by Dov Kornits
Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Éanna Hardwicke, Steve Coogan, Alice Lowe, Harriet Cains
Intro:
Your appreciation of Saipan will be vastly improved if you know who Roy Keane is, if you followed the Premier League and specifically Manchester United in the ‘90s, and/or you’re Irish.
Your appreciation of Saipan will be vastly improved if you know who Roy Keane is, if you followed the Premier League and specifically Manchester United in the ‘90s, and/or you’re Irish. That said, you probably also know how this story ends… For the rest, read on…
Roy Keane (Éanna Hardwicke) is the greatest footballer that Ireland has ever produced. He was slightly past his prime in 2002, when this film is set, but he was still playing for the greatest football team in the world, Manchester United, under manager Alex Ferguson, alongside David Beckham etc.
Former player, now manager Mick McCarthy (Steve Coogan) has managed to get Ireland to scrape through into qualifying for the 2002 World Cup in Japan, but will Keane, accustomed to the high standards set by Manchester United make himself available to play for country?
Steve Coogan brings his usual bumbling self to the role of McCarthy, and you do wonder whether the real-life character was ever that seemingly incompetent. Opposite him is Éanna Hardwicke as the hard-working perfectionist Keane, trying to cope with the seemingly under-prepared and partying approach of the Irish football team.
Saipan is where the Irish squad and management go to acclimatise to the summer conditions in Japan, two weeks ahead of kick off. This is where the majority of the action in the film takes place. It’s hardly ‘cinematic’, play-like in parts, however, directors Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn (Good Vibrations, Ordinary Love) infuse the film with chart topping music and nostalgic archival footage of the era, and of the shitstorm that the central conflict builds up to.
Well-made and performed, in many ways, the era and events depicted in Saipan were a turning point for the Irish. McCarthy is the old, happy go lucky Gaelic cliché, whilst Keane is the future that would see their national sporting teams, among other cultural pursuits, thrive on the world stage, turning the once punchline of jokes into a global force to be reckoned with.
