United [DVD]

This is the best account of the events of February 1958 at Munich you will find. Dougray Scott is superb as Matt Busby, as is David Tennant as Jimmy Murphy. This is a must- see for any Man Utd fans, or anyone else

Cracking film... watch...

In my opinion this film manages to deliver the message loud and clear that not only Man Utd fans suffered because of the loss of the Busby Babes, but English football as a whole. It is well known that the Football League had an overrated opinion of themselves, but never has a short sightedness had such an impact on the history of both Manchester United and English football.This story delivers the key facts and you have to wonder just why Harry Gregg did not receive more recognition for what he did in the aftermath of the crash.Post the crash it showed the football community in a true light of togetherness.David Tennant played the part really well of Jimmy Murphy and brought the character to life, as did all the actors.Great but sad watch..........

Before I get too negative about ‘United’ I need to say that this is a very good film that I’ve watched several times. David Tennant is wonderful as Jimmy Murphy, Matt Busby’s second in command who navigated United’s road to recovery in the wake of the Munich Air Crash. There are fine performances too from Jack O’Connell as Bobby Charlton, and Ben Peel who portrays goalkeeper Harry Gregg, the hero of the crash. Sam Claflin plays Duncan Edwards with just enough swagger to convince us that at the time of the crash he was arguably the finest player in England. The scenes in which Jimmy Murphy visits the survivors in Germany is very moving, so too the events leading up to the Reds' first game post-Munich as Murphy struggles to assemble a team for the FA Cup tie against Sheffield Wednesday. Although the story fades out towards the end, overall this is an exciting and very moving drama, but with some major defects.Hollywood knows only too well that the truth should never get in the way of a good story. For example its depiction of William Bligh as a keel-hauling maniac in various Mutiny on the Bounties was total fabrication, but it did make for a fabulous yarn. Obviously the producers of ‘United’ have not taken such extreme liberties with the truth but the film nevertheless is riddled with inaccuracies, and as the relatives of many of the Munich victims are still living its sensitivity has to be questioned.Sandy Busby has been particularly vocal in his criticism of Dougray Scott’s portrayal of his father. I had the privilege to meet Sir Matt once and found him warm, sincere and not a bit like Scott’s cynical, hard-faced ‘boss’. One wonders too how United captain Roger Byrne’s family must have felt to find that the writers had installed Mark Jones as skipper and that Roger, who at the time of the crash was England’s regular left back, was not even mentioned.There is no mention of two other victims Liam Whelan and the tragic Geoff Bent, who only travelled with the squad as cover for Roger Byrne who had picked up a training injury – Byrne in the event was fit to play. And what of the great Tommy Taylor? United’s superstar signing from Barnsley and unquestionably the country’s top centre-forward. Nothing.Perhaps if the director had included a slate at the end of the film paying tribute to the unmentioned players, staff and journalists who died we could have excused these omissions.In terms of the narrative the film’s most glaring error is to suggest that this was the club’s first foray into Europe. In fact United had taken part in the previous season’s European Cup where they reached the semi-finals, only to be beaten by the eventual winners Real Madrid. Why this fact was omitted is perplexing since it would have surely enhanced the story to reveal that here was a group of youngsters who had come so close the previous year to reaching the final. There had also been a chillingly ominous incident during the 1956/7 competition in which the team – on their return from playing a snowbound tie with Atletico Bilbao – had been given brooms at Bilbao airport to help sweep the snow and ice from the wings prior to take off. I’d have thought that fact would have been given to the writers on a plate!Two points of lesser importance but equally jarring for anyone who’s a stickler for detail; The CGI recreation of Old Trafford has got the ground back to front. A scene in which Bobby Charlton, unable to sleep on the eve of his debut, visits the ground in the early hours shows the rear of the Stretford End (with ‘Manchester United’ spelt out across the roof – again an inaccuracy) however the part of the ground facing visitors as they cross the forecourt is the ‘Scoreboard End,’ which was an uncovered terrace until 1973.Finally – and I don’t know why this one bothered me so much – but as Bobby Charlton is carried shoulder high by his team mates following his spectacular debut, they all sing “One Bobby Charlton”. This football chant, still sung today, is based on the Cuban folk song ‘Guantanamera’ which would not have been known to the general public in 1958. It was popularised by Pete Seeger in a 1963 recording but didn’t enter the public psyche until 1966 when a version by The Sandpipers became an international hit.Still there is much to praise about ‘United’, the art and costume department have worked miracles in recreating the austerity of the late fifties, the performances on the whole are first rate and by not featuring any football sequences apart from a few training ground scenes, the director has neatly avoided the usual problems inherent in screening sports dramas – i.e. actors are not very convincing as sports stars.A very good film but it could have been great.

A very well produced film. Emotional mixed with factual details.

This film, a BBC production focusing on Manchester United's 1958 crash at Munich, Germany, is definitely a heart-breaker but a worthwhile view. It's the story of triumph after tragedy--a tragedy that shook the world of English football to its core. Characterization of these youngsters (what's known of them) is excellent, as are the portrayals of their manager and their coach. But it's more than just the horrendous crash that decimated United's first team. There are deeply affecting scenes such as the one in which the families of the lost "Busby Babes" are ushered into an area where the 8 caskets lie side by side. A deeply-grieving June Jones, widowed far too soon as they all were, must be assisted away from her husband's coffin in a state of near-collapse.Of the scenes involving survivors of the crash, two stand out in my mind and will forever. The whispered words of Matt Busby, from his German hospital bed, to his assistant Jimmy Murphy are well known to the club's world-wide family of supporters, but carry a special poignancy as brought to life by Dougray Scott (Busby) and David Tennant (Murphy). Then, back in Manchester, a deeply-grieving Bobby Charlton must be persuaded by Murphy to return to the game. The words spoken by Jack O'Connell in his portrayal of Charlton are the exact ones used at the time by the young Bobby. "How can I pass the ball, and know it's not to Duncan?"The memory of Munich is sacred to the United "family"--the club & its supporters around the globe; and with one somewhat glaring exception the film is true to this. For whatever reason--dramatic license or what, I don't know--"United" names Mark Jones rather than Roger Byrne as captain of the squad. But this, of course, would not be known to viewers unaware of the historic tragedy and really doesn't detract from the film as a whole.

Avevo già sentito parlare di questa tragedia, in quanto le era stata dedicata una puntata di Air Crash Investigation. Non riesco a capire come mai non esiste una versione italiana di questo capolavoro, Jack O'Connell è uno dei miei attori preferiti e quindi alla fine ho deciso di comprare questa versione, anche se nella scheda non vengono menzionati neanche i sottotitoli in inglese, per me necessari in quanto non conosco benissimo la lingua. La bella sorpresa è stata che invece i sottotitoli ci sono e così non è stato complicato seguire la storia, anche se non ho compreso tutto. Il film è bellissimo, toccante, fate una scorta di fazzoletti, ma merita di essere visto. Bravissimo Jack, ma di questo non ho mai avuto dubbi.

This is an engaging and emotional story about the disastrous plane crash that decimated the 1958 Manchester United football team. You don't have to be a Man U fan or even a football (soccer) fan to appreciate this film. The performances are good across the board and David Tennant's understated portrayal of Jimmy Murphy ripped my heart out. This movie is not full of fast-paced football action (if that's what you're looking for), but packs a powerful emotional punch by showing how people can bounce back from horrible events.

This is an infamous story of the loss by air accident of a large portion of the Manchester United football team during a time, the mid-1950s - following WWII but well before the uptick in interest in English Premier League football (soccer) which has grown steadily each decade along with the advent of television coverage from the 1960s to today's sophisticated, global array of sport-specific networks. Well told, with steady pacing that belies the modern maxim of Hollywood filmmaking that you cannot take the time to get to know a large cast of characters. It combines simplicity and clarity with technical proficiency and good old fashioned storytelling to convey a complex and challenging situation. If you are unaware and uninitiated into the world of 1950s professional football in England, you will still be able to enjoy the film. Mostly because it is told through its characters, and handled with sensitivity to the delicacy of the moment - careful not to turn it into an overly-flogged hero worship film yet also employing painstaking efforts to capture a time, and a city community that while far to the North of its nation's capitol of London, nonetheless had its key place in British society. There will be some for whom the film falls short in either direction - too slow without not enough dramatics on one hand, too detailed in showing the effects of the crash on the other. For me the nuances are well served, especially within the lead characters, as they put their lives back together, and as the love of the game gets to rise again in each individual, each in their own way, and each with a unique place and role in the overarching story of a community coming back together. It's a story told without affectation. We in the Americas revere English football and the qualities of those Brits intimate with the game, far beyond their accent, yet sometimes too forgiving of their technical deficiences - they may have invented the game (codified it through the FA, England's organizing body, which the international governing body, FIFA, has mostly adopted) but they have rarely dominated it on the world stage. (Their one World Cup victory itself is rife with controversy, in 1966 on home soil.) The chief English contribution to the game remains a healthy balance of passion with a solid dose of reality, a respect for the game and all its participants. A bit ironic as the English style had been known to be a brutal one. This film gives a good foundation to understanding the place the game holds within the English psyche (and heart) by focusing on this one moment in time and how they responded as human beings at that particular time.In terms of catching English football at this moment of football history, it's worthwhile to note that one fulcrum of the story revolves around the emerging European club competition which is currently reflected in the popularity of UEFA Champions League action - the universally recognized pinnacle for football clubs. (The club World Cup competition brings in several other regional champions in a quasi-tourney in Japan each year but the format highly favors the Europe representative. It has yet to truly take hold.) This film is also a good precursor, and companion to, the 2009 Michael Sheen film, The Damned United, that focuses on Brian Clough, a notorioius EPL coach from the decade that follows the one in this film. Though quite different in tone and delivery, it too captures an era of football, and in the background you sense and see the game as it evolves. Both movies are English productions. United receives top marks here because it fully achieves what it sets out to be, and is an ideal DVD for home viewing, as well as an important volume in any collection with a soccer theme. There's a reason it is often placed in the top 10 of soccer/football movies. Enjoy!

To those of us who remember the accident, a very moving made-for-TV film. It captures beautifully an earlier time, when footballers smoked and drank and were poorly paid - "£20 a week, career over at 40, what girl wants prospects like that?" the young Bobby Charlton is told, "tell them you're a plumber or a carpenter!" - also a time when Bobby Charlton had lots of hair! It captures the accident, the young Charlton going hysterical in hospital, the heroic efforts of Irish goalkeeper Harry Gregg in rescuing people ("I'm going to die in Germany and I don't even speak f****** German!") and the mighty work of trainer Jimmy Murphy in putting the pieces back together.The one drawback is the portrayal of Matt Busby, who looks more like a Mafia boss than the track-suited person he was (the Busby family were reportedly unhappy with this portrayal). More also could have been made of the heroic efforts of Prof. Dr. Georg Maurer and his staff as they fought to save lives (Prof. Dr. Maurer was awarded an honorary CBE by the Queen, and when the surgical team were guest of honour at a match at Old Trafford and the German national anthem was played, everyone stood, despite the still-raw wounds of the war). Even for non-football fans, very worthwhile viewing.

Elegí darle 5 estrellas porqué como seguidor del Manchester United y del fútbol en general la considero un enorme trabajo realizar una película que exprese tanto como lo hace esta.