This has its flaws and certainly its detractors but this dated British social-realist epic has a power to it.

The film is raw and confident, but it's a little shallow, too.

I can't think of a sport movie that is better photographed. The black and white cinematography is gorgeously stark, the perfect medium for this bleakly unforgiving tale.

Lindsay Anderson's first feature film is also his best, giving Richard Harris and Rachel Roberts the roles of their lives.