THIS SPORTING LIFE Movie Review

One of the best and most-discussed of the British working-class “angry young man” films of the 1960s was this gritty and despairing portrait of Frank (Richard Harris), a former coal miner who breaks into the violent world of professional rugby. Handling social differences off the field becomes as difficult and confrontational as his sport, and when Frank begins an affair with his landlady (Rachel Roberts), he finds himself unable to move their relationship past the physical. The highly acclaimed This Sporting Life marked the directorial feature debut of Lindsay Anderson, a former film critic and documentary filmmaker who would roar back into the public eye five years later with his startling, controversial portrait of revolution at a boy's school, If…. Harris won the Best Actor Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for This Sporting Life, and the film's success made him an international star. Adapted by David Storey from his novel.

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1963 134m/B GB Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, Alan Badel, William Hartnell, Colin Blakely, Vanda Godsell, Arthur Lowe; D: Lindsay Anderson; W: David Storey; C: Denys Coop; M: Roberto Gerhard. British Academy Awards ‘63: Best Actress (Roberts); Cannes Film Festival ‘63: Best Actor (Harris); Nominations: Academy Awards ‘63: Best Actor (Harris), Best Actress (Roberts). VHS PAR