The fictionalised account of Brian Clough’s turbulent and short-lived time as manager of Leeds United soccer club provides a good example of the importance of developing clear ‘wants’ and obstacles for your protagonist.

Director: Tom Hooper

Screenwriter: Peter Morgan 

Screenplay: The Internet Movie Script Database

Based on: The novel, The Damned Utd, by David Peace

Synopsis:

*Spoilers* Leeds, England, 1974. Brian Clough, the arrogant, abrasive and highly successful manager of Derby County soccer club is given the job of managing the country’s top team, Leeds United. Under the much-loved previous manager, Don Revie, Leeds has thrived, leaving Clough with big shoes to fill. His animosity towards Revie drives his ambition, which eventually becomes self-destructive, as he finds himself alienated from the players and the club’s owners during his brief 44-day tenure in the job.

Character wants / obstacles

Read any screenwriting manual or listen to any instructor and you will quickly come across the concept of character wants and obstacles. These are essential to developing a successful screen story. Before anything else, you need to establish:

1. What does my character want?

2. What is stopping him getting it?

The ‘want’ can be anything: a romantic conquest / to rob a bank / to slay a monster / to reconcile with a parent / to defeat an enemy. This ‘want’ is often something tangible but linked to a deeper underlying emotional ‘need’.

The obstacles in the protagonist’s way can and should be varied. They can include external problems, i.e. the bank has the world’s most advanced security system, or internal, i.e. the character lacks the self-belief to pursue his romantic interest. One of the common examples given is Jaws (1975), in which the protagonist has to fight against local government and his own fear of the water in his goal of defeating the shark that is terrorising swimmers.

Whatever genre you’re working in, it is important to have the strongest possible ‘want’ and to put as many obstacles in your character’s way as possible

When it comes to the fact-based film, this can present an additional challenge, as the episode from history you’re trying to fictionalise may not have all these elements in place. So, in order to tell the story, you may need to strengthen the ‘want’ and the obstacles in order to shape a compelling narrative. The Damned United is a good example of how this works in practice.

Case study: The Damned United

The first thing to note is that United is based on a novel. So, while the underlying story is true – Clough did succeed Revie at Leeds for a brief period – we can assume that much of the behind-the-scenes action has been drawn with certain artistic license. However, there was much real-life material for Peace and Morgan to draw upon; not to mention the larger-than-life Clough (played by Michael Sheen) and his long-standing relationship with his right-hand man and talent scout, Peter Taylor (Timothy Spall), both of which drive the narrative.

Character ‘want’

An important element of character ‘want’ is how it is communicated. It is not enough for your protagonist to want something; he has to tell us or show us he wants it.

In United, Clough is very clear about what he wants. That’s one of the advantages of having a protagonist who is outspoken (to say the least!). Of course, film being a visual medium, we also have to see the ‘want’ in action.

In the case of United, this happens, as it should, very early on during the set up. Revie announces he’s leaving Leeds to take the coveted job of managing the England national team. Clough is duly appointed as Leeds manager (against Revie’s recommendation, as it turns out). These early scenes also give us a chance to see the contrast between the two men: one gruff, contained and down-to-earth; the other loud, exuberant and abrasive.

After being appointed, Clough is interviewed on TV. The interviewer asks Clough how it feels to succeed a manger who has won everything in the domestic game. “Not QUITE everything,” is Clough’s terse response. He also goes on to underline his previous criticism of the Leeds playing style – characterised (correctly) as involving “dirty tactics, cheating, dissent, foul play” – and the team’s management. The players “wouldn’t have played football that way if they were happy,” Clough says smugly. Right from the start, we know Clough has a problem with Revie. The question is, why?

We quickly find out. The script’s structure continually flashes back to show the contrast between Clough’s rise at and departure from at Derby and his turbulent time at Leeds. This flashback structure also shows us the genesis of his animosity towards Revie.

Back to 1968, on learning that (at the time) lowly Division Two Derby has been drawn against top of Division One Leeds in the third round of the country’s main domestic competition, the FA Cup, Clough is jubilant. He sets about getting everything at his rundown stadium perfect for the arrival of the great Don Revie and his boys. Clough uses a conversation with Taylor to tell us about the similar backgrounds he and Revie share. At this stage, Clough admires Revie and sees him as a peer, albeit a few years older.

Then, the day of the cup tie arrives, and the Leeds team turns up looking like a well-groomed set of mobsters surrounding their ‘Godfather’, Revie. And what happens? Revie snubs Clough. Fails to shake his hand and walks right by him without even an acknowledgement. It is at this point that Clough’s giant ego is wounded and the seeds of hatred are sown that will grow to inform his actions over the rest of the story. The snub distracts him from the important game; something that is compounded when the Leeds boys start with their dirty tactics on the pitch. Derby duly loses. ‘Just going to have to… beat him if it’s the last thing I do,’ Clough declares this towards the end of a very well written and well-staged sequence, in a film that contains plenty of humour alongside the drama.

The pettiness of Clough’s ‘want’ is made explicit towards the end of the story. Clough has parted ways with Leeds and is blindsided when Revie is invited on stage to be interviewed alongside his freshly ousted successor. After some back and forth, in which Clough airs his grievances, the interviewer notes how the animosity between the men is personal. Revie accuses Clough of having a vendetta against him. Clough brings up the incident in 1968 when Revie’s team came to Derby County for the FA Cup match and he refused to shake Clough’s hand.

Remember that this is now six years later, encompassing a period in which Clough led Derby to the lofty heights of Division One. Yet, he is still irked by this small act to which the object of his hatred was oblivious.

Clough’s very simple ‘want’, ‘to beat Don Revie’, is the engine that drives the rest of the story. In the way of achieving this lies numerous obstacles, both internal and external.

Obstacles

If Clough declared his intention to beat Revie, then subsequently got together a great team and did just that, where’s the interest? ‘Want’ is only one part of the equation.

To work as compelling drama, the equation must be rounded out to:

Want + Obstacles = Conflict

United is filled with obstacles in Clough’s way. Here is a selection of the main obstacles presented in United that keep Clough from his ‘want’.

1. Leeds is in Division One, while Derby is in Division Two: This is a practical obstacle that prevent the teams from meeting during the regular season, requiring Clough to build a better team and to get promoted into the higher league. (This is why many sports films work well, as there is inherent conflict in competition.)

2. Clough angers the Derby chairman: When he goes on a shopping spree for players with the chairman’s money, this snowballs into a full-scale conflict that does not work out well for Clough or Taylor.

3. Clough can’t keep his mouth shut: This overarching character trait leads Clough into some bad places, alienating the people who pay his salary and causing a major rift with his long-time friend, Taylor.

4. The Leeds players hate Clough: After Clough has replaced Revie at Leeds, with plans to wipe away his predecessor’s legacy, he finds the players unresponsive and hostile, which hastens his exit from the club, as the winning team quickly becomes a losing one.

5. Clough loses his key player: The team captain, Billy Bremner, gets himself suspended for six weeks for violent behaviour on the pitch.

6. Clough’s self-destructive nature: Taylor says that Clough has ‘a monster’ inside him, which both gives him drive to succeed but can also destroy what’s good in his life.

7. Clough loses his job at Derby: When his bluff is called after an idle threat to resign, Clough finds himself out of a job. The fact his threat included Taylor’s resignation (without his knowledge), leads to personal conflict between the two men.

Of course, there are also plenty of positive moments along the way to balance out the downers. But when it comes to the obstacles, it’s important to note that they build and develop during the story. For example, player animosity that at the beginning manifests as a violent tackle on Clough during a training session, culminates when the players essentially force him out of the job. Likewise, the trouble between Taylor and Clough bubbles under the surface until it becomes a fully-fledged argument.

Final thoughts

So, the question remains, did Clough get his ‘want’? The answer would have to be, ‘yes’. Watch or read to the end and you’ll see that while Revie failed as England manager and ended up getting embroiled in dodgy financial dealings that ended his career, Clough went on to success with another team and even today has the label ‘the best manager never to have managed England’.

In terms of the drama, importantly, Clough also realises late in the day that his behaviour has been unreasonable and seeks to make amends by reconciling with Taylor. He’s grown and changed as a result of his experiences, which is another crucial aspect of developing a compelling narrative.

Overall, working with a blend of factual information and literary license, the screenwriter of United took a compelling protagonist and adapted ‘reality’ to deliver a screen story filled with obstacles and conflict driven by a clear ‘want’.

As a side-note, watching United, it’s hard not to think of another highly-fictionalised film based on real-life characters, Amadeus (1984) (adapted from the stageplay of the same name), in which accomplished composer Antonio Salieri’s hatred of and jealously toward the vulgar and immature genius, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, became his downfall.

Likewise, in Clough, we have a character who achieved great things, first as a player and then as a manager. However, his perceived inferiority to Revie and desire to beat him overrides every other aspect of his professional life and also impedes his key personal relationship with Taylor.

The flashback/forward structure of United and the visual telling of the story, which incorporates montage and the use of actual TV footage, also help to shape the story into a very effective piece of drama that can be appreciated, whether or not you enjoy the Beautiful Game.

Go further:

Take a look at The Damned United trailer: