Sunday 6th June 2010

Today I saw One Night In Turin, a documentary on England's 1990 World Cup campaign, in Sainsburys at a decent price and made a spur of the moment impulse purchase. After watching it this afternoon I did not regret it.
This straight to DVD release, narrated by Gary Oldman, is perhaps the best football documentary I have seen as it perfectly encapsulates the most remarkable chapter in the last 44 years of English football.
What director James Erskine, adapting from a Pete Davies book, does so well is set the context for fans such as myself who were too young to remember the sensational events of 20 years ago. In 1990 football in this country was at its lowest point; English clubs were banned from entering European competitions after the Heysel disaster of 1985, people were still shocked from the Hillsborough tragedy the previous year and we appeared to have a government who couldn't care any less if millions fans were deprived from watching their team at the World Cup, as Thatcher and co threatened to withdraw the national team from Italia '90 if behaviour on the terraces didn't improve.
After watching One Night In Turin many fans will agree with the view that England's semi final clash against West Germany was the most significant match in the evolution of our game to what we see today. Ultimately Bobby Robson's men fell short, losing to their great rivals on penalties, but after a most dramatic campaign English pride had been restored.
This film revolves around two huge characters; manager Bobby Robson and star player Paul Gascoigne. I wasn't aware how vilified Robson was in the British press before a ball had even been kicked in Italy, with tabloids screaming for the now national treasure to "JUST GO" and quit for the good of the nation. When Robson sadly passed away last year every football fan mourned the loss and it was this campaign that was the making of him. My generation think of him as the gentle grandad of the English game, so it was quite a shock for me to see him getting angry laying into journalists in this documentary. Robson faced the hostility of the media and bravely led England to their most successful ever World Cup on foreign soil.
As for Gazza, well all I can say is what a character and incredibly talented footballer in 1990. I've heard many experts talk about what a naturally gifted player he was in his younger years, but until I watched One Night In Turin I thought they were all exaggerating. Now I see what a great raw talent he was, but can only wonder about what might have been.
One Night In Turin has its flaws; the reconstruction close ups of player's legs when showing highlights of the games to add drama are perhaps uneccesary and it would have been nice to have included reflective interviews to get a sense of what the campaign meant to key individuals such as Gary Lineker and Chris Waddle, but overall it was enjoyable and I recommend any England fan to watch it before it all kicks off in South Africa on Friday.
Who knows, maybe in 20 years time we'll see a film called "One Night in Johannesburg".