Eanna Hardwicke’s portrayal of Roy Keane in the new film Saipan, about the Republic of Ireland’s stumbling build-up to the 2002 World Cup, is stunning.
No matter how inscrutable and impenetrable Keane has appeared over the years, it turns out the former Manchester United and Republic captain is capable of imitation after all.
Conversely, Saipan’s representation of Keane’s old adversary Mick McCarthy is shameful. At times during the film’s 90-minute lifespan, it appears to be almost deliberately so.
Keane and his national team manager fell out during the Republic’s pre-World Cup training camp on the pacific island of Saipan almost 24 years ago. The facilities were rubbish (the squad actually arrived without footballs) and Keane said so. After much drama, angst and conflict, he flew home.
It’s a story well told and that was a point McCarthy made when the film’s directors spoke to him last year. Their response was that every great story is worth retelling to new audiences and they had a point. It just shouldn’t have been told like this.
Hardwicke gets Keane so perfectly it’s vaguely chilling. The darkness, the battles raging within, the contradictions. McCarthy of Barnsley, on the other hand, is portrayed by Steve Coogan of Manchester as a hapless and hopeless chump, a caricature of fecklessness, drowning in a pool of his own inadequacies as he and his players enjoy what is portrayed as some kind of four-day stag do in the middle of the ocean.
Eanna Hardwicke and Steve Coogan play Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy in Saipan, a movie about the fallout between the then-Republic of Ireland captain and manager
Hardwicke brings Keane’s darkness, the battles raging within, and contradictions to the film
Coogan, on the other hand, portrays McCarthy as a hapless, hopeless and inadequate chump
The film does not present itself as a documentary. It’s supposed to be rather fun and to a degree it is. But to willfully misrepresent McCarthy and some of what happened seems unnecessary to the point of cruelty and it was no surprise for me to learn this week that those closest to the 66-year-old are deeply unhappy about how the film has turned out.
McCarthy spoke to Coogan last year while on holiday in Portugal, joking that he was disappointed Brad Pitt had not been chosen for the role. You can’t have everything in life but maybe some basic attention to clear detail could have been expected.
McCarthy, for example, was 43 that early summer in Japan. Coogan is 60 and is made to look every single month of it and more in the film. McCarthy is 6ft 1in and Keane is 5ft 11in. Yet in the film – especially during the confrontation that brings it to its admittedly compelling climax – the player towers over his manager.
The power play – and the way the makers of Saipan wish it to come across – is clear. But it also feels deeply dishonest. Keane’s characterisation in Saipan is that of the demanding elite athlete. He was, of course, not always so.
McCarthy’s on the other hand is that of an idiot, an enabler of after-hours excess calling home one night to discuss what colour he should paint the garden fence posts on his return. Duck egg blue is the call.
Maybe the fact the Republic made it to the last 16 without Keane in Japan and Korea, losing to Spain only on penalties, was a fluke. Or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was the work of a top class manager who knew what he was doing after all.
Some of the players on that trip have seen the film and are unimpressed. They don’t recognise much of it. They certainly don’t recognise their manager. McCarthy himself, meanwhile, made his own peace with the saga years ago.
When I sat down with him ten years ago to talk about his career, he revealed he had reached out to Keane before they were due to meet as managers with Wolves and Sunderland respectively. McCarthy was bright enough to know what was coming.
Keane is presented as a demanding and elite athlete in the film – but he was not always that
Those close to McCarthy are unsurprisingly displeased with how the movie has portrayed him
‘I thought it was gonna be a circus,’ McCarthy told me. ‘So I decided to blow everybody out of the water.
‘I rang him up and said: “Listen, we can either be part of the circus or we can get together and have a chat and shake hands privately. We will p*** on everybody’s chips”.
‘So I drove to meet him in Cheshire and I’m glad I did. Half an hour and a cup of tea. We had a chat and it was done.
‘Despite what people may think about me, I am a mediator. I like to make things right. I don’t want anger and grudges and bitterness. On the pitch I will scrap to get what I want for me and my team. But in life I want to be right with people and I want people to be right with me.’
Saipan will always be part of McCarthy’s story and he insists he wouldn’t change it. A man of strength, character and confidence deserves a little better than this strangely off-beam portrayal, though.
So perhaps do the folk who will sit down to watch it.
