Customer Reviews

The Football Factory

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A guy I work with brought me a copy of the UK version of this DVD and being a soccer fan I gave it a watch. Damn! What a great time. I had just finished reading "Among the Thugs" which is a brilliant book about Football (what we call soccer) Hooligans and then this movie comes along. It is NOT a documentary so there is a story to follow and characters to like and hate. It has some great fights ala Fight Club and the comedy is british and dark, kinda like Snatch or Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels. I have not stopped talking about the movie since I watched it. It comes out the day after Christmas which is lucky for friends and family or they would all be getting this under the tree! Sit back, relax, enjoy, and thank god this doesn't happen at NFL games!

As I travelled across London in the "tube" one Saturday in the early 70's, the train stopped at a station In East Ham. To the bemusement of the existing passengers the people who boarded the cars were "fans" of the London Football team West Ham United. Characteristically these fans wore the affected uniform of the day, skinhead haircuts, rolled up jeans held up by braces, or as you would understand the term, suspenders, black crombie overcoats and the ubiquitous white t-shirt. They were off to watch their team play at home and euphemistically, for a bit of bovver, the nickname of their boots, Doctor Martens. They were loud and loutish on the train jeering and picking on anyone who was not white and we all breathed a collective sigh of relief when they disembarked.

Jump forward thirty years or so and some things have changed while others have not. Football grounds have demolished the terraces and the white working class males have been usurped by the middle classes who are the only ones who can afford the seats. The manic fans have changed too. Whereas once they were mindless gangs bored out of their minds and easy prey for neo-Nazi groups, the serious troublemakers have organised the firms which charaterize some of soccer's premier league fans and who are identified by British police and deterred from following Engk=land overseas.

Whereas the story of the seventies was told in short novels with the imaginative titles of 'Skinhead' followed later by 'Suedehead' and other similar titles, today we have the Football Factory.

This is a tense, gripping story which induces a feeling of fear for the less worldly viewer. It has an all too real sense of reality about it as anyone with experience with living in a major British city will tell you. Not for the first time has a British movie shocked the viewer with such language and mindless brutality. Not for the first time has a British movie exposed the alienation of disaffected British youth, although those movies were more common in Mrs. Thatcher's day than under the Blair regime. Indeed this movie is an attack on the politics of Blair although the overt references here are subdued in volume. The tensions between the old and new generations are highlighted by the superb performance of Dudley Sutton although this was spoilt at the end when the central character awakes in a hospital bed after a major beating to find himself next to Sutton whp plays his grandfather. Given the distance between the two incidents which led them to being in the hospital in the first place it is extremely unlikely that they would have even been in the same hospital never mind the same ward.

This does not detract from the movie which feels almost like a documentary never mind a drama. The plot is rather thin given the subject matter but the result is a microcosm of the life of members of one of these firms and it is clear from my own experience that the researchers have done a very thorough job.

As a movie this is an excellent piece of work although I suspect that the civil authorities in the US will have serious reservations about it's screening and general release on DVD.

Rather as entertainment, people should understand the seriousness of the subject matter being shown on their screens. There are many lessons to be drawn on both sides of the Atlantic about the way in which our societies are developing in the light of the existance of organisations such as these. But on a cautionary note, the firms of the movie are not as widespread and football matches are not dangerous to visit, in general but the casual visitor might want to do some homework before they go to one.

Five stars.

Football Factory is in line with the like of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. If you are English as we are you will enjoy this movie, very true to real life.

First we had that quality film the Firm then we had the dross that followed it. This film follows the exploits of chelsea lads who are part of a firm intent on violence towards other like minded individuals of other rival teams.

Problem is we get the same boring super firm stereotype, never get beat, all a 'larrf, over exaggerated cockney rhyming slang (Its like Alf Garnett on speed) walk like a penguin (or a 3rd rate imitation of Oasis) The film just drifts along at a walking pace to nowhere. So what some of them live in nice houses, so what some of them have families (Haven't we seen this all before with the film The Firm?)

Boring, pointless and a waste of valuable time that could have been spent cleaning the drains or checking the guttering on the roof.

This movie provides a glimpse into the lives of lower middle class English youth for whom savage battles over football matches and never heard of towns are the most important part of their otherwise quietly desperate lives. The poignant interplay between the two of old men in the movie somehow made the film seem more real and even more sad. The fight scenes really seemed to capture the chaos and confusion of that lifestyle. No explanations given and no apologies necessary. It held my attention from start to finish. A good watch for mature folks; the randomness of the violence intermixed with snippets of private life made the movie seem more real to me. I had to order this after watching it at a friend's house - He is a huge soccer fan and I believe he picked up the movie in Europe. Recommended.

Watch this movie.....Hooliganism and drugs...what else does a movie need....well, could have used a little more sex, but that's just my opinion. Pure entertainment the whole way through. Don't expect to see any football in this movie. This movie portrays the passion of football....or maybe more so, Hooliganism.....but it's still good to be passionate about something in life, right? Well written, good acting, & very humorous on top of everything else. A must see for any football (proper football, as in 'soccer') fanatic, or for anyone else that is passionate about any one thing in life.

The best fictional hooligan movie I've ever seen(not like there are too many out there) For those who try to get you to watch Green Street Hooligans, don't waste your time. Watch this, full of humor and hard hits.

I thought the movie was really good and the dialogue is pretty good as far as British flicks go, I liked it a lot but I think the movie "Green Street Hooligans" is actually a better movie, but don't get me wrong a different storyline is always good and this movie has quite a bit of fighting in it, but you'll have to judge everything for yourself.

This is a wild film. The whole concept of going to a sports event where the only intention is to kick butt on the opposing team's fans escapes me, but it seems to be the order of the day in England. This film involves a group of guys that are in a "firm" (read: illegal consortium) who do little more than drink, take drugs and fight. The story centers around one of the gang, Tommy Johnson, who is having bad dreams which he thinks might be telling him he's heading down the wrong path.

Johnson is played well by Danny Dyer who I've seen in other movies. There are other faces I recognized but the only other name I recognized was Dudley Sutton who's been around forever.

This is a very kinetic film. Others have likened it to a Guy Ritchie film and that is a more than fair assessment. Things move at near break-neck speed so the viewer doesn't have the time to get bored. All the production values and music are pro level so the bones don't show. My only gripe is that I barely understood one word of dialogue. The accents and slang are so thick I was only able to catch the general drift of what was happening. Had I had subtitles I'm sure this would have been even more interesting. As it stands it's a good watch. If you liked Green Street hooligans this should be right up your alley.

This film is perfect for Chelsea fans or just fans of football! I'd definitely recommend watching it!