The Grass Arena *** (1991, Mark Rylance, Lynsey Baxter, Pete Postlewaite, Marian McLoughlin, Billy Boyle) – Classic Movie Review 11,788

Director Gillies Mackinnon’s 1991 BBC TV Screen Two film The Grass Arena stars Mark Rylance, who gives a compelling performance in a gritty true-life story about a man whose hopes of a boxing career are shattered by drink. He descends into a savage community of vagrant alcoholics – the ‘grass arena’ – but a spell in prison offers a way out: a fellow prisoner teaches him chess and his new talent leads him to compete in championships where he plays for recognition and a chance to belong.

The screenplay by Frank Deasy is based on the 1988 autobiography of the life of John Healy who was brutalised at home and at school. The film is directed with considerable conviction and power by MacKinnon, who went on to make his cinema début with The Playboys). It won the Michael Powell award for best feature film at the 1991 Edinburgh Festival and the grand prize at the Dinard film festival.

Also in the cast are Lynsey Baxter, Pete Postlewaite, Marian McLoughlin, Billy Boyle and Ronan Vibert.

The BBC film was released on DVD by Simply Media in 2018.

The book was re-issued on 31 July 2008.

Director Gillies Mackinnon’s films: The Grass Arena (1991), The Playboys (1992), A Simple Twist of Fate (1994), Small Faces (1996), Trojan Eddie (1996), Regeneration (1997), Hideous Kinky (1998), The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2000), The Escapist (2002), Pure (2002), Gunpowder, Treason & Plot (2004), Tara Road (2005), Castles in the Sky (2014), Whisky Galore! (2016) and Torvill & Dean (2018).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,788

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com