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This Sporting Life

Play trailer Poster for This Sporting Life 1963,  2h 14m,  Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Stream Now Watchlist 96% 25 Reviews Tomatometer 86% 1,000+ Ratings Popcornmeter
96% Tomatometer 25 Reviews 86% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
Yorkshire coal miner Frank Machin picks a fight in a club and subsequently finds himself being recruited for a rugby team. He's an unpolished player, but his aggressiveness, brutality and indifference to the rules of fair play impress the team owners. Suddenly a rising star, Frank despairs that his success on the playing field isn't equaled in his personal life. He loves a widowed, emotionally challenged landlady who's too damaged to return his feelings.
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This Sporting Life

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Critics Consensus

Appropriately hard-hitting on narrative as well as physical levels, The Sporting Life remains a British "kitchen sink" classic that's beautiful to look at and leaves a lingering mark.

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Critics Reviews

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David Parkinson Empire Magazine May 31, 2018
4/5
This has its flaws and certainly its detractors but this dated British social-realist epic has a power to it. Go to Full Review
David Jenkins Time Out Jun 5, 2009
3/5
The film is raw and confident, but it's a little shallow, too. Go to Full Review
Wendy Ide The Times (UK) Jun 5, 2009
3/5
I can't think of a sport movie that is better photographed. The black and white cinematography is gorgeously stark, the perfect medium for this bleakly unforgiving tale. Go to Full Review
Tom Hutchinson Radio Times Sep 6, 2024
5/5
Lindsay Anderson's first feature film is also his best, giving Richard Harris and Rachel Roberts the roles of their lives. Go to Full Review
Penelope Gilliatt Observer (UK) Mar 9, 2024
This Sporting Life is a stupendous film. It has a blow like a fist. I've never seen an English picture that gave such expression to the violence and the capacity for pain that there is in the English character. Go to Full Review
Judith Crist New York Herald Tribune Aug 10, 2022
A brilliantly ruthless portrait of a professional football player and his brutish world. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Oct 25, 2017 It's brilliant, but fantastically depressing. Don't watch it while you are upset, emotionally vulnerable or drunk. Richard Harris is super. See more
Abraham L Oct 4, 2017 A technically beautiful and haunting film of working class strife. That is just... a half hour too long. Richard Harris is giving it his all and crushing it. Even if it makes me hate him because i hate his character. Gotta love that bleak ass ending though. Also -- being a women sucked in the 60s and that spider stole the show. See more
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This Sporting Life

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Cast & Crew

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Lindsay Anderson

Director

Richard Harris

Frank Machin

Rachel Roberts

Mrs. Margaret Hammond

Alan Badel

Gerald Weaver

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This Sporting Life

This Sporting Life (1963) This Sporting Life (1963) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis Yorkshire coal miner Frank Machin picks a fight in a club and subsequently finds himself being recruited for a rugby team. He's an unpolished player, but his aggressiveness, brutality and indifference to the rules of fair play impress the team owners. Suddenly a rising star, Frank despairs that his success on the playing field isn't equaled in his personal life. He loves a widowed, emotionally challenged landlady who's too damaged to return his feelings.
Director
Lindsay Anderson
Distributor
Criterion Collection, Continental Distributing Inc.
Production Co
Independent Artists Ltd., Julian Wintle/Leslie Parkyn Productions, The Rank Organization [gb]
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jul 16, 1963, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 18, 2016
Runtime
2h 14m
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