 

Movie of the Week: ESPN 30 from 30 - This is What They Want

ESPN 30 for 30: THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT

 Lindsay's Label: 8/10

In 1991, the 8 time Grand Slam champion, 5 time US Open champion, the 174th best player in the world,  Jimmy Connors, on the brink of his 39th birthday, needed a wildcard to gain entry into the tournament after having missed almost all of 1990 due to a severe wrist injury.

Having not exactly cut a swathe through world tennis in his 1991 expeditions, little was expected of Connors at the US Open. But part of the joy in sport is that what you expect isn't always what you get, after spending a couple of hours getting clobbered by Patrick McEnroe, Connors turned his 1st round match around to win 6-4 in the 5th, thumped his next couple of opponents, celebrated his 39th birthday by beating friend and regular hitting partner Aaron Krickstein, who happened to be a 5 set expert, in an epic 5th set tiebreak.

This  vintage run, which included one of the most dramatic points ever played in his following match against Paul Haarhuis, is the subject of ESPN's 30 from 30 documentary, This is What They Want. The title came from a Connors quote at the start of *that* 5th set tiebreak against Krickstein, when he looked into the camera and said "This is what they came for, this is what they want!"

Connors, his son, several commentators, Patrick McEnroe, his older brother John, Aaron Krickstein and his ultimate conqueror, Jim Courier are among the people interviewed for the movie. Barring one over zealous commentator who was allegedly there to provide a comic touch, all the participants speak intelligently and thoughtfully, their pieces are skilfully combined with cuts from footage of the tournament, the directing is slick and the pacing excellent.

 The directors included some comments of their own as a part of the film and made it quite clear that they were Connors fans and adored his run at the 1991 US Open. Consequently, I found it fascinating that Connors himself came across very poorly for mine, he seems to be a very selfish and hard man who makes no apology for anything that he did during his career. Some of those things included calling the umpire in the Krickstein Connors match an abortion so perhaps there could be the odd thing that he might regret. Despite the fact that Krickstein was his friend, after winning that epic match, he never again spoke to him. I found that to be quite extraordinary and would have liked to have seen Connors pressed more about that.

Anyone who remembers the 1991 US Open is going to like this film, it's a wonderful retrospective of the Connors run. I can't recommend it highly for non tennis fans though, I think that if you don't have a prior interest in the sport or the participants in this documentary, then you may find the movie struggles to hold your interest.

 At the time of writing, the preview for this film can be found here

and here is the film itself

Movie of the Week: The Announcement

Lindsay's Label:7.5/10

This is an absorbing and moving documentary about the famous NBA star Earvin 'Magic' Johnson and his diagnosis with AIDS. It spreads its tentacles beyond the actual announcement to look at Magic's life before and after the announcement and is more of a documentary about him and how being diagnosed with HIV changed his life than it is a film about HIV and HIV related issues. This is a good thing.

Johnson's grace and charm are evident throughout the film, which he narrated, with his family,  personal doctor and close personal friends from in and outside of basketball all being interviewed. Unsurprisingly, the film presents a very positive impression of Johnson, who is, in any case, so charismatic that director Nelson George would have found it quite the challenge to make a boring film with this man as his star.  

The fact that Johnson was so willing to go public once he was diagnosed amazes me, as most people in 1991 only went public with their diagnosis after they collapsed in hotel lobbies (Rock Hudson) or were hounded by the paparazzi to the point of madness (Freddie Mercury). George takes the time to explain why Johnson has survived when the diagnosis was a death sentence when he received it.

Nelson George succeeds in re-creating the drama and tension of the moment whilst presenting a sympathetic portrayal of how one man learnt to cope with the most feared diagnosis of the age in a very public space. 90 minutes long, the film doesn't overstay its welcome and is strongly recommended, even if you don't know the people involved.



At the time of writing, you could watch the film in its entirety here
The preview is listed below.