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Bookmark this pageThis Sporting Life (1963)
Director: Lindsay Anderson
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
A reminder that something really was stirring in those days of the British New Wave before it frittered itself away. There's a touch of the cloth-cap poseur about the way this adaptation of David Storey's novel flaunts pubs, tenements and North Country accents, but also real intelligence in its use of rugby league football as a sidelong metaphor for the rat race, and real passion behind its tormented affair between Harris' inarticulately demanding miner/footballer and his dowdily uncomprehending landlady (Roberts), which ultimately acquires the authentic ring of amour fou. Anderson films here with a rare power, compared to which most of his later work is mere petulance.Author: TM
Cast & crew
Director: Lindsay Anderson
Producer: Karel Reisz
Cast: Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, Alan Badel, William Hartnell, Colin Blakely, Vanda Godsell, Arthur Lowe, Glenda Jackson full cast
Duration: 134 mins
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