Mean Machine: A British comedy on prison football

When it comes to remakes, some are done splendidly well and outrank the original, some turn out to be quite poor as compared to the original and some are just plain average which no one tends to care about much. But sometimes a remake is twisted so differently from its original counterpart that it comes across as an entirely new project which has little to do with the initial film. Mean Machine is a 2001 remake of a 1974 film titled The Longest Yard which is similar to the original but has plenty of elements changed to seem as a completely different project altogether.

Danny Meehan is a former English football player who is hated by the entire nation for fixing a match between England and Germany, England’s biggest rivals in the world of football. After getting arrested for getting drunk and assaulting two police officers, Meehan is thrown into prison with a three year sentence. He is recruited by the warden to train the prison guard team, but not wanting to entice the anger of the inmates, he suggests organising a warm up game between the guard team and an inmate team which he will spearhead. In this endeavour, he is assisted by two fellow inmates, Massive and Doc. Meehan is left to convince the other inmates to join the team, train them and put up a decent side against the guards which he manages within the four walls of the prison.

The original film, The Longest Yard, was a Hollywood flick centred on the sport of American football. Mean Machine, on the other hand, is a British film which features around association football, the pulse of sports fanatics in Britain. This is one of the first and biggest standouts between the two films. Quite a bit of the script changes owing to the difference in the two sports which are featured in the films. Another difference is that Mean Machine is meant for British audiences; hence the language used employs a heavy amount of British slang; dialects which are native to the countries in Great Britain and references which will be more appealing to a British population have been employed in the film. Even the British humour which takes precedence in certain parts of the film is a stark difference from the original. One of the most hilarious scenes in the film occurs during the football match between the guards and the inmates when the commentators, who both share the name Bob comically, are conversing while providing updates for the prison inmates who are listening while locked away.

It is a decent film which is quite hilarious in parts but nothing exceptional. It is worth watching once and enjoying, at the very least.

United: A depiction of disaster, passion and brotherhood

A famous personality in the world of football, Bill Shankly, once stated that “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that”. This single quote is able to capture the emotion of any true football fan. It shows the passion and drive that goes into the sport which crosses any barriers, especially when it comes to a time of disaster that the sport happens to witness. One such huge instance is depicted in the 2011 TV drama film United.

In the late 1950’s, the football club Manchester United was managed by a man named Matt Busby, a revolutionary in the world of football who propagated training youngsters from within the ranks of the club to build a youthful team that was bound together by a love for the club and a sense of comradeship. This led to his team consisting of young adults who were affectionately nicknamed ‘Busby Babes’. Bobby Charlton was a 20 year old footballer who was just breaking into the team. He was coached by Jimmy Murphy who had a special spot of affection for him and supported him as he started making a name for himself. In 1958, the entire team flew to Belgrade, Yugoslavia, for a match, except for Jimmy who was attending to other duties. On the return flight to Manchester, England, the plane stopped off at Munich, West Germany, to refuel. In several attempts to take off amid the torrid weather, the plane had a horrendous crash which led to the deaths of 23 of its 44 passengers, including 7 members of the Manchester United football team. The story is told from the perspective of the surviving Bobby Charlton as he and Jimmy Murphy attempt to reconstruct the football team with support coming from around the world of football and local community.

The story is an emotional perspective for anyone that loves the sport of football and all that it stands for. Even those who have no affiliation to the sport can understand the impact of the disaster on the lives of the players, the families, the community and others. Even actor David Tennant, who plays the role of Jimmy Murphy, claimed to have no particular soft spot towards the sport but was moved by the story and put in a rousing performance in the film. The story showed how the footballing community came together in a time of distress. It is a chronicle of an important event which claimed the lives of a few, wrecked the emotion of the survivors and shook the lives of many.

Whether a supporter of the sport or not, the film is a must watch. It does not particularly depict the sport itself but is more about the occurrences in the lives of the people the sport affects. It is possible for anyone to connect with the story and put themselves in the shoes of the people on screen.