This Sporting Life [2 Discs] [Criterion Collection]

Overview

"Lindsay Anderson was among the most intelligent and provocative British filmmakers to emerge in the last half of the 20th Century, but the DVD era hasn't been especially kind to him, with most of his work unavailable in the digital format (and barely extant on home video at all). Thankfully, that's began to change; If . . . and O Lucky Man! finally made their way to North American DVD in 2007, and in early 2008 the Criterion Collection released a superb edition of Anderson's debut feature, 1963's This Sporting Life. Arguably the boldest, most singular films to come from the British ""Angry Young Man"" school of the early Sixties, This Sporting Life has been given a superb widescreen transfer letterboxed at 1.66:1, and enhanced for anamorphic play on widescreen monitors. The rich, gritty details of Denys Coop's black and white camerawork are beautifully rendered, and the images look every bit as good here as they did on the big screen. The audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Stereo and sounds full and crisp, with the imaginative sound mix sounding quite impressive in this release. The dialogue is in English, with optional English subtitles for the hard of hearing but no multiple language options. Disc one of this set contains the feature, with an optional audio commentary track featuring film critic Paul Ryan (who has edited a book of Anderson's writings) talking about the picture with assistance from David Storey, who wrote the film's screenplay as well as the novel upon which it was based. A second disc includes a number of bonus items, including Is That All There Is?, a 1993 documentary by Anderson in which he looks back at his life and career over the course of a seemingly ordinary day (it would prove to be the last film he completed in his lifetime), as well as two early documentary shorts, 1948's Meet The Pioneers and 1952's Wakefield Express. Lois Sutcliffe Smith, a close friend of Anderson's, helped produce Meet The Pioneers and got him the job making the film; she appears in an on-camera interview sharing her memories of making the movie and Anderson's earliest days as a director. And finally, Lindsay Anderson: Lucky Man? is a profile produced for BBC Scotland that offers a fond but unsentimental look at Anderson's life in the arts. Criterion's edition of This Sporting Life not only offers an excellent presentation of a landmark film, but paints a fascinating portrait of a gifted and uncompromising artist, and is strongly recommended to anyone with an interest in British cinema."

Product Details

Release Date:	01/22/2008
UPC:	0715515027526
Original Release:	1963
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W, Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	2:14:00

Special Features

Disc One: The Film:; New restored high-definition digital transfer; Audio commentary featuring Paul Ryan, editor of Never Apologise: The Collected Writings of Lindsay Anderson, and David Storey, screenwriter and author of This Sporting Life; Theatrical trailer; ; Disc Two: The Supplements:; Lindsay Anderson: Lucky Man? (2004), a short documentary from BBC Scotland featuring interviews with many of the director's friends and collaborators; New video interview with Anderson's first producer and close friend Lois Sutcliffe Smith; Meet the Pioneers (1948), Anderson's first film, a documentary short about a mining engineering firm; Wakefield Express (1952), an early documentary by Anderson about the town that later served as the setting for This Sporting Life; Is That All There Is? (1993), Anderson's autobiographical final film; ; Plus: A booklet featuring a new essay by film scholar Neil Sinyard and an article by Anderson from 1963

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Richard Harris	Frank Machin
Rachel Roberts	Mrs. Margaret Hammond
Alan Badel	Gerald Weaver
William Hartnell	'Dad' Johnson
Colin Blakely	Maurice Braithwaite
Vanda Godsell	Mrs. Weaver
Arthur Lowe	Slomer
Anne Cunningham	Judith
Jack Watson	Len Miller
Harry Markham	Wade
George Sewell	Jeff
Leonard Rossiter	Phillips
Frank Windsor	Dentista
Peter Duguid	Dottore
Wallas Eaton	Cameriere
Anthony Woodruff	Capo cameriere
Katherine Parr	Mrs. Farrer
Bernadette Benson	Lynda
Andrew Nolan	Ian
Michael Logan	Riley
Murray Evans	Hooker
Tom Clegg	Gower
John Gill	Cameron
Ken Traill	Allenatore
John Adams	Lovell
Gerry Duggan	Man in Doss-House
Mabel Etherington	Lady in Restaurant
Glenda Jackson	Actor
Lois Sutcliffe Smith	Interviewee
Roberto Gerhard	Composer

Technical Credits

David Storey

Lindsay Anderson	Director
Leslie Parkyn	Executive Producer
Karel Reisz	Producer
Julian Wintle	Executive Producer
David Storey	Screenwriter
Chris Greenham	Sound Effects
Gordon K. McCallum	Sound Effects,Sound/Sound Designer
John W. Mitchell	Sound Effects,Sound/Sound Designer
Ken Cameron	Sound Effects
Miriam Brickman	Casting

Editorial Reviews

The breakthrough film for both director Lindsay Anderson and star Richard Harris, this grim portrait of a tormented rugby player features what is likely the actor's finest performance and remains one of the few to explore the dark side of an athlete's life. Frank Machin (Harris) emerges from the coal mines of Yorkshire to wage war in the rugby scrum on his way to wealth and stardom. But the brutality that has taken him to the top corrodes all of his relationships, especially that with married paramour Rachel Roberts. In many ways a precursor to Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980), Anderson records the relentless pounding of the scrum with a gritty immediacy, drawing a direct line from that bloody battle to the athletes' destructive off-the-field behavior. Along with Albert Finney, Harris was one of the first British actors to be influenced by the work of Marlon Brando and the techniques developed by the Actors Studio, and it would not be wrong to think of the character of Frank as a descendant of Stanley Kowalski. Like many of their contemporaries in the era of the Angry Young Man, both Anderson and Harris were also steeped in Italian neorealism, another strong influence on the film's style and tone. While Anderson would go on to produce more cerebral and explicit critiques of British society, none of his other films approach this one in terms of raw emotional power.