Cass

As a contemporary of Pennant, and veteran of the 1970's and 1980's terrace culture,I was keen for this film to succeed. Sadly, with some good intentions, it fails, and joins the other flawed attempts to recreate the halcyon days of the hooligan. The authenticity of the background to the film is often well observed. But Director Jon Baird fails to have the expertise, or I suspect the budget, to faithfully realise the period..

Pennant's biography is well written, and a good read. It also covers over 40 years. A 108 minute screen running time, was always likely to be crippled by compromise, vignette and crude symbolism, and so it turns out. His story does have dramatic potential and sociological significance but neither Baird nor Pennant have the discipline or know- how to deliver it.

For lovers of football violence, there is not a lot of it. Three 20 a side rucks with Wolves, Leeds and Newcastle are the set pieces. For an 18 Certificate the grizzly reality of these confrontations is pretty sanitised giving succour to the dreamy, romantic retrospection that it was just like minded boys fighting, and finding a sense of family in hooligan gangs.

The key scene when one of Pennants lieutenants gets jumped by three Arsenal thugs and is slashed to ribbons needing 1000 stitches is strangely understated .Its setting is grimly authentic, three against one, the assailants armed, no chance of defence or escape for the victim. Yet we see only the healed welts on the victims face some time later, not the grim reality of a cowardly, bloody attack.

As a child the casual racism and bullying which "Carol" suffers, alongside a complete lack of personal identity, is well observed. Bravely, time is also found for racism he suffers at the hands of a black Rasta in jail. When his mother dies unexpectedly, his remorse at not having told her how much he loved her is genuinely poignant. Sadly though, these promising scenes are sketched in the same shorthand as the violent ones , which is very frustrating.

The "rucks" themselves are fleshed out with some ageing faces from the past, Bill Gardener,Mark Chester from Stoke, and Gilly from Wolves amongst them. It does not help the realism of the scenes to have time worn middle aged men in amongst what was a pretty exclusively young crowd at the time. This sop to some old boys to enable them to relive their youth is pretty risible. Equally Pennant himself appears uncredited as a bouncer alongside Frank Bruno, also uncredited.West Ham's North Bank and Chicken Run are not mentioned once, the South Bank gets two unreferenced name checks.

One of the best moments in the book is when Pennant steps in to save a random black kid from getting a beating from some racist skinheads – only to discover that he has saved Frank Bruno! Pennants close subsequent links with the boxing fraternity are only dealt with in short hand in the film and his chance meeting with a similarly incarcerated Ambrose Mendy left out all together, as is, inexplicably, his "saving" of Bruno.

Virtual unknown Nonso Anozeo, successfully carries off the role of the adult Pennant.Tamer Hassan plays a convincing cameo as boxer Ray.. Otherwise the ensemble provides background only to the main events. However the fundamental rush of football hooliganism, the massed clashes of sometimes several thousand protagonists is missing. As others have found ,it is very difficult to recreate with so many of the old grounds gone. What grounds and stands do remain are out of bounds to "hoolie" film makers from clubs eager to protect their sanitised reputation.

The hackneyed use of Thatcherite film clips as she pronounces on a subject she knows nothing about is cheap and adds nothing. Amusingly, shots of the infamous Millwall riot at Luton are shown twice, but Millwall, the ICF's great rivals are not mentioned once.

As a stand alone bio pic this is poor. Pennant is no Mandela. If you were there, there is enough to keep your interest but not enough to win your praise. In aiming to be more than a "hoolie film", this bio pic tries to achieve much, but ultimately falls victim to its own over ambition and vanity.

This is the film adaptation of how one Carol "Cass" Pennant rose from being an orphaned black boy, adopted by a white middle aged couple, to being a leader of the notorious football hooligan firm, The ICF.

You know what's funny? That one of the most well known names in the world of British Football Hooliganism is the last in the line of football violence related medium's. Had this film, and Cass' book been ten years ago, it surely would have had a greater impact. Going back to when the Brimson Brothers decided to write about a topic nobody but those involved understood in the mid 90s {source Everywhere We Go}, there has been books galore from what seems almost every footie hoolie mob going. Throw in all the film's and documentaries that have found a distributor since Gary Oldman starrer, The Firm 1988 {ID, Football Factory, Green Street and The Rise Of A Footsoldier etc}, well it's a pretty exhausted subject. So much so, that it's only really those of a certain age, and of an inclination to the topic, that can get much out of what essentially feels like a belated cash in.

In Cass' favour is that Pennant does have an interesting back story from which to launch from. His upbringing, and early struggles with racism is nicely dealt with. It put me in mind with Caroline Gall's book about hooligan outfit Zulu Warriors, where the black and white mix of races became united at football matches {see what I mean about this film trailing in others wake's}. So it be with Cass, it does have a bit of heart to go with its obvious shouty muscle. But here in lies another problem with the film, where does it want to go? What is it asking or telling us? Is Cass conflicted emotionally? Or is he merely using his troubled youth as an excuse for pounding some poor Newcastle fans head in? Pertinent questions that aren't properly answered I feel. There's a nice sequence with Cass in prison, as his racial standing is called into question by a patois spouting convict, but outside of that the film flits between being about a troubled man to an all punching thug. Something that, as I mentioned earlier, is pretty much old hat now guv.

Nonso Anozie does good work as Pennant, and Natalie Press continues to be effective in these type of roles {see Fifty Dead Men Walking}, while the underused Tamer Hassan asserts his scenes in another typecast role. I personally enjoyed the film because I can see that those involved thought a good film could be made about the matters at hand, but I'm afraid that anyone hoping for something fresh are in for one big let down. 6/10

Way more than just a football thuggery story, as our protagonist has to weave his way from being an orphaned Black kid (Nonso Anozie) raised by White foster parents in a predominantly White London east end neighborhood to being a self-respected man with a job, family and peace of mind. Along this most circuitous route, he encounters racism by both Whites and Blacks: by Whites because of his color and by Blacks because of his cockneyed "White" sounding speech patterns and by his reluctance to "go Black" to his so-called African/Jamaican roots. He is quite content to merely be himself and is fully comfortable with his Caucasian foster parents who brought him up with love and attention. He cares far more about his family and his mates than for some artificial and ephemeral political/racial cause. The jail cell scene with the back and forth dialogue between Cass and his "Rasta-ish" cell-mate bears this point out.

But his issues with the aforementioned football thuggery with its concomitant need for constant revenge through violence is keeping him from the realization of his true inner self, the real man he wants to be. The thrust of this film deals with how, over long periods of time, he must manage to extricate those inner demons in order to achieve any sort of lasting peace. And a superlative job indeed is done to portray this metamorphosis by Jon Baird & co., especially the lead role by Nonso. No fancy existential/psychological drama in this hard-hitting, straight-forward piece: just a man in search of himself with the hopes of finding some semblance of a peaceful, fulfilling existence.

As a true story it's never going to feel like a Hollywood blockbuster, but compared to something like The Krays I think it stacks up superbly. This film feels real and as a side point the story should be respected, racism was rife in football at that time so the 'achievement' of Cass is even more remarkable.

I guess I'm a bit biased as I've met the man, met his wife and met his son (who had an extra role in Green Street).

Summary is this; a good film on a really interesting life and even though the narrative is grim, enough in the film to entertain, definitely recommend.

Sure Cass is about hooliganism and has enough of that to fit the bill, but this is good enough to be mainstream viewing.

We found it much better than we expected: good central performances and a great arc lift this from its genre to something better.

It really looks and sounds (the language is what is was, every second word is filth, but then it was) like the British East End 80s down to the council flat doors.

I can honestly recommend this a good well-made film about life in Britain in the early 80s, it is a little light on production and directing values, it is shot too simplistically, but the story is well delivered, it is probably not for your granny (unless she's a hard nut), but deserves a wider audience than just 20 year old males with a footie hard on.