REVIEW: Don't Take Me Home (2017)
Documentary about the Welsh international football team's rise through the FIFA World Rankings, and their first international tournament for 58 years when they got to the Euro's in France in 2016.
I'm half English, half Welsh, with my dad being Welsh. I was staying with him in Spain during a lot of the 2016 Euros, and have fond memories watching Wales' matches (and also Iceland's) because they were the underdogs and it was the first time Wales had been in a major international tournament for decades. Perhaps it's because of those memories, and thoughts of my dad who died three months ago, that made me decide to watch Don't Take Me Home, but I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did.
Rather than being a comprehensive history of Welsh international football, Don't Take Me Home focusses on how coach Chris Coleman took these players who were grieving for their former coach and were 117th in the rankings, to the Euros and making a far bigger impact than just about anyone could imagine.
The focus is on Euros 2016 and follows the team through the Group Stages and beyond. It's a talking heads type documentary with players and staff commenting on their thoughts and feelings before, during and after games. The footage of the games is interspersed with players commentary, and the matches are just as thrilling as when I watched them four years ago. Don't Take Me Home also gives an insight into the players mentality and how they gel together, on and off the pitch. It really shows how this group of players are friends and that while naturally they trained hard and talked tactics during the tournament, they still could wind down and have fun.
One thing Don't Take Me Home showed really well was the passion of the Welsh fans and how the teams' success and drive made such an impact. Wales is a small country, one of the smallest in the tournament, and now it's a country that other people have heard of. As I said, my dad was Welsh. He lived in Spain for eighteen years, and for so long the locals down the pub (my dad did learn Spanish) would presume he was English which naturally annoyed him a lot. It wasn't until Gareth Bale started playing for Real Madrid that he had a point of reference for the Spanish ("Soy Galés como Gareth Bale") and watching the matches down his local, with Wales doing better than Spain that year, made them take notice.
The footage showing the Welsh fans, both in France following the team around the country, and the ones back home in Wales in fan parks and down their local pubs, is just great. Their joy is infectious and Don't Take Me Home is filled with a lot of feel good moments.
While Don't Take Me Home will certainly strike a chord with Welsh fans, I think anyone who is a fan of football and underdogs will enjoy this insight into a team that achieved great things. 4/5.
Posted in Films, My Life, Reviews, Sport and tagged 4 stars, Chris Coleman, documentary, Don't Take Me Home, family, film review, football, sport, sport movies, Wales on August 3, 2020 by elenasquareeyes. 1 Comment
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