If you haven’t seen the United documentary Class of 92 yet, and you want to know what some of the highlights are, you’ve come to the right place. Yesterday I did an in-depth review of the doc which you can read here. This post is more of a “quick hits” and snippets type collection, covering ground that I wasn’t able to get to in the write-up on Monday.
I’m giving you further look inside Class of 92 to see if it’s something you want to watch or not. Or maybe you’ve already seen it and you want to see how your own takeaways from the film compare to mine.
-Former Prime Minister and icon of the Labour Party Tony Blair appears in it. So when someone who was once that powerful is in the film…well I’m sold. Blair tells a story about being at a Japanese grade school where the children seemed to have no clue where the U.K. even was. They couldn’t even find it on a map. So he mentions Becks and all the kids then turn extremely receptive. Shows you Becks’ star power. The positive side.
-Also, the down side to Beckham’s star power. He opens up about the death threats, being hung in effigy and having bullets delivered in the mail to him at Old Trafford. All because of that infamous red card in that infamous game. You know the one.
–As was revealed before the premier, in his days with the United youth team, Becks was hazed by other footballers in a rather sexual way. He was forced to get himself off in front of his teammates while looking at a Clayton Blackmore calendar. This was the initiation process. Yes, David Beckham claims he had to masturbate to a picture of a famous football player in front of his teammates. As part of a hazing ritual. This isn’t discussed at all in the film, just a quick soundbite as Beckham mentions he had to “do something sexual.”
They later say that the class of 92 was the class to end ritual hazing for future classes.
-My favorite personality in the film was the dude from The Stone Roses. Too bad they couldn’t get a Gallagher brother from Oasis or Posh Spice, Victoria Beckham to appear in the film. The intersection of culture and politics plays a major role in this film as a whole series of events across the United Kingdom landscape all came together at the same time.
-Class of 92 is about football first and foremost. And the movie is book-ended by the treble achieved in ’99. The first ever for an English team. What a tremendous accomplishment it was.
Finally, a really cool photograph. David Beckham and his former Manchester United teammates Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt, Phil and Gary Neville, and current member of the Red Devils Ryan Giggs all hit the red carpet tonight the film premiere of Class of 92. The film documents the lives and success of the Old Trafford side’s now-legendary youth players from 1992.
The boys at The Class Of ’92 premiere pic.twitter.com/7E8IH0DKTG
— Aysha Ridzuan (@ayshardzn) December 2, 2013
Watch the class of 92 trailer HERE
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the country; with regular weekly segments on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and RSS Catch him Tuesdays talking Illini and Northwestern for KOZN 1620 The Zone, Fridays talking Chicago Bears for WAOR 95.7 The Fan