Watching Richard Harris' performance as Frank Machin in Lindsay
Anderson's 1963 masterpiece "This Sporting Life" you might be reminded
of Marlon Brando's work in "A Streetcar Named Desire" or indeed of
Robert De Niro's Jake La Motta in Scorsese's later "Raging Bull",
(Scorsese's film owes a great deal to "This Sporting Life" without ever
quite measuring up). All three characters share the same animalistic
intensity and an inability to communicate except in the most primordial
level. This was the film that made Harris a star and it's his greatest
performance; he was nominated for the Oscar and won the Best Actor prize
at Cannes. His co-star is the great Rachel Roberts as the widowed
landlady who takes Machin into her bed. Like Harris, she too was
nominated and deservedly so; she's as fine here as she was in Karl
Reisz's "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning", (Reisz produced this film
while Anderson made his feature debut as a director). David Storey did
the superb adaptation from his own novel and the brilliant supporting
cast included Alan Badel, William Hartnell and Colin Blakely. Denys Coop
was responsible for the cinematography and Peter Taylor was the editor.
It's still one of the finest of all films that uses sport both as a
backdrop and as a metaphor and is one of the greatest of all
'kitchen-sink' movies.
Watching Richard Harris' performance as Frank Machin in Lindsay
Anderson's 1963 masterpiece "This Sporting Life" you might be reminded
of Marlon Brando's work in "A Streetcar Named Desire" or indeed of
Robert De Niro's Jake La Motta in Scorsese's later "Raging Bull",
(Scorsese's film owes a great deal to "This Sporting Life" without ever
quite measuring up). All three characters share the same animalistic
intensity and an inability to communicate except in the most primordial
level. This was the film that made Harris a star and it's his greatest
performance; he was nominated for the Oscar and won the Best Actor prize
at Cannes. His co-star is the great Rachel Roberts as the widowed
landlady who takes Machin into her bed. Like Harris, she too was
nominated and deservedly so; she's as fine here as she was in Karl
Reisz's "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning", (Reisz produced this film
while Anderson made his feature debut as a director). David Storey did
the superb adaptation from his own novel and the brilliant supporting
cast included Alan Badel, William Hartnell and Colin Blakely. Denys Coop
was responsible for the cinematography and Peter Taylor was the editor.
It's still one of the finest of all films that uses sport both as a
backdrop and as a metaphor and is one of the greatest of all
'kitchen-sink' movies.
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