Review of ‘Jack To A King’ that chronicles Swansea’s magical flight

This week, New York City is the home of the Kicking and Screening Soccer Film Festival, which launched Tuesday night and continues until Friday. The festival features seven films from seven different countries that mainly focus on the fan’s impact on the sport. The first three nights feature two films a night while Friday night features one.

The festival is housed in the small Tribeca Cinemas, a very short walk from the A, C and 1 Canal Street subway stops. If you live in New York City, I strongly encourage you to come on at least one of the final three nights of this wonderful festival as the films explore a different side of soccer that does not get highlighted often enough and creates the soul of the sport that we all know and love.

The choice of films for the first night were Jack to a King, which chronicles Swansea City’s rise from near bankruptcy and relegation to a Premier League side in the span of ten years, and a Wonderful Season of Failure, which chronicles the 2013/14 Bari F.C. season that captivated the city through the eyes of the supporters as their team pushed and ultimately failed to secure promotion to Serie A. Both films looked amazing but unfortunately I had to choose one, and because I had just returned from a year in the United Kingdom where I immersed myself in the tradition and lore of the smaller London clubs, I chose the film about Swansea City.

SEE MORE — Listen to our interview with Jack To A King executive producer Mal Pope.

People who have only recently started watching the Premier League would associate Swansea City as being an established mid-table Premier League side who do not quite have the quality to challenge for Europe but have too much quality to even fathom the idea of relegation. However, this was not always the case and the film describes the journey from staring relegation to the Conference in the face to the Premier League.

The film begins at the end of the story, with the players walking out onto the field at Wembley for their 2011 Championship Playoff Final against Reading and then talks about some of the history and tradition of Swansea City, most notably that in the 1980s Swansea City were in the old First Division (since rebranded to today’s Premier League) and were a relatively successful provincial club with a strong fan base. The film also paints a very real image of Swansea’s former stadium, Vetch Field, which was a proper British football ground, decrepit and falling down but more than made up for by the atmosphere generated and the sense of home.

Swansea City’s East Stand at Vetch Field after the club had moved to the Liberty Stadium.

The film then chronicles Swansea at its lowest point and goes into painstaking detail about the difficulties of the club and how it ended up in the hands of a certain Tony Petty. Tony Petty was notorious in Swansea after terminating the contracts of the six highest earners to save costs. Not surprisingly, the supporters started to rebel against him (in a similar manner to how Blackpool supporters are now rebelling against the Oyston Family). A significant portion of the film is devoted to Petty’s actions, the supporters’ reactions (some of which were very extreme) and his subsequent sale of the club to a supporters trust that had been set up after disillusionment with Petty’s practices. The film also details the ten men who each donated £50,000 to save the club and ran the club as a consortium.

Despite being taken over, Swansea were in grave danger of being relegated from the old Third Division (now League Two) and losing their professional status and needed a last day win over Hull (who ironically reached the Premier League three seasons before Swansea despite also being stuck in the fourth tier) to preserve their place in the Football League. The film perfectly summarizes the mood around the city of Swansea and the football club leading up to and during the match. Swansea won 4-2 after falling behind 2-1 and preserved their league status.

One criticism I have of this film is that the rest of it feels very rushed. They spend a pretty significant chunk of time talking about the appointment of Roberto Martinez as manager and his implementation of the Spanish style of play with lots of passing. They also spend a bit of time talking about the move from Vetch Field to the Liberty Stadium. Very little is said about their promotions from the fourth and third divisions respectively and it is heavily implied that Brendan Rodgers succeeded Martinez after Martinez left for Wigan (he did not; Paulo Sousa did). While this does not take away from the overall message that the film is trying to convey, I found this bit of the film very difficult to comprehend, as I was never sure what period of time they were referring to.

Fans lining up at the Kicking And Screaming Festival to watch ‘Jack To A King’ in New York City

After this somewhat rushed sequence, Swansea City find themselves at Wembley (albeit somewhat abruptly as there is no mention of their time in the Championship). Similarly to the description of the relegation decider against Hull, the film does a very good job at capturing the emotions and mood of all involved with the playoff final and the celebrations at full time. The film also provides many déjà vu moments from the match against Hull City eight years prior.

Despite being unable to decipher some of the more minute details of Swansea’s rise through the leagues, the film is an amazing portrayal of a real life rags to riches story. In a modern age where too much media attention is given to the top one percent of the sport and the global superpowers (Barcelona, Madrid, Bayern Munich, Chelsea etc.), this film is an amazing reminder of what the sport is really all about. Without the fans, the sport would be nothing and this story of how the fans saved a football club and within ten years took it to dizzying new heights should be an inspiration to all soccer fans worldwide.

Soccer is a sport that unites all and provides many with a sense of identity. For the people of the City of Swansea in South Wales, their football club was deemed too important to disappear and they took action to ensure that this did not occur. For fans of “big” clubs, this film should be an eye opening experience and a realization that there is a lot more to soccer than exorbitant transfer fees and racking up as many trophies as possible. Whether you support Chelsea or Bristol Rovers, this film is a must see.

Again, I urge anyone in the New York City area to come out and attend one of the next three nights as the film lineup looks superb. Tonight gives the option between a film about Northern Ireland during the 1986 World Cup amidst The Troubles and a satirical film about “The Class of 1992.”

Jack To A King is available to rent or buy on iTunes in the United States.

More information can be found about the films on the Kicking And Screaming Film Festival website.