Directors Cary and Darke have been exploring the world of professional football over the course of several films now. Never Walk Alone traced the evolution of a Broadway song to an anthem sung on English football terraces. Their last film, The Crazy Gang, traced the history of the now dissolved Wimbledon FC, and particularly their unexpected rise to the highest tier of football in the 1980s, playing a direct, unfashionable style. Where that film focuses on the strength of being outsiders, this documentary offers the flip-side of that experience, isolation and alienation.
In The Crazy Gang, we saw one of its architects, John Fashanu, in full-on self-promotion mode, mixing myth and reality to position himself as a 'hard-man' to rival his team-mate, and future film star, Vinnie Jones.
In Forbidden Games, we see a very different John, contrite, emotional, bordering on vulnerable as he remembers his broken relationship with his ill-fated older brother and fellow professional footballer Justin. John all-but disowned him when Justin came out as gay in the early 1990s, making him the only professional footballer to do so whilst still playing. The film tells his story, from Justin and John as orphaned brothers in the impossibly white Norfolk village of Shropham, through early success on the pitch with Norwich FC, to decline and his ultimate death in 1998, in auspicious circumstances.
A generous budget has been furnished on the documentary, taken up by Netflix, and the directors take advantage of sweeping aerial camerawork, re-purposed photos and reconstructions of the Fashanu brothers' early life. It seems strange seeing Britain from an outsiders perspective, with titles stating things like 'London, England' throughout, which reminds us that this film is less about football but about the tortured life of an individual who never fully felt accepted, having been sent away from his parents as a boy, shunned by clubs because of his lifestyle choices and disowned by his little brother. Its an engrossing story, ultimately tragic, especially considering Justin is still a rarity, as a self-outed footballer. Despite the slight distraction of Hollywood-style visual techniques, Cary and Darke do well to let the story tell itself, with insightful, and subjective (even damaging) contributions from those who knew him.
4 Reviews
A solid but unremarkable telling of a tragic story
david-meldrum11 May 2019
A solid and moving telling of the tragic story of Justin Fashanu's life; Justin was the first £1million black footballer in England, whose prodigious talent was never completely fulfilled and who was a gay man at a time and in a sport where gay men (or indeed black men) were rarely accepted easily. The final tragedy of his life is moving and hard to listen to, especially when we realise how little football has changed for gay people. The documentary never really gets to the bottom of the central contradictions and questions of his life, but that was always going to be something that was hard to achieve. It's a relevant story not only for football fans, and from the perspectives of race and sexuality, but also around foster care, celebrity culture and the pastoral support of professional athletes.
Could have been so much better
nigelfour16 April 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Watching this documentary I couldn't help but think that if the makers had went into a bit more detail on each part of Justin's life they could have made something really great, but everything seemed so rushed.
It started off talking about him and John being abandoned by their mother and growing up in an orphanage and then with the family that took them in. It didn't really go into any great detail in that.
The story seemed to leap forward to him being in the Norwich first team. There was no mention of him breaking into the team, his England under 21 matches or really info at all on what was the best spell of his career apart from 4 or 5 shots of his goal against Liverpool.
It then jumped to his spell at Forest. It seemed to hint at the problems he had with Brian Clough without really going into any great detail there. Or go into any great detail about his poor form with Forest or even his spell with Notts County.
Then we jump to Los Angeles, with for some reason mentions of the AIDS pandemic (unless Justin had AIDS I have no idea why). It shows him recovering from an injury, but no clues as to how he got injured.
The timeline then continues to leap forward several years to seemingly random points in his life. This could have been time better spent going into greater detail about the parts I mentioned above, or about the racist abuse he continually got throughout the 80s but is only hinted at in the documentary.
Into the 90s we again get brief, sporadic mentions of parts of his life without any in depth analysis of it.
Even at the end, the allegations made against him and his death are almost mentioned as a passing comment.
It's such a shame because Justin Fashanu's career is unique in British football and this could have been a genuinely brilliant documentary but it fell way short of the mark in my opinion.
It started off talking about him and John being abandoned by their mother and growing up in an orphanage and then with the family that took them in. It didn't really go into any great detail in that.
The story seemed to leap forward to him being in the Norwich first team. There was no mention of him breaking into the team, his England under 21 matches or really info at all on what was the best spell of his career apart from 4 or 5 shots of his goal against Liverpool.
It then jumped to his spell at Forest. It seemed to hint at the problems he had with Brian Clough without really going into any great detail there. Or go into any great detail about his poor form with Forest or even his spell with Notts County.
Then we jump to Los Angeles, with for some reason mentions of the AIDS pandemic (unless Justin had AIDS I have no idea why). It shows him recovering from an injury, but no clues as to how he got injured.
The timeline then continues to leap forward several years to seemingly random points in his life. This could have been time better spent going into greater detail about the parts I mentioned above, or about the racist abuse he continually got throughout the 80s but is only hinted at in the documentary.
Into the 90s we again get brief, sporadic mentions of parts of his life without any in depth analysis of it.
Even at the end, the allegations made against him and his death are almost mentioned as a passing comment.
It's such a shame because Justin Fashanu's career is unique in British football and this could have been a genuinely brilliant documentary but it fell way short of the mark in my opinion.
Awful
lawsonbenjamin2426 February 2019
What a horrid documentary, still surprised it was made so recently. It barely highlights this facts-His personal struggles were the fact, that he was gay,black ( in a racist lgbt community, deeply homophobic hateful black society and the racism in footbal) and in a hostile homophobic football culture(still alive in major football clubs globally), finally meeting hateful religious folks. No one held his hand and walked with him, instead they all shunned him from all sides,took advantage of his struggles to push their hetero centric and religious agendas, at the same time not giving him the respect he deserved as a great football player. He definitely was going to hit rock bottom, it was inevitable.I mean who would be in a calm place mentally with all the extreme stereotyping and discrimination he faced. In reality he opened a door for soo many future black gay footballers and lgbt's in general. He did the unthinkable at a time when it was unthinkable as a soccer player, he began the current fight against homophobia in football today, if that's not heroic, then i dont know what else is. This documentary ignored racism ,ignored so many things. Instead blames it on the fact that he was in a foster home and abandoned by his family. Which is gross, as still he would have faced hate from his own family even if they brought him up, as Nigerians tend to be homophobic. The issue was football culture and its need to degrade gay men that are good sportsmen. His second home, should have been the sporting community, valuing him for his talent. An lgbt community where even white gay celebs didnt embrace him and give him a home at that point in time. Shame on Netflix, for being tone deaf to those issues. It instead followed the same ignorant formula on documentaries dealing with dead lgbt's that no one knew existed. Then the day some huge celeb or hollywood movie is made, with an oscar, cannes award or golden globe, then they will suddenly hide the documentary or apologise. This film joined his brother in trashing his legacy.
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