The Football Factory

Football Factory does not shamelessly glorify violence like many have said. Violence is obviously a focal part of the movie, but i feel the violence of this movie is shown in a negative light. Through out the movie football hooligans of Chelsea FC are followed in a number of different situations. The turf of other football firms, and the local pubs are where many of the scenes are shot, but despite following the violence of football hooligans, this film is a lot deeper than that. It is about trying to feel a part of something. It is about confused individuals that are looking for something to believe in, and throughout the movie there are internal struggles where the characters battle within their own minds as to what's more important; growing up, or football hooliganism. The violence in this movie isn't gratuitous. It is necessary and factual, and is needed to show the internal struggles of the movies' many confused individuals. Not a bad film, although it is a little rough around the edges.

An auteur is regarded as a director who has a running theme throughout their resume . For example Robert Aldrich is considered a " sadistic " director and whileis films may be tame compared to the video nasty era the likes of TOO LATE THE HERO and ULZANA'S RAID do still come across as compellingly blood thirsty and violent . The films of Martin Scorsese usually involve protagonists being caught in an existentialist quicksand where the more they try and find their goal in life the more they sink into a problem of their own making . Let's not get too caught up in the auteur theory however because much of it is simply down to movie studios assigning scripts to well suited directors " Hey Marty , we've got a script here featuring a deranged loner wanting to join the mob . Bob and Leonardo have already signed on the dotted line . You interested ? " . Nevertheless it's obvious that Nick Love in the years ahead will be honoured in this fashion if only because his films feature blackly comical stories of working class British males fed up with the state of the nation

In terms of style and execution THE FOOTBALL FACTORY isn't a million miles away from the likes of TRAINSPOTTING and TWO SMOKING BARALLS . It's very quirky , rather episodic , fairly violent and oh so bloody entertaining . You could say it contains all the flaws of recent British movies like an overuse of the words " FAHKIN' " and " KANT " but we are talking about the notorious Chelsea headhunters football hooligans and there are admittedly some unlikely coincidences involved such as two of the headhunters burgling a house that belongs to... but unlike Love's later OUTLAW you never feel at how contrived these plot twists are which probably says much of the film's entertainment factor . It could also be that the original source was strong in the first place since I get the feeling that Love totally fails as a screenwriter of original material , certainly the problem with OUTLAW was an underdeveloped script with very underwritten characters who lacked a recognisable motive . Here it's obvious but never overstated that the motivation of becoming a hooligan is to belong to something . And unlike in OUTLAW when something funny happens in THE FOOTBALL FACTORY you genuinely do laugh instead of scratching your head wondering if in fact it's supposed to be funny

I have to confess that I've seen the feature films of Love back to front . I saw OUTLAW when it opened in the cinema in March , I saw THE BUSINESS a couple of months after that and saw THE FOOTBALL FACTORY for the first time last week . If Nick Love had released his films in that order then I would have said that here is a film maker who is really hitting his stride as his films just get better and better . Unfortunately what this means in reality is that Love is on a downhill curve and that nothing has come close to matching THE FOOTBALL FACTORY . One can only hope that the big screen remake of THE SWEENEY , a TV show well remembered for its mixture of black comedy and violence , will see a return to form for an underrated auteur

Football violence is a horrible thing. Period. What "The football factory" shows us is a bit of reasoning behind why, seemingly normal go out and beat the crap out of each other because of a game with 22 guys and a ball. The truth is, it has nothing to do with the game. How the team actually does really doesn't matter, as long as you get to play your rivals because it's about togetherness and escaping the dreariness of everyday life. In a sick a twisted way of course, but it's the only way for these guys. The movie itself goes by at a million miles an hour and gives us characters that seem both believable and real, and a really touching story of a friendship that has lasted through the ages. The main character Tommy is a really interesting one: He knows he's on the path to destruction and through visions of his own demise, he realizes that it's all going to hell and that he (along with the other hang-arounds) are along for the ride. It's a movie that is definitely worth an hour and a half of your time and you Americans should praise yourself lucky that at least you got one thing right: You know how to behave at sporting events (hell, at NFL games they have barbecues out in the parking lot where fans of the opposing teams eat and hang out together. Just imagine that at a Tottenham-Chelsea or Roma-Lazio game!)

Being German I'm not really into the Hooligan way of life. I'm just fond of the Brit way of making films and this one is just brilliant. Of course you can argue about whether the director Nick Love is showing the life of some football thugs too positive and without the "never do this, kids" attitude, but...this is just a great piece of film. It has terrific acting (especially Frank Harper does a great job), splendid camera and editing and a more than suiting soundtrack. Watched it with some pals and it was just great fun. The scene where Rod tells his girlfriend's parents about his inner thoughts is a highlight. So if you're able to shut out all thoughts of moral and you're just interested in 90 minutes of quality film-making of today...watch this. It's definitely all worth it!

The Football Factory is movie about football (soccer) fans. Since they seem to be more interested in fighting than in actually watching the games this is certainly no sports film so don't let the title fool you. It's also based upon a novel that I haven't even heard of, but that could perhaps be because I'm in Sweden.

The Football Factory is a very episodic movie. Mostly it works, but sometimes I felt like I wanted to spend more time with main character Tommy Johnson or that they should at least had focused on fewer characters. Sometimes I felt that a scene was working really well, but the story quickly focused on other things. As I said, more often than not the episodic feel works fine, but not all the time.

As in almost all English movies the acting's great. From minor characters to main characters... they feel real. I especially think the voice over sounds very authentic: it's Tommy speaking, not actor Danny Dryer reading.

I think this is a good movie, it's rather violent and upsetting at times, but also funny and entertaining.