Source: Daily_Mail
Alan Fraser: Quirky tale of Liverpool's Champions League win will cause a stir
Any film made by Liverpool supporters - and more significantly featuring Steven Gerrard and Jamie 'I'm still chocka' Carragher as themselves - which portrays Sir Alex Ferguson as a whisky-sozzled drunk and Manchester United club captain Gary Neville as a squeaky-voiced rat living in the sewers was always bound to cause a stir. [LNB]But to concentrate on a couple of grotesque caricatures in Fifteen Minutes That Shook The World, a fictional and fantastical account of half-time in the Liverpool changing room in Istanbul on the night they won the 2005 Champions League final, is to miss the point. [LNB]This is 43 minutes of tongue-in-cheek, dark-humoured nonsense, sometimes funny, sometimes not, in which no stone is left unthrown and precious few escape parody. [LNB]That night in Istanbul: Liverpool lift the 2005 Champions League trophy [LNB] Alan Fraser - Welcome to the ugly future of 'Crown Jewels'Alan Fraser's review: When in Spain, Queen Gabby can still reignEXCLUSIVE: Red Rose takes a back seat as Robinson grasps the thistleALAN FRASER: The Review - BBC losing Focus on match day When Djimi Traore is retrieved from the toilet in a cardboard boxand thrown on the floor with only his legs showing, Gerrard remarks:'That's the best Traore's looked in the box all night'; [LNB]Harry Kewell spends the break lying on a physio's table - whereelse? - handcuffed to an inflatable doll; tiny Luis Garcia is hiddeninside a sock held by the dark-glassed Sami Hyypia in classic ArnoldSchwarzenegger guise; and Djibril Cisse is seen wearing huge headphonesand enough bling to drag him to the bottom of the Mersey. [LNB]Which is the fate that befalls suicidal Everton fans from the Bitterand Twisted Arms, a pub in the City's 'Blue Quarter', where thebackground hubbub is generated not by repeated 'rhubarb' but audiblegrunts of 'red s****'. [LNB]Turkish delight: Steven Gerrard lifts the European Cup in Istanbul [LNB][LNB]The following day, 'somewhere in Spain', as a caption puts it, theback of Michael Owen in his No 11 Real Madrid strip is filmed crying infront of TV pictures of the celebrations in Liverpool. A female voiceoff screen shouts: 'Straighten your face, for God's sake, it could beworse, you could have been playing for Man United.' [LNB]The format is quasi-documentary with Alan Whicker (Andrew Schofield) telling the tale. [LNB]Central to the whole delightful irreverence, which received itsworld premiere in Liverpool last week, is a terrific performance byHillsborough Disaster survivor Neil Fitzmaurice as Rafa Benitez. [LNB]Fitzmaurice, who co-wrote and appeared in Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, captures Rafa perfectly. [LNB]Benitez goes from banging his head on the wall and tearing upnumerous plans to getting down on his knees to pray to God, or ratherBill Shankly. Benitez asks for a saviour only for Didi Hamann toappear. [LNB]Back in the office at Old Trafford, Sir A McTaggart is swigging froma manager of the month bottle of whisky. The kilted figure has stoppeddancing. Claymores protrude from the TV screen. He nervously takesanother packet from the gum dispenser on the wall. [LNB]The humour is at its best in such small, observational moments. RatBoy, wearing a No 2 United shirt with the words 'I hate scousers' onthe back, pours rat poison down his throat. United fans may well regardthe soon-to-be-released Fifteen Minutes as poison.[LNB] Alan Fraser - Welcome to the ugly future of 'Crown Jewels'Alan Fraser's review: When in Spain, Queen Gabby can still reignEXCLUSIVE: Red Rose takes a back seat as Robinson grasps the thistleALAN FRASER: The Review - BBC losing Focus on match day [LNB] [LNB] Explore more:People:Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gary Neville, Rafa Benitez, Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen, Alex Ferguson, Sami Hyypia, Bill ShanklyPlaces:Liverpool, Istanbul, Spain
