''Finding Jack Charlton'' is a 2020 English

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

about the life of

Jack Charlton John Charlton (8 May 193510 July 2020) was an English footballer and manager who played as a defender. He was part of the England national team that won the 1966 World Cup and managed the Republic of Ireland national team from 1986 to 199 ...

. The film, directed by

Gabriel Clarke Gabriel Clarke is a British TV journalist and documentary filmmaker. Clarke earned an English Literature degree from the University of London and began his journalistic career with local newspapers in Somerset and Bristol. He started his spo ...

and Pete Thomas, was released digitally on 23 November 2020 after a theatrical release on 6 November 2020. The film was set to air on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

in 2021.

Synopsis

''Finding Jack Charlton'' covers the managing career of Charlton. He took over the leadership of the

Republic of Ireland national football team , FIFA Trigramme = IRL , Name = Republic of Ireland , Association = Football Association of Ireland (FAI) , Confederation = UEFA (Europe) , website fai.ie, Coach = Stephen Kenny (foot ...

in 1986 and became one of the most beloved people in the country. Although the film directors initially planned to make the film about Charlton's importance in Ireland, they realized after visiting Charlton that his

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

was too advanced to be able to speak to him about his past. The filmmakers shifted their focus to include Charlton's last years and the impact of dementia on him and his family. Other Irish footballers and cultural icons, including

Larry Mullen Jr. Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr. (; born 31 October 1961) is an Irish musician, best known as the drummer and co-founder of the rock band U2. Mullen was born in Dublin, where he attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School. In 1976, he co-founded U2 ...

Roddy Doyle Roddy Doyle (born 8 May 1958) is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. He is the author of eleven novels for adults, eight books for children, seven plays and screenplays, and dozens of short stories. Several of his books have been ma ...

, and Paul McGrath, are interviewed in the documentary.

Critical reception

''Finding Jack Charlton'' received positive reviews from film critics. It holds approval rating on review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on reviews with an average of .

References

External links

* 2020 films 2020 documentary films English films British sports documentary films 2020s British films {{sport-documentary-film-stub