The Keeper

My Review The Keeper rating 7:5

It's unusual but this is almost 2 reviews in one unintentionally though but both The Keeper and The Last Quarter Documentary have issues in common.

The Keeper or Trautmann as it's known on IMBD is based on a true character .

I'd never heard of Bert Trautmann why would I? I've never been into football heroes English or Australian.

This week though I'm much more knowledgeable about 2 footballers Adam Goodes ,the famous Sydney Swans footballer after watching the excellent and confronting documentary The Final Quarter and The Keeper about a famous Manchester United Goal Keeper Bert Trautmann.

Both these men talented Sporting heroes sustained continuous insults and crowd abuse booing and jeering at their matches and media publicity reporting negatively about their character and ethnicity.

Bert Trautmann a released German Prisoner of War and extremely talented goal keeper for his participation in the 2nd World War as an Iron Cross awarded Luftwaffe Pilot . Australian Adam Goodes an indigenous First Nation football hero who dared to take a proud stand of Solidarity with his people and in doing so exposed himself to the ugly underbelly of racial vilification and continual booing and insults from the mass crowds at his matches.

The Keeper is a very good film, not great but only a few are these days however it's extremely entertaining and interesting and even if you're not a football fan of great human interest.

I read up a little about the true life events of Bert Trautmann and the script is pretty factual regarding the period of his life that the movie covers ,which saw him play as goalkeeper for Manchester City from 1949 to 1964.

Trautmann is played so well by a very handsome charismatic German actor David Kross who I remember from the excellent 2008 award winning movie The Reader .Freya Mayor gives a lovely performance in the role of Margaret, Bert's first wife and John Henshaw is also very impressive as Margaret's father Jack.

Good directing ,good script ,good acting interesting story and proof again that attitudes and prejudices remain the same even with decades of time separating them and that the ugliness of an angry crowd is a very scary and disturbing mass of negative emotions.

1st half rather slow - livens up in 2nd. Two principal actors (German) and supporting British cast good. Film shows initial suspicion and hatred of Trautmann and later full acceptance by Man city supporters. The war scenes are rather glossed over (German script writers). In reality Trautmann was originally a committed Nazi and met the Fuhrer at the Hitler youth games where he was a silver medal winner at 2 events. As an elite paratrooper he won the Iron Cross and took part in the airborne invasion of Crete where he killed a few partisans. His training later helped to further his goalkeeping skills and he dived at the feet of opposing forwards and rolled forward with the ball. He surrendered to the British sector as the Americans would have killed him. He really should have played for Germany in the 1954 World Cup finals in Switzerland but only players with national home based clubs were considered.

After his broken neck in the 1956 cup final it was encased in plaster for 5 months. He was certainly a Manchester city legend. In 1964 I attended his testimonial (last game)which was never finished as the crowd invaded the pitch to shake his hand. He made a moving tannoy address and many were in tears.

He is the only player to win the OBE (Order of the British Empire) and the German equivalent, The Iron Cross and an FA cup winners medal. He died in 2013.

Quite often in sports biopics, the story far super cedes their sporting achievements. This couldn't be any more true in the case of Bert Trautmann as his fascinating story gets told here; becoming a hero to many Englishman not so long after fighting to kill them.

What this film succeeds in is balancing when the right time for poignancy is and when to include some levity. What lets it down is the pacing. There were a few times where I felt the wrong moments were being drawn out, where more important and interesting moments were being rushed through too quickly.

You don't need to be a football fan to enjoy it, it's a human interest story above all else.

Though I had heard about Bert Trautmann I didn't know his story

Which this film told very well, and is well worth watching even and especially if you not a football fan.

Anglo-German production, TV-movie(ish); two-dimensional fare. But the amazing story and a dollop of charm, makes this a hell of a lot better than it should be.

This is a straightforward historical romance. But it's well played by Kross as Trautmann, and Mavor as his wife Margaret. And Henshaw gives a typically excellent performance as plain-speaking, Northern dad.

It should be terrible, but it's a really watchable film, and a very good football film to boot. The CGI recreation of 1950's football stadiums is amazing. It takes dramatic licence, but still brings home the Cup.