''Tommy's Honour'' is a 2016

historical drama film A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and swas ...

depicting the lives and careers of, and the complex relationship between, the pioneering Scottish golfing champions

Old Tom Morris Thomas Mitchell Morris (16 June 1821 – 24 May 1908), otherwise known as Old Tom Morris, and The Grand Old Man of Golf, was a Scottish golfer. He was born in St Andrews, Fife, the "home of golf" and location of the St Andrews Links, and died t ...

and his son

Young Tom Morris Thomas Morris (20 April 1851 – 25 December 1875), known as Tom Morris Junior, Young Tom Morris and also Tommy Morris, was a Scottish professional golfer. He is considered one of the pioneers of professional golf, and was the first young prodig ...

. The film is directed by

Jason Connery Jason Joseph Connery (born 11 January 1963) is a British actor and director. He is the son of Sean Connery and Diane Cilento. On screen, he is best known for appearing in the third series of the ITV drama series ''Robin of Sherwood'' in 1986. He ...

, and the father and son are portrayed by Peter Mullan and

Jack Lowden Jack Andrew Lowden (born 2 June 1990) is a Scottish actor. Following a four-year stage career, his first major international onscreen success was in the 2016 BBC miniseries '' War & Peace'', which led to starring roles in feature films. Lowden s ...

. The film won Best Feature Film at the

2016 British Academy Scotland Awards The 26th British Academy Scotland Awards were held on 6 November 2016 at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow, honouring the best Scottish film and television productions of 2016. Presented by BAFTA Scotland, accolades were handed out for the best i ...

. The screenplay, written by Pamela Marin and Kevin Cook, is based on Cook's 2007 book, ''Tommy's Honor: The Story of Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris, Golf's Founding Father and Son''. The book won the Herbert Warren Wind Book Award as the best golf book of 2007, was one of the five books that ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'' selected as the "Books of the Year" in 2007, and was #32 of "the 50 best sports books ever written" selected by ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

''. The film opened the 2016 Edinburgh International Film Festival on 15 June 2016. It went into theatrical release in the U.S. and internationally beginning in the spring of 2017.

Plot

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

, Scotland in 1866, 15-year-old Tommy Morris (

) is an avid golfer like his legendary and pioneering father, Tom Morris ( Peter Mullan). "Old Tom" is greens-keeper for

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews is one of the oldest golf clubs in the world. It is a private members-only club based in St Andrews in Scotland. It was previously known colloquially as "The R&A", but in 2004, a new organisation kn ...

, as well as the town's club- and ball-maker. He is the two-time winner of the first major golf tournament,

The Open Championship The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

, which was founded in 1860 by James Ogilvie Fairlie, Tom's mentor. He also established golf's standard of 18 holes per round. But young Tommy is beginning to chafe at his father's dictates, especially in the rapidly changing world they live in. Tommy soon outshines his father, winning The Open three times in a row while still in his teens. The "dashing young man of golf", he draws flocks of spectators to the sport and becomes its first touring professional. Father and son repeatedly clash over the unwritten rules of social class, and this culminates when Tommy marries his sweetheart Meg (

Ophelia Lovibond Ophelia Lucy Lovibond (born 19 February 1986) is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Carina in the film ''Guardians of the Galaxy,'' Izzy Gould in the BBC's ''W1A'', Joyce Prigger in HBO's ''Minx'', and Kitty Winter in CBS's ''Ele ...

), a woman of lower standing with a shameful secret in her past. As the story concludes, Old Tom makes a fatal misjudgement that strips Tommy of everything he holds dear. Following the results of that fateful choice, Old Tom takes on a personal mission that carries him through the final decades of his life: that of honouring his son Tommy.

Main cast

* Peter Mullan as

, a pioneering and legendary golfing champion *

as Tommy Morris, Old Tom's son and an expert golfer in his own right *

as Meg Drinnen, the woman Tommy loves *

Sam Neill Sir Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill (born 14 September 1947) is a New Zealand actor. Neill's near-50 year career has included leading roles in both dramas and blockbusters. Considered an "international leading man", he has been regarded as one o ...

as Alexander Boothby, the Captain of

Production

In 2010 producer Jim Kreutzer happened to read Kevin Cook's Herbert Warren Wind Book Award–winning 2007 book ''Tommy's Honor: The Story of Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris, Golf's Founding Father and Son'', and immediately obtained the film rights for it.McEwan, Michael
"‘My dad is excited about my new movie’"
''

Bunkered ''bunkered'' is a Scottish golf magazine published by DC Thomson. Based in Dundee, Scotland, the magazine was launched in 1996 and is published eight times per year. It covers the entire spectrum of golf, with a particular emphasis on Scottis ...

''. 12 February 2014. The project remained in development for several years, while Kreutzer did further research and interviewed people in Scotland who knew the story well.Southwell, Tim
"''Tommy's Honour'' – The Movie"
''

Golf Punk ''Golf Punk'' magazine was launched by Tim Southwell and John Dean through their Keep Yourself Nice Ltd company in 2004, after securing investment from initially Premier League footballers Michael Gray, Thomas Sørensen, Phil Babb, Jason McAteer ...

''. 5 August 2015. The author Cook's wife Pamela Marin, an accomplished journalist and memoirist, adapted the book into a screenplay along with Cook."''Tommy’s Honor''"
''ShowFilmFirst.com''. 21 January 2014. In January 2014

, son of

Sean Connery Sir Sean Connery (born Thomas Connery; 25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. Origina ...

, was announced as the film's director.Williams, Martin
"Film to tell story of golf legend Morris"
'' The Herald''. 13 January 2014. He stated: Connery also noted that his father, a serious golfer in addition to being a renowned actor, gave him ideas and insight about making the film. Kreutzer, along with venture capitalist Keith Bank, established Gutta Percha Productions for the sole purpose of financing and producing ''Tommy's Honour''."About Us"
''TommysHonour.com''. Retrieved 14 June 2016. The film's additional producers are Bob Last, Tim Moore, and Kenneth C. Whitney. In June 2015 the production received a £400,000 grant from National Lottery Funding through

Creative Scotland Creative Scotland ( gd, Alba Chruthachail ; sco, Creative Scotlan) is the development body for the arts and creative industries in Scotland. Based in Edinburgh, it is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government. The o ...

's Screen Production Fund. The two lead actors, Peter Mullan and

, were cast in July 2015. Neither had prior experience with golf,Strege, John
"''Tommy’s Honour'' begins filming in Scotland, but with actors unfamiliar with golf"
''

Golf Digest ''Golf Digest'' is a monthly golf magazine published by Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit under its Warner Bros. Discovery Golf division. It is a generalist golf publication covering recreational golf and men's and women's competiti ...

''. 20 August 2015. although Lowden had done several leading roles as an athlete or soldier, in '' Black Watch'', '' Chariots of Fire'', and ''

The Passing Bells ''The Passing Bells'' is a five-part British-Polish television drama that was first broadcast on BBC One in 2014. The series is set during World War I and was a part of the BBC First World War centenary season. It shows events through the eyes ...

''. Filming began in mid-August 2015, and was completed in late September 2015. All filming took place on location in Scotland, in over 50 locations including in St Andrews and surrounding areas,

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and

Musselburgh Musselburgh (; sco, Musselburrae; gd, Baile nam Feusgan) is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, east of Edinburgh city centre. It has a population of . History The name Musselburgh is Ol ...

, and towns such as Peebles and Falkland. The shoot lasted six weeks, but there was rain on only one day, which is unusual for Scotland.

Release

''Tommy's Honour'' was selected to open the 2016 Edinburgh International Film Festival on 15 June 2016, which was the film's premiere."Book Now: Edinburgh International Film Festival Announces the World Premiere of ''Tommy's Honour'' as the 2016 Opening Night Gala"
Edinburgh International Film Festival. 27 April 2016.Films 2016 – Events at EIFF 2016 on Wed 15 June
Edinburgh International Film Festival. Retrieved 14 June 2016. At the festival it was also nominated for the Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film. It continued screening at the festival through 26 June.Pringle, Fiona
"Stars flock to premiere for St Andrews golf movie"
''

Fife Today Johnston Press plc was a multimedia company founded in Falkirk, Scotland, in 1767. Its flagship titles included UK-national newspaper the '' i'', ''The Scotsman'', the ''Yorkshire Post'', the ''Falkirk Herald'', and Belfast's ''The News Letter'' ...

''. 15 June 2016. The film also screened at London Screenings at BFI Southbank, an international film-marketing conference for British films which lasted from 20 to 23 June 2016. Sean Connery, who was unable to attend the EIFF debut of his son's film, screened ''Tommy's Honour'' in a cinema near his home in the Bahamas in July 2016.Ferguson, Brian
"Sir Sean Connery to get Bahamas screening of son’s film"
''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

''. 15 June 2016. The film showed at the Dinard British Film Festival in Dinard, France from 28 September to 2 October 2016. It screened at the Haifa International Film Festival in mid-October 2016, and at the BBC First British Film Festival 2016 in Australia, which began in late October 2016.

Roadside Attractions Roadside Attractions is an American production company and film distributor based in Los Angeles, California, founded on July 27, 2000, by Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff, specializing largely in independent films. Lionsgate Lions Gate ...

acquired the U.S. rights to ''Tommy's Honour'' in September 2016.McNary, Dave
"Golfing Origins Movie ''Tommy’s Honour'' Lands at Roadside Attractions"
'' Variety''. 22 September 2016. It opened nationwide in the U.S. on 14 April 2017.N'Duka, Amanda
"Roadside Attractions Picks Up ''Tommy’s Honour''; Golf Pic Set For March Release"
'' Deadline''. 22 September 2016. It was released internationally in the spring of 2017,"''Tommy’s Honor'' Nominated For ..."
''Daily North Shore''. 19 October 2016. and international sales of the film are handled by Timeless Films. The film was released via streaming video and DVD in June and July 2017 in the U.S.

Reception

Initial reviews immediately following the film's debut at the Edinburgh International Film Festival were generally positive.Pulver, Andrew
"''Tommy's Honour'' review – well-pitched performances bring golf biopic up to par"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. 24 June 2016. The performances of the two leads, Mullan and Lowden, were widely praised.Anderson, Matthew
"Edinburgh 2016: ''Tommy's Honour'' Review"
''Cine Vue''. June 2016. A few reviewers felt that the film may have tried to do too much due to having several themes,Macnab, Geoffrey

''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''. 15 June 2016. Gosney, Kieran
"The 70th Edinburgh International Film Festival: Day One"
''The 405''. 15 June 2016. and a few felt that some of the golfing sequences were repetitive.

Review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

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 ...

gives the film a 67% approval rating based on 83 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. According to

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which sampled 22 critics and calculated a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, the film received "mixed or average reviews". ''

Screen Daily ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involved in the global film business. ...

'', while acknowledging the film's central father-son drama, also noted the portrayal of the class conflicts of 19th-century golf – played by the lower classes, attended by unruly crowds, and owned and bet on by aristocrats who controlled and profited from the sport. The review also opined that "As the principals play across the film's varied locations, in all weather, viewers get a true sense of golf's real grit, a more essential and raw essence of the sport than is achieved in most coverage today."

Kate Muir Kate Muir is a Scottish writer and documentary maker. Her book, ''Everything You Need to Know About the Menopause (But Were Too Afraid to Ask)'' was published in 2022, and she is the creator and producer of two documentaries on the menopause incl ...

in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' concluded that the film is "fairly conventional, and your pleasure in it will probably be predicated on your love for the game." Conversely, Ross Miller in '' The National'' called the film "emotional, inspiring and deeply heartfelt" and wrote "You don’t have to be a golf fan to be taken in by this engrossing, quietly passionate film that not only brings something new to the sports biopic table but also serves as a poignant, often heartbreaking portrait of paternal love and pursuing your passion with everything you have."Miller, Ross
"Film Review: A plot full of holes"
'' The National''. 17 June 2016. In January 2017, Justin Lowe in ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' said the film "offers an engrossing and accessible celebration of the game’s modern origins, enhanced by striking locations and a standout cast." In November 2016 ''Tommy's Honour'' won Best Feature Film at the

(BAFTA Scotland Awards)."Crime drama ''Shetland'' triumphs at Bafta Scotland"
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

''. 7 November 2016.Kyle, Gregor
"Jason Connery breaks down in tears as he takes Scottish Bafta for best feature film"
''Glasgow Live''. 7 November 2016. Jack Lowden was nominated for Best Film Actor for his performance as Tommy Morris.British Academy Scotland Awards: Nominees in 2016
2016

BAFTA Scotland BAFTA in Scotland is the Scottish branch of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Formed in 1986, the branch holds two annual awards ceremonies recognising the achievement by performers and production staff in Scottish film, televi ...

. Retrieved 10 October 2016.

Awards

References

External links

*
Official trailer
*
''Tommy's Honour''
at the British Council {{Old and Young Tom Morris, state=collapsed 2016 films 2016 biographical drama films 2010s historical drama films 2010s sports drama films 2016 independent films British biographical drama films British historical drama films British sports drama films Films directed by Jason Connery Films set in Scotland Films set in the 1860s Films set in the 1870s Golf films Sports films based on actual events Biographical films about sportspeople Films about families Films shot in Scotland Films shot in Edinburgh Films shot in Fife Films shot in the Scottish Borders Films shot in East Lothian Films set in Edinburgh Cultural depictions of golfers 2010s English-language films 2010s British films