If you weren’t aware that the Academy Award-winning film-maker Asif Kapadia was a lifelong Liverpool fan, the opening Roy of the Rovers-style comic credits provide a vital clue.
After chronicling the turbulent brilliance of Ayrton Senna, Amy Winehouse and Diego Maradona, the documentarian turns towards a steadier master craftsman: Kenny Dalglish, the Scottish number 9-turned-manager and known at Anfield as King Kenny.
Composed of archive footage, Kapadia’s signature technique allows Dalglish to tell his own story. His journey from Glasgow’s tenements to footballing royalty is framed by pronounced family values and community spirit.
The film’s early chapters offer a parade of giddy, nostalgic football triumphs: the early Celtic thrills, the record-breaking transfer to Liverpool in 1977, the imposing force of Dalglish and fellow Scots Alan Hansen and Graeme Souness, and the dazzling two-steps with Ian Rush.
Kenny Dalglish: A warm, generous portrait and welcome antidote to Liverpool’s current woes
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Voices from former team-mates and cultural figures, including Paul McCartney, coalesce into something like a terrace anthem.
For all the achievements and silverware, Dalglish’s humour and humility shine through. The five pounds he spent marrying Marina – who provides crucial testimony throughout the film – was, he says, the best money he ever spent. That love story synchronises with Dalglish’s enduring bond with Liverpool.
Inevitably, the film finds its emotional heart in the twin tragedies of Heysel and Hillsborough. Kapadia assembles the footage with restraint and fury, showing how Dalglish became chief mourner and moral rock. His dignified response to the loss – “Life is more important than any job” – provides a heartfelt, accidental riposte to Bill Shankly’s maxim.
Kapadia lightly touches on how Hillsborough shaped Dalglish’s shock resignation in 1991. There is no probing into Souness’s suggestion that Kenny could be “an awkward bastard”. And the film-maker completely omits the last-stroke-of-the-match title heartbreak against Arsenal in 1989. But, in common with its subject, Kenny Dalglish is a warm, generous portrait and a welcome antidote to Liverpool’s current wobbles.
- In cinemas October 29th. On Amazon Prime Video from November 4th
