The Three Kings. (PG.)
Directed by Jonny Owen.
Featuring Bill Shankly, Matt Busby and Jock Stein. In cinemas Sunday Nov 1st. 104 mins.
These three kings of Orient aren't. If any of the three Scottish football managers featured here, Bill Shankly, Matt Busby and Jock Stein, had ventured down to the capital maybe Leyton would be a home of Champions League football now. But they didn't. Instead the three of them, born within 30 miles of each other in the coal mining areas of Lanarkshire and Ayrshire, would make their stands at clubs more northerly: Liverpool, Man Utd and Celtic respectively. At least two of those clubs were nothing special before their arrival and now between them, they have 2 billion fans worldwide. The film's contention is that the three kings were "the makers of the modern British Football." These are the pillars that Alex Ferguson would be a pale shadow of.
The film has big shoes to fill. Back in the old days when proper telly was free, Hugh McIlvanney spent three hour-long Arena episodes building monuments to the three men's lives. There's a lot to get through – 3 European trophies, 18 league titles, numerous domestic cups. Owen's film attempts to tell their stories concurrently, flipping back and forth between them as they make their way through their career, and initially it all appears a little too rushed. But after a while, you get acclimatised to the giddy tumble of events and can see that there is substance to it.
What gives the film authority, is that its visuals are made up entirely of archival footage and they are allowed to tell their own story, more or less. There are some contemporary voices and opinions slipped into the mix but they are heard and not seen, so they don't jar. One of Owen's previous big-screen football films, I Believe in Miracles, a look back at Brian Clough taking Nottingham Forest to the league title and the European Cup could only offer up comforting nostalgia. Three Kings cuts a bit deeper. Shankly, Busby and Stein rooted their success in collective effort and working-class solidarity. The modern British football they built has become a blunt instrument of free-market globalisation. It's not much of a legacy, even if the fans do still sing their names and put their faces on their banners.
Directed by Jonny Owen.
Featuring Bill Shankly, Matt Busby and Jock Stein. In cinemas Sunday Nov 1st. 104 mins.
These three kings of Orient aren't. If any of the three Scottish football managers featured here, Bill Shankly, Matt Busby and Jock Stein, had ventured down to the capital maybe Leyton would be a home of Champions League football now. But they didn't. Instead the three of them, born within 30 miles of each other in the coal mining areas of Lanarkshire and Ayrshire, would make their stands at clubs more northerly: Liverpool, Man Utd and Celtic respectively. At least two of those clubs were nothing special before their arrival and now between them, they have 2 billion fans worldwide. The film's contention is that the three kings were "the makers of the modern British Football." These are the pillars that Alex Ferguson would be a pale shadow of.
The film has big shoes to fill. Back in the old days when proper telly was free, Hugh McIlvanney spent three hour-long Arena episodes building monuments to the three men's lives. There's a lot to get through – 3 European trophies, 18 league titles, numerous domestic cups. Owen's film attempts to tell their stories concurrently, flipping back and forth between them as they make their way through their career, and initially it all appears a little too rushed. But after a while, you get acclimatised to the giddy tumble of events and can see that there is substance to it.
What gives the film authority, is that its visuals are made up entirely of archival footage and they are allowed to tell their own story, more or less. There are some contemporary voices and opinions slipped into the mix but they are heard and not seen, so they don't jar. One of Owen's previous big-screen football films, I Believe in Miracles, a look back at Brian Clough taking Nottingham Forest to the league title and the European Cup could only offer up comforting nostalgia. Three Kings cuts a bit deeper. Shankly, Busby and Stein rooted their success in collective effort and working-class solidarity. The modern British football they built has become a blunt instrument of free-market globalisation. It's not much of a legacy, even if the fans do still sing their names and put their faces on their banners.
