Lindsay Anderson

 Lindsay Anderson




This Sporting Life (1963)




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1. This Sporting Life (1963)


Lindsay Anderson's 1963 film "This Sporting Life" is one of the last of the great British genre known as the 'kitchen sink' dramas. The genre revolves around "angry young men" in desolate economic circumstances who abuse everyone around them. The protagonist of "This Sporting Life," Frank, is a bitter young coal miner who finally makes it onto a local rugby league. However, his inability to fit in to the higher economic classes only makes him more brutish and cruel, ensuring his continued self-destruction. Although the film was critically lauded, it was a commercial failure. This box office setback caused studios to stop making the 'kitchen sink' dramas all together, making "This Sporting Life" one of the last of its era.


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