Kenny Dalglish Review: Long Live The King

Asif Kapadia’s Kenny Dalglish is a heartfelt tribute to the Scotland and Liverpool legend, albeit lacking the bite of his best work.

This lad from Glasgow who made good on the promise he showed from his youth seems an unlikely subject for a documentary from Asif Kapadia. The Academy Award-winning director has cornered the market on cautionary tales, but he locates enough tragedy amongst the talent in Kenny Dalglish to play to his strengths, and a compelling (if unremarkable) portrait emerges.

Kapadia made his name with a trio of documentaries about great practitioners of their chosen crafts, but none of them share Kenny Dalglish’s sense of optimism. The new film may lack the personal tragedy of Amy and Senna, but it’s more accessible than the flawed central figure of Diego Maradona. Like that film, Kenny Dalglish is made with the cooperation of the man himself, providing narration and offering all manner of reminisces. Dalglish doesn’t have the off-putting ego of Maradona, and Kapadia relishes the relative lightness he offers as a subject. After those three documentaries, the director released two films in 2024. The celebratory cheer of Federer: Twelve Final Days was balanced out by the doommongering of 2073. In 2025, Kenny Dalglish stands on its own as a pleasant time spent with a man deserving of a laudatory tribute.

The chirpy tone of the film is laid down in the opening credits, which appear alongside comic book panels illustrating highlights from Dalglish’s football career in the style of ‘Roy of the Rovers’, soundtracked to The Beatles’ ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’. Much as the Fab Four rose from the backstreets of Liverpool to conquer the world, young Dalglish came from the working class suburbs of northern Glasgow to conquer Liverpool. Showing talent as a footballer from a young age, he signed with Glasgow Celtic at the age of 16, where he went on to win four Scottish Division One titles. It is heartwarming to see a naturally gifted player be given the chance he deserves and deliver, but the first half of Kenny Dalglish is best enjoyed by football fans.

Kapadia’s previous films had an inevitability that gave them pathos and an edge. For a good portion of Kenny Dalglish, that edge is lacking, as his story went on a near-uninterrupted upward trajectory. 10 years after his professional career began, a move to Liverpool would cement Dalglish’s status as a legend of the sport, and all the while he maintains his humility and his marriage. Sections on his relationship with his wife Marina (Married on her 21st birthday, and still together 51 years later) are sweet, while fond contributions from teammates Graeme Souness and Alan Hansen show what made the trio a formidable combination. Five first division titles, four League cups and three European cups with Liverpool by the mid-1980s are all well and good, but this rosy rise has limits from a narrative point of view. Had his upwards streak continued, Kenny Dalglish would have become pure hagiography, but it finds a new sense of purpose when tragedy rears its head.

Having achieved his heights as a player under legendary managers Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley, Dalglish took on a morbid new challenge. In 1985, he became the player-manager of Liverpool the day after the Heysel Stadium disaster in Brussels, in which 39 rival Juventus fans died. Like Kapadia’s previous docs, Kenny Dalglish is built on skilful assembly of archive footage, but Kapadia is in his element with the new sombre tone into which Kenny Dalglish must shift. Scenes of the aftermath of the disaster lead into the film grappling with wider issues, such as the rising spectre of football hooliganism, and the economic deprivation from which it arose.

Dalglish became a guiding figure for Liverpool as both a club and a city, and his influence was particularly apparent after the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, in which 97 Liverpool fans died in a crush. As Dalglish expresses his upset and revulsion of the unwarranted vilification of the city by the press, police and politicians, Kapadia shares in his anger. Footage of police showing then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher around the stadium in the aftermath only highlights their impotence in the face of such a toll, while press clippings from the time accusing the Liverpool fans of wrongdoings continue to boil the blood. In its latter half, Kenny Dalglish finds a voice in its anger, one that reflects the burden placed on his shoulders. Kapadia ensures Dalglish’s contributions to the city are known. He went on to lead the club to further titles after both disasters, but also led the fans in mourning the dead.

Kenny Dalglish aims to capture the many roles Dalglish has filled for his fans, but it doesn’t unearth a great deal that even casual fans don’t already know. He was skilled, empathetic and a leader both inside and outside the clubs he played for and managed, but that is already well documented. Kenny Dalglish underlines why he’s rightfully known as ‘King Kenny’ but, in choosing such a burnished and righteous subject, can’t do much more than that.

Kenny Dalglish will be released in U.K. and Irish cinemas for one night only on 29 October, 2025, and will be available to stream on Prime Video from 4 November.