In an enjoyable nostalgia piece about the comics of yesteryear, Jim White of the Daily Telegraph (24 March) accidentally spots a mistake in the new Brian Clough biopic, The Damned United:But as any fule kno, the Eagle folded in 1969 and did not re-emerge until 1982 as the 'new' Eagle so the scene far from cleverly locates the scene in its era when the paper wasn't being published. D'oh!There is a scene in the new film The Damned United that will dampen the eye of the middle-aged nostalgist. Brian Clough (played by Michael Sheen) is driving away from Leeds United in the autumn of 1974, having just being fired.
In the back seat of his fancy club Mercedes sit his two young sons, oblivious to the intrigue swirling around their father. They have something more important to divert their attention: the latest edition of The Eagle, into which both of them have buried their nose. It is a clever visual device, one which immediately locates the scene in its era. In the early Seventies, that was what young boys did: they read comics avidly.
(* Cover for the first issue of the revived Eagle, 27 March 1982 © Dan Dare Corporation.)
Apparently its not the only inaccuracy in the film. Johnny Giles won a courtroom apology and legal costs for things that the book/film alleged about him.
ReplyDeleteAlso Norman Hunter has said that his character in the film made statements that hunter never made in reality.
I hear from Steve Winders that the comic being read in the car isn't an Eagle at all: it's a copy of Wizard, which makes much more sense as Wizard is definitely a child of the seventies. So the error is down to Jim White rather than the film.
ReplyDelete