Best (1999)

Written by John Carroll Lynch, Mary McGuckian

Directed by Mary McGuckian

Running Time: 120 minutes (approx)

Production Year: 1999

Rating: 15 Certificate

Filmed in Colour

At the start of the film George Best is earning his living from personal appearances in 1994. News of Sir Matt Busby's death shocks a severely hung-over Best and prompts him to look back on his life.

35 years earlier, Best is a young whippersnapper on a Belfast housing estate who is spotted by a Manchester United scout, Bob Bishop. The football team is slowly recovering from the shock and loss of the Munich Air Disaster and, under Matt Busby's eye, is becoming a great team once again.

George Best quickly becomes a professional player and, by his late teens, is a firm favourite with players and fans alike. In fact, the adulation he receives is much more akin to that of a pop star than a footballer, with merchandising deals, magazine features, men's fashion promotions and hordes of screaming girls following him wherever he goes.

However the darker side of Best is his struggle against alcohol - not that he really perceives it as a problem. However, as his physical health begins to deteriorate and his professional career hits the skids, he becomes filled with a sense of self-disgust.

But this is not by any means the end of George Best's journey - and a renewed sense of hope lies waiting just around the corner

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Cast

Ian BannenSir Matt Busby
Jerome FlynnSir Bobby Charlton
Ian HartNobby Stiles
Patsy KensitAnna
Cal MacaninchPaddy
Linus RoacheDenis Law
Adrian LesterRocky
David HaymanTommy Dougherty/The Barman
James EllisDickie Beal
Roger DaltreyRodney Marsh
Clive AndersonInterviewer
Sophie DahlEva Haraldsted
Stephen FryFrazer Crane
Dave DuffyLimosine Driver
Lalor RoddyPetrol Station Attendant

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