Subscribe today using voucher code SUMMER22 for an extended free trial

This film is currently unavailable

This film is not rated

I accept this guidance

Title of error

Achilles' Heel

Alan Clarke’s film of a day in the life of a professional footballer as he deals with the newfound pressures of money, glamour and celebrity in the 1970s game.

Drama 1973 56 mins Not rated

Director: Alan Clarke

Rent for £1.00

Overview

Alan Clarke’s film of a day in the life of a professional footballer makes for fascinating viewing today. Knowing Clarke’s passion for Everton FC, producer Lambert attached him to Brian Clark’s 1973 script, which captures the moment where money, glamour and celebrity begin to enter the world of football.

Dave Irwin is the star forward of an unnamed team, a genuine talent with international appearances under his belt. Far from appreciating his good fortune he struggles under the weight of pressures and commitments, from the bleatings of his concerned manager and wife to the clamour of a star-struck public and the newfound schemes of his shady business manager, who’s trying to convince him to diversify into underwear modelling. All the while Irwin struggles to conceal a troubling heel injury that not only threatens his place in the team, but has the potential to bring the whole edifice down. With its focus on the newly monied football class and the resulting pressures of wealth and responsibility, Achilles Heel makes for fascinating viewing today, as it records the start of the process leading to today’s multi-millionaire soccer stars. Martin Shaw is excellent as Irwin, managing to retain our sympathy even while being thoroughly dislikeable. While Brian Clark’s excellent script may be the star, Alan Clarke’s inspired direction elevates the material further. The play’s protracted opening scene, in which Irwin and his wife slowly begin their day in real-time, is a masterclass in televisual patience and precision. Clarke would of course return to the subject of football for his BBC play, The Firm, which similarly focuses on issues around the game rather than the sport itself.

Director

Alan Clarke

Featuring

Martin Shaw , Charlotte Howard and Fred Griffiths

Genres

Drama and Sport

Certificate

Not rated

Country

United Kingdom

Language

English

Rent for £16.00

The Penguin Lessons The Penguin Lessons

Drama 2025 112 mins Director: Peter Cattaneo

Steve Coogan is superb as a disillusioned teacher whose life is turned upside-down when he rescues a penguin in turbulent 1970s Argentina.

Rent for £4.50

Cloud Cloud

Drama 2024 124 mins Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

An online scam leads to deadly consequences in Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s chilling tech thriller.

Rent for £4.50

La Cocina La Cocina

Drama 2024 139 mins Director: Alonso Ruizpalacios

Tensions rise in a frenzied New York diner, in this loose reworking of Arnold Wesker’s 1957 play.

Rent for £10.00

Misericordia Misericordia

Drama 2024 104 mins Director: Alain Guiraudie

French provocateur Alain Guiraudie's rural homecoming story mixing passion, crime, mushrooms and bedroom farce to dizzily involving effect.

Rent for £4.50

The Last Showgirl The Last Showgirl

Drama 2024 89 mins Director: Gia Coppola

Golden Globe-nominated Pamela Anderson is enchanting as the Las Vegas showgirl whose stage show is set to close.

Rent for £4.50

Driving Mum Driving Mum

Comedy 2022 113 mins Director: Hilmar Oddsson

Jon drives his mums corpse across Iceland in Hilmar Oddsson’s darkly comic odyssey of self-discovery and acceptance, beautifully filmed in crisp black and white.

Currently unavailable

Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire

Musical 1985 90 mins Director: Alan Clarke

Alan Clarke’s once derided feature is surely the only vampire snooker musical in cinema history and a genuine cult artefact ripe for rediscovery.

Currently unavailable

The Gold Robbers: The Arrangement The Gold Robbers: The Arrangement

Crime 1969 53 mins Director: Alan Clarke

Alan Clarke directs this episode of a 13-part serial inspired by The Great Train Robbery of 1963, starring Peter Vaughan as the dogged detective on the case.