A review of the new sports movie “Saipan”
Never heard of Saipan? It is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, an unincorporated territory of the United States in the western Pacific Ocean. Never hear of the Saipan incident? This was a public quarrel in May 2002 between the Republic of Ireland national football team’s captain Roy Keane and manager Mick McCarthy when the team was preparing for its matches in Japan in that year’s World Cup.
Does the argument really merit a film? Well, if you’re Irish and/or a football fan, I guess it does and my son, who is a massive football enthusiast, loved it. The central performances, by Éanna Hardwicke as Keane and Steve Coogan as McCarthy are excellent, and the narrative would seem to be a fair account of what happened but, as cinema, I found the work too flashy and frenetic with a kaleidoscope of images and sounds.
Wikipedia page on the Saipan incident click here