On the eve of the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the Irish captain Roy Keane forfeits his place in the squad at the team’s preparation base in Saipan, following a heated disagreement with the Irish manager Mick McCarthy.
In 2002, the Republic of Ireland had just qualified for the World Cup by winning a play off in Iran and the whole country was getting excited about their prospects in Japan and South Korea that summer. At the time, little did they know there was as much drama happening off the pitch as on, with captain Roy Keane (Éanna Hardwicke) and manager Mick McCarthy (Steve Coogan) at loggerheads about the preparations for the tournament. This is the story retold more than 20 years later and I enjoyed it a lot, though I do think you’ll enjoy it more if you a) like football, and b) are familiar with the story.
The title of the movie is ‘Saipan’, named for the small island south of Japan that the Irish had chosen for their pre-tournament preparation. Largely chosen as it would help acclimatise to the heat and timezone in Japan, it turned into a disaster as it became apparent that Saipan was not remotely a suitable destination for the team to train and fully prepare themselves for the challenges ahead. Keane was not happy about this and regularly clashes with McCarthy, who he doesn’t rate as a manager, while McCarthy seems unsure how to deal with his star player and is perhaps too soft with the rest of the squad. Ultimately it turns into a shambles with players spending more time golfing than training, and the lack of professionalism from his fellow players and the management team riles Keane up.
The interesting thing about this film, and the story at the time, is that both Keane or McCarthy are correct to a degree. Keane was correct about the lack of professionalism and the poor planning by the FAI (Football Association of Ireland), but he also went about his criticisms in the wrong way, leaving McCarthy in a position where he felt he had no choice. As McCarthy puts it at one point, he has to think about the entire team and not just one player, no matter how good Keane was, and Keane should have been more of a team player.
In terms of the film, this is well acted with both Hardwicke and Coogan well cast, and it gets the story across with good humour. It blends real life footage of the time with the story and I enjoyed that it was a bit of a throwback to an era of football that feels wildly different despite being less than 25 years ago. Towards the end, Roy Keane says football is a game about opinions and this is ultimately a film about two men with different opinions and approaches, and if you’re at all familiar with the story I suspect you’ll be entertained by ‘Saipan’.
Rating: 4/5
Directed By: Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D’Sa
Starring: Steve Coogan, Éanna Hardwicke, Jack Hickey, Harriet Cains, Niall McNamee, Alice Lowe, Alex Murphy and Jamie Beamish
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