5 Reasons Why…Looking for Eric is the best Football Film Ever

By: Rob | June 12th, 2009

Today I got that rare oppurtunity to indulge two of my great loves at the same time, football and cinema. Usually when that happens, the results are really tragic. Football on the silver screen has a very chequered past, but things seem to be begining to change. Earlier this year we had The Damned United, which while absolutely nothing like its source novel, was a very good biopic of the very flawed Brian Clough.

Now, Ken Loach’s new movie Looking for Eric, features none other than Premier League legend, Eric Cantona. Obviously, Cantona is very much revered in this country, so I was a little worried this might detract from a man who growing up, was inescapable, and though I’m not a Man United fan, was still a bit of a hero to me as a kid.

Here’s 5 reasons why it works so well.

1. It isn’t really about football at all.
The main reason that football never works on the silver screen is because the beauty of football is how unplanned it is. While Iniesta’s goal against Chelsea had a typical hollywood ending, you come to expect it in sports films. In football the very fact that absolutely anything could happen is the reason everyone tunes in every week. Looking for Eric knows this, and as such isn’t about football at all. It explores the reasons people watch football. “Where else can you sing with your mates, or scream and let go for couple of hours every week” wonders Eric the postman. “Or Cry” adds Eric the footballer.

2. It has some vintage football in it anyway.
Instead of people trying to recreate the Beatiful game, which usually ends very badly, we do get treated to Cantona’s finest moments, from his great goal against Sunderland, to the Seagulls and Trawlers speech. Cantona explains though, that his favourite moment of all time is a particularly good pass to set up Denis Irwin against Spurs.

3. Cantona.
Its rather appropriate that the film should see release just as the current Man United number 7 is on his way out of the club. But will we see Looking for Cristiano in ten years time? I doubt it. Why? Because no one player has ever understood the bond between the crowd and the club in the way Cantona always has. There’s a good reason why his name still echo’s around Old Trafford on home games, and its because he knows how to form a bond with people. He also muses in the film the reason why – he’s always been afraid the chanting will stop.

4. The film’s sense of comedy, and tragedy
The film follows a very down-and-out postman who has lost absolutely everything, including the will to go to games. This isn’t all though, he’s lost his love, his job, touch with his kids lives and has panic attacks constantly. While Football could get lost among all that, the film actuely holds up a mirror to the highs and lows of the game. The film is among all the tragedy, very funny. Cantona gamely mugs up his Seagulls persona, constantly philosophising in his native tounge. The film is a genuine emotion ride, much like the game it aspires to.

5. It is a wonderful way to spend 90 minutes.
Well the film’s two hours, but I had to get one hackneyed cliché in.