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Nirvana on ice.

Hat tip: Denise

Movie Monday: The Damned United

My Netflix choice this weekend was The Damned United (which didn't seem to be out in theaters for too long, presumably because most Americans don't heart the soccer).

The film is a fictionalized tale of the true-life implosion of Brian Clough at Leeds United, with an emphasis on fictionalized: Clough's family and the few key players that are still alive are none too pleased with the accuracy of the film or the book the film is based on.  The plot, in a sense, is the polar opposite of most sports flicks.  There are countless tales of coaches leading a motley crew of underdogs to glory.  Clough, on the other hand, inherited the dominant side in English football, promptly alienated the players by calling them cheaters, led the team to an abysmal record, and was fired after a mere 44 days.  If you're going to go out, go out with style, I guess.

The film does not take a linear approach, with Clough's 44 days at Leeds spread out amongst flashbacks to his rise to fame at Derby County.  That sequence, if edited out from the later failures, could read like a typical uplifting sports movie: Clough, along with assistant Peter Taylor, turned Derby from a bottom of the table second division club to one of the best teams in the country.  Along the way he developed a deep rivalry (read: unhealthy obsession) with Leeds manager Don Revie.  At Derby Clough was often brash an controversial, but was a darling of the media and club supporters.  But after a tiff with the board of directors, Clough found himself out of a job.  He landed at another small club, Brighton & Hove Albion, but when Don Revie left to become manager of the England national squad, Leeds came calling and Clough found himself replacing his bitter rival.

So, to recap, this movie involved 1) English football in the seventies (awesome -- though I could have used some footage of Ossie and my Chelsea boys, aka the 1970 FA Cup Champions over Leeds United in the final) and 2) partially true, soap-opera style drama.  In other words, I should have loved this move.  But I walked away thinking it was just okay.  Why?  The only likable character was Peter Taylor and he wasn't around too often.  I didn't have anyone to root for.  Clough, as presented in the film, was a total jerk.  The Leeds players?  Jerks.  Don Revie?  Jerk.  Example: on Clough's first day at Leeds he calls the team out for their dirty play.  Based on the matches I've seen of Leeds in the seventies, I'm inclined to agree with Clough.  But Clough is so arrogant and unlikeable when he says it, I can't really side with him.  So, other than a bit of schadenfreude at Leeds' failure (as a loyal Chelsea girl, I hate our old northern rivals) the film wasn't very satisfying.

Verdict: Three stars.

As Allison would say, file under awesome...

Students at Ole Miss appear poised to change the school mascot from noted rebel leader "Colonel Reb" to even more noted rebel leader Admiral Ackbar.  Of course I'm a big fan of the original Star Wars trilogy and an alum of a school that uses Donald Duck for its mascot, so my opinion may be a bit skewed.

If someone buys this, let me know how it is.

The Ballad of Brett Favre.

(H/T Deadspin.com)

Monday morning Olympic musings.

1)  Both the Russia-Czech Republic and the US-Canada men's hockey games were fantastic, and the emotion displayed by the US guys when they beat Canada was great to see.  NBC (of course) managed to make me ill shortly thereafter, however, with the comparisons of last night's victory to the 1980 men's team upset of the Soviet Union.  Look, I get that the US men haven't beaten Canada in 50 years, but a team of NHLers beating a team consisting of somewhat better NHLers in a preliminary round game doesn't even come close to what our boys accomplished in 1980.

2)  Though figure skating ain't my bag, I did tune in to see the Russian pair of Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin perform their ice dancing routine last night due to the controversy it has been stirring up.  If you aren't aware, the routine is "inspired" by the Aboriginal peoples of Australia who, in turn, find it offensive.  Not surprising since it involved hair-pulling, nose-rubbing, a woman wearing the forbidden color red and (up until last night) Shabalin had been wearing a dark skin-toned suit when performing.

What really got me, though, was a comment from the announcing team before-hand that the Russian pair, in trying to smooth things over had "exchanged gifts" with a representative of one of the Canadian "First Nations" earlier in the week.  How, exactly, does that work?  You offend an indigenous people in Australia but make up for it by swapping stuff with an indigenous people from the other side of the world?  Doesn't that kind of indicate the Russians think all them "abos and injuns" are one and the same, compounding their problem?

A few years back I vacationed in Australia, and though you could climb Ayer's Rock/Uluru, I chose not to because, as was made clear to me, it is a rather sacred site to the local Aboriginals. Had I known then that I could just come back home and "make it right" by buying my buddy who's 1/16th Cherokee a burger or something, I might have chosen differently. 

Eye of the Tiger

I was just reading about Tiger's apology and planned return to competitive golf, when it occurred to me that this whole situation is faintly reminiscent of Mike Tyson's problems in the early 90s.

Don't get me wrong, there are huge differences between Mike Tyson and Tiger Woods.  Tyson was an immature thug who became a convicted felon.  As far as I can tell, Tiger Woods is a fundamentally decent guy who has a very hard time resisting temptation (and, to be fair, didn't seem to be resisting too hard).

But Tyson's sports career began to unravel because of problems in his personal life. Early on, he seemed to be channeling his anger into the ring, with incredible success.  But then his marriage fell apart, the anger seemed to spin out of control, and before you knew it he was losing to palookas he would have destroyed a couple years before.

The dynamic with Tiger Woods is clearly different.  Anger doesn't contribute to success in golf, but concentration does.  This episode seems to be affecting Tiger profoundly, which isn't surprising, when the secret life you've been leading for years suddenly becomes front-page news and threatens to destroy your family. 

Will he be able to bounce back with the same mental acuity it takes to excel in professional golf?  Obviously, he's a great competitor, but mental distractions take a toll on your golf game.  A small loss in focus could lead to a huge decline in performance.  My hunch is that if he starts winning fairly soon after his return, he'll get back into the swing of things (ha).  But if his struggles go on for a year or two, it's unlikely he'll ever be the same athlete that he was.   

Great Googly Moogly

One of the things I love about Olympics coverage is that the announcers feel the need to fill you in on fascinating little facts about competitors you have never heard of and will instantly forget after they compete (i.e. "Interestingly, Lars Manfredgensson, favorite for gold in the men's 156,000m cross-country, enjoys making dioramas of Swedish villages out of tongue depressors and was born with three nipples!")

Last night, after switching over to NBC from American Idol I caught a real doozy.  As Japanese men's figure skater Nobunari Oda took the ice, the announcer explained that he was the seventeenth direct descendant of 16th century Japanese warlord Oda Nobunaga who initiated the Shogunate in Japan and later served as the inspiration for the Nintendo game "Nobunaga's Ambition."

Holy crap!  Figure skating, Japanese warlords and Nintendo is one heck of a hat-trick.  Since I have zero interest in figure skating, however, I changed the channel before finding out if the announcers spent any time discussing how the 16th century warlord might have felt about a male heir cavorting about a sheet of ice in spandex, lace and sequins.

The Only Way To Go.

As much as I believe the Olympics are an overblown boondoggle, I still really enjoy the winter games thanks to the mix of sports I've personally enjoyed (skiing, hockey) and those too outlandish for me to ever have had the opportunity to (ski-jumping, luge, curling).  That being said, I simply cannot fathom watching the Olympics without my DVR anymore.  While the folks in my office (and quite a few commentators around the interwebs) are complaining about NBC's coverage, my DVR has granted me immunity from the veritable avalanche of commercial breaks and network puff-pieces.  And since NBC somehow thinks it makes sense to air very few events live, there's really no reason not to wait an extra hour or two before tuning in to their coverage, is there?  Anyone else out there do the same thing or have other ideas on how to skip the fluff and get right to the scintillating action in nordic combined?

Open Thread Thursday

So, who's pumped for the Olympics?  T minus one day until the opening ceremony (aka crazy hat time!).

The Street Stops Here

This upcoming PBS documentary about legendary high school basketball coach Bob Hurley Sr looks pretty good.  They might not realize it, but it seems also to be a perfect piece for a school choice campaign (so we don't see star privately-funded schools starve while failing government school stay in business).