{ "id": "ep1bp39qqe", "slug": "this-sporting-life", "title": "This Sporting Life", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s", "label": "Drama films 1960s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s.yr-1960-1965", "label": "Released 1960 to 1965", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s.yr-1960-1965" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Drama films 1960s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s", "label": "Drama films 1960s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s" } ] } ], "excerpt": "This Sporting Life (1963) is Lindsay Anderson's debut feature, adapted by David Storey from his novel, starring Richard Harris as rugby league player Frank Machin and Rachel Roberts; Cannes Best Actor, two Oscar nominations, box-office failure.", "snippet": "This Sporting Life (1963) is Lindsay Anderson's debut feature, adapted by David Storey from his novel, starring Richard Harris as rugby league player Frank Machin and Rachel Roberts; Cannes Best Actor, two Oscar nominations, box-office failure.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s.yr-1960-1965", "markdown": "# This Sporting Life\n\n**This Sporting Life** is a 1963 British black-and-white drama directed by [Lindsay Anderson](https://www.edgepedia.org/lindsay-anderson), adapted by David Storey from his 1960 novel of the same name, about a [Yorkshire](https://www.edgepedia.org/yorkshire) coal miner who becomes a professional rugby league (A distinct professional rugby code, tougher and faster than rugby union) player and destroys himself pursuing his widowed landlady.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/cd6e1bfd-850d-56a6-9692-16a1d9c24c07/this-sporting-life) It was Anderson's first feature film, produced by Karel Reisz for Independent Artists, with [Richard Harris](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-harris) as Frank Machin and Rachel Roberts as Margaret Hammond.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/cd6e1bfd-850d-56a6-9692-16a1d9c24c07/this-sporting-life) The film won Harris the Best Actor award at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for two Academy Awards, but it failed at the box office on release.[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/this-sporting-life/) • [3](https://pro.imdb.com/title/tt0057578/companycredits?rf=cons_tt_cocred_tt) • [4](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-this-sporting-life-1963-online)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / producer | Lindsay Anderson's feature debut; produced by Karel Reisz for Independent Artists[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/cd6e1bfd-850d-56a6-9692-16a1d9c24c07/this-sporting-life) |\n| Source | David Storey adapted his own 1960 novel[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/cd6e1bfd-850d-56a6-9692-16a1d9c24c07/this-sporting-life) |\n| Cast | Richard Harris (Frank Machin), Rachel Roberts (Mrs. Margaret Hammond), Alan Badel, William Hartnell, Colin Blakely[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/152574/this-sporting-life) |\n| Format | United Kingdom, 1963, black and white, 134 minutes[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/cd6e1bfd-850d-56a6-9692-16a1d9c24c07/this-sporting-life) • [6](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/86827--this-sporting-life/) |\n| Key crew | Denys Coop (cinematography), Peter Taylor (editing), Roberto Gerhard (music)[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/cd6e1bfd-850d-56a6-9692-16a1d9c24c07/this-sporting-life) |\n| Honors | Cannes Best Actor 1963 (Harris) and FIPRESCI International Critics' Prize (ex-aequo); two Oscar nominations[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/this-sporting-life/) • [3](https://pro.imdb.com/title/tt0057578/companycredits?rf=cons_tt_cocred_tt) |\n| Commercial result | A box-office failure on its 1963 release[4](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-this-sporting-life-1963-online) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and source\n\nFrank Machin is a former miner in industrial Yorkshire who becomes a star of the local rugby league club, but his physical dominance on the pitch contrasts with his emotional paralysis off it.[7](https://film.briefs.cloud/this-sporting-life/) He lodges with Margaret Hammond, a widow still grieving her husband, and cannot make her return his affections.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/cd6e1bfd-850d-56a6-9692-16a1d9c24c07/this-sporting-life) After initial resistance the two become lovers, but the relationship remains at that physical level and goes nowhere.[6](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/86827--this-sporting-life/) Anderson later described it as \"an impossible story of a fatally mismatched couple\".[8](https://www.tessagordz.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Fields-of-Vision.pdf)\n\nThe story is told in two temporal layers: the film opens with Machin having his teeth broken in a match, and the flashbacks triggered by a dental anaesthetic give way to a linear account of his recovery.[7](https://film.briefs.cloud/this-sporting-life/) Storey's script treats rugby not as metaphor but as environment, with the mud, bruises and contractual haggling of the professional game, and the film ends with Machin's legs failing him as a spectator jeers, \"C'mon Machin, get a bloody move on\".[7](https://film.briefs.cloud/this-sporting-life/) • [9](https://doi.org/10.1080/0950236X.2021.1900366)\n\n## Production\n\n**Getting the film made.** The British production company Woodfall, which had backed Reisz and [Tony Richardson](https://www.edgepedia.org/tony-richardson), was outbid for the rights to Storey's novel. Reisz then rejected the idea of directing the film himself, turned producer instead, and gave Anderson his first feature.[10](https://themagnificent60s.com/2021/11/01/behind-the-scenes-of-this-sporting-life-1962/) Anderson, better known at the time as a film critic and theater director, had previously made the documentary short *Wakefield Express* (1952) about the town that became the film's setting.[11](https://www.criterion.com/films/853-this-sporting-life)\n\nThe shoot itself nearly ended Anderson's career before it began. According to Storey, there was strong opposition to Anderson directing, and he was fired after two weeks of shooting because he was so far behind schedule; Rank panicked and asked Reisz to take over, and Reisz refused, insisting the studio carry on with Anderson.[12](https://www.theartsdesk.com/film/theartsdesk-qa-writer-david-storey-pt-2) Storey, adapting his own deeply personal novel, doubted his ability to write the script, and Anderson credited him with the original conception and construction, saying the most credit he could claim was the manipulation of the structure Storey had imagined.[13](https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/19786/1/GOURDINSANGOUARD%20I.%20MPhil%202013.pdf)\n\n**Locations and craft.** The rugby scenes were shot at Belle Vue Stadium in [Wakefield](https://www.edgepedia.org/wakefield), home of the Wakefield Trinity club, and the production used wooden figures to supplement the crowd.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/152574/this-sporting-life) The film was made at Beaconsfield Studios, photographed by Denys Coop, edited by Peter Taylor, and scored by Roberto Gerhard.[14](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/o%20dreamland%21%3Cbr%3Elindsay%20anderson%E2%80%99s%20dark%20british%20cinema/2024/05/01/this-sporting-life/) The production took approximately two and a half years to complete and was Britain's winning entry at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival.[15](https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/send_file/send?accession=osu1486987356708379&disposition=inline)\n\n## Style and themes\n\nThe film belongs to the British New Wave of the late 1950s and early 1960s, sharing that movement's working-class settings, literary sources and black-and-white social realism, but its formal approach is bolder than the social-realist films around it: fractured chronology, expressionistic flashbacks, and jagged, dissonant music from Gerhard.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/cd6e1bfd-850d-56a6-9692-16a1d9c24c07/this-sporting-life) • [16](https://sightlines.media/film/18774/this-sporting-life-1963) The rugby matches are depicted as maelstroms of cold, muddy brutality, shot with hand-held cameras and jagged edits, with no attempt to romanticize the players, and the film depicts the sport's physicality, including post-game showers and physical affection between teammates, with a frankness contemporary reviewers noted.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/152574/this-sporting-life)\n\nThe film's structure opposes two realms of action: the sports club and the domestic interior. The opening ten minutes contain fifteen different scenes of action, mirroring the speed of rugby, but as Machin's relationship with Mrs Hammond becomes the focus, the rapid cuts give way to longer and longer takes and stationary camera angles.[9](https://doi.org/10.1080/0950236X.2021.1900366) Critics have read the title itself as a question about the relationship between sport and life, and about the limited biological span during which a body can do what Machin's does.[9](https://doi.org/10.1080/0950236X.2021.1900366)\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nContemporary critics received the film well. Penelope Gilliatt, in *The Observer* in 1963, called it \"a stupendous film\" with \"a blow like a fist\", and *The New Yorker* praised Harris for portraying Machin as \"a pretty complicated fellow\".[17](https://oldyorkeronline.com/this-sporting-life/) • [18](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1963/07/20/smashing-away) Harris won the Cannes Best Actor award, though he lost the BAFTA to [Dirk Bogarde](https://www.edgepedia.org/dirk-bogarde) for *The Servant*.[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/this-sporting-life/) • [19](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jun/07/this-sporting-life-review) The film received two Oscar nominations.[3](https://pro.imdb.com/title/tt0057578/companycredits?rf=cons_tt_cocred_tt)\n\nCommercially the film failed, and some historians consider it the end of the British New Wave: because of its disappointing box-office performance, producers began to shy away from the realist aesthetic and emotional rawness that had characterized films such as *Room at the Top* (1959) and *The L-Shaped Room* (1962).[4](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-this-sporting-life-1963-online) • [5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/152574/this-sporting-life) Acclaim has grown with passing decades, and Anderson found greater commercial success with his next feature, *If...* (1968).[4](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-this-sporting-life-1963-online) The film also marked the start of Anderson's long collaboration with Storey.[14](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/o%20dreamland%21%3Cbr%3Elindsay%20anderson%E2%80%99s%20dark%20british%20cinema/2024/05/01/this-sporting-life/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [This Sporting Life (1963), BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/cd6e1bfd-850d-56a6-9692-16a1d9c24c07/this-sporting-life)\n2. [This Sporting Life, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/this-sporting-life/)\n3. [This Sporting Life, IMDbPro awards and credits](https://pro.imdb.com/title/tt0057578/companycredits?rf=cons_tt_cocred_tt)\n4. [Watch This Sporting Life online, BFI Player](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-this-sporting-life-1963-online)\n5. [This Sporting Life, TCM article by Bret Wood](https://www.tcm.com/articles/152574/this-sporting-life)\n6. [This Sporting Life, ACMI collection](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/86827--this-sporting-life/)\n7. [This Sporting Life, Film Briefs](https://film.briefs.cloud/this-sporting-life/)\n8. [Tony Collins, Sex, Class and the Critique of Sport in Lindsay Anderson's This Sporting Life, Fields of Vision (LSA, 2013)](https://www.tessagordz.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Fields-of-Vision.pdf)\n9. [Sport, life, This Sporting Life, and the hypertopia, Textual Practice (2021)](https://doi.org/10.1080/0950236X.2021.1900366)\n10. [Behind the Scenes – This Sporting Life (1963), The Magnificent 60s](https://themagnificent60s.com/2021/11/01/behind-the-scenes-of-this-sporting-life-1962/)\n11. [This Sporting Life (1963), The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/853-this-sporting-life)\n12. [theartsdesk Q&A: Writer David Storey, pt 2](https://www.theartsdesk.com/film/theartsdesk-qa-writer-david-storey-pt-2)\n13. [I. Gourdin-Sangouard, Authorship, Collaboration and This Sporting Life, MPhil thesis, University of Stirling (2013)](https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/19786/1/GOURDINSANGOUARD%20I.%20MPhil%202013.pdf)\n14. [This Sporting Life, BFI Southbank Programme Notes](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/o%20dreamland%21%3Cbr%3Elindsay%20anderson%E2%80%99s%20dark%20british%20cinema/2024/05/01/this-sporting-life/)\n15. [This Sporting Life: The Film, OhioLINK ETD](https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/send_file/send?accession=osu1486987356708379&disposition=inline)\n16. [This Sporting Life (1963), Sightlines](https://sightlines.media/film/18774/this-sporting-life-1963)\n17. [This Sporting Life, Old Yorker](https://oldyorkeronline.com/this-sporting-life/)\n18. [Edith Oliver, Smashing Away, The New Yorker (20 July 1963)](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1963/07/20/smashing-away)\n19. [This Sporting Life review, The Guardian (2009)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jun/07/this-sporting-life-review)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1960s › Released 1960 to 1965*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/this-sporting-life", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/this-sporting-life.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"This Sporting Life\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/this-sporting-life. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[This Sporting Life](https://www.edgepedia.org/this-sporting-life)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/this-sporting-life](https://www.edgepedia.org/this-sporting-life). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"This Sporting Life\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/this-sporting-life. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "This Sporting Life is Lindsay Anderson's debut feature, adapted by David Storey from his novel, starring Richard Harris as rugby league player Frank Machin and Rachel Roberts; Cannes Best Actor, two Oscar nominations, box-office failure." }