The Class of ‘92

In 1992 Manchester United's youth team wins the FA Youth Cup. David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers are in the squad. Three years later, when they are put into the first team, a television pundit says his famous line: you can't win anything with kids. The documentary goes from there to 1999, when those same six players collect the league, the cup and the European cup in one season. The narrative is less about the matches than about the dressing room, the families and the Manchester of those years. Ben Turner directs with Gabe Turner. All six players sit in front of the camera. It is a British production. The documentary also describes the England of the period; music, politics and the changing city come into the narrative. The matter it treats is growing up together; six boys start on the same pitch and their paths go to very different places. Beckham's fame and the distance it created inside the team are discussed openly. The archive material is wide; footage from youth matches and training sessions is used. The narrative puts the manager's role at the centre but does not interview him separately. The documentary stands close to the club's official language and the critical distance is weak. The narrative gives the last minutes of the 1999 final in detail. Its limit is reach; the narrative assumes a supporter's knowledge and says little to somebody who does not follow football. Who it is for: viewers curious about football history and nineties England. Who it is not for: the subject is narrow, the view partisan, and it ends in triumph.