Purely Belter

Mark Herman's (2000) film, drawn from Jonathan Tullock's novel 'Season Ticket', is set in Newcastle upon Tyne in the late '90s.

It weaves the tale of Gerry (Chris Beattie) and Sewell (Greg McLane) as they struggle to make sense of the deficiencies in their fractured lives and solve their insoluble problems, with football.

Within the framework of the close friendship between these two young men, we join them on a journey around Newcastle which can have only one ultimate destination - St James' Park, the home of the 'Toon', Newcastle United Football Club.

But the route is tortuous and led by the fertile imagination and determination of Gerry, Sewell and the rest of us are drawn along as we get to know the characters who populate their special world.

Gerry's semi-absent father (Tim Healy) terrorises the family between safe houses, beating his mother (Charlie Hardwick) and abusing his sister (Kerry Ann Christiansen) as he goes, while Sewell's grandfather (Roy Hudd) struggles to fill the gap left by his parents who have absconded long ago.

Yet, despite everything that confronts them, they unite together with a single, simple achievable aim in life - season tickets to watch Newcastle play.

This is a great film which - like Mark Herman's earlier films 'Brassed Off' and 'Little Voice' - contains the essential spirit of the region it reflects. What shines through is the indominatable spirit and irrepressible resilience of the young.

As the film closes a final unexpected twist places our two heroes exactly where they have wanted to be all along.

I saw this movie on a sort-of premiere thinking "this must be a crap flick", I didn't even know what the title means. But it actually turned out to be enjoyable, funny and heartbreaking little movie. All the performances were excellent, the script is good and the atmosphere is perfect for a British low class setting. If you have a chance, see it.

"You take after your granddad. No words, just dribble and puke." A grandmother tells her teenage daughter's baby "Shearer". Mark Herman's follow-up to his excellent Brassed Off and Little Voice, is a gritty slice of contemporary Geordie life. This Four Film production introduces newcomers Chris Beattie (looks like a miniature Shearer) as Gerry and Greg McLane as unemployed Sewell. They're on a seemingly impossible mission to raise the £1000 for season tickets to see their beloved Newcastle United. While they think up increasingly outlandish money-making schemes - from selling household junk to shoplifting and the odd bit of housebreaking - real life begins to inferere. Gerry's violent and alcoholic father (Tim Healy of Auf Wiedersehn fame putting in a memorable 'orrible performance) forces his way back into his family's life. Like Herman's previous features, Purely Belter is laced with bittersweet comedy and some stunning dialogue ("No Alan [Shearer], not Celine f***ing Dion"), but it somehow lacks the emotional cohesion.

Rougher and less stylised than Herman's previous features Brassed Off and Little Voice, Purely Belter nevertheless contains elements fast becoming his trademark. Sharp comic dialogue sugaring a pill of biting social satire; life for the post-Thatcher working class; and those little things that make life bearable, but end up cutting you off from life. In Brassed Off it was Danny and his band, in Little Voice LV and her records, and for Gerry and Sewell it's football.

Like Gerry, I am a passionate football fan who has only just been to her first match - Glentoran v. Liverpool in Belfast. A pre-season friendly, not even at Anfield. But when Robbie Fowler - my favourite player - scored, my primal yell of 'YESS!!' started at my feet and rushed through all my veins. It was wonderful. Herman captures that feeling even when the lads enter the despised ground of their enemies Sunderland.

In Brassed Off and Little Voice, Danny and LV break free of their obsessions into lives which are far from perfect, but real. But Gerry and Sewell don't. Maybe because they're so much younger: Danny can remember when the mine was thriving, LV remembers when her Dad was alive. Gerry and Sewell have only ever known this life. Only ever been waiting for Saturday to come.

Perhaps that makes this the darkest of the three films. Perhaps not. Purely Belter will thoroughly entertain you, and if you let it, it will make you really think.

Soccer is without any doubt the most popular sport in Europe. The supporters can be very fanatic and for some every excuse is good enough to spend a lot of money on their favorite team. But it's also in this stadiums that people from all classes come together and not everybody is able to buy a ticket week after week because they are too poor. Their love for a soccer club can sometimes get out of hand and that's where this movie has found its inspiration.

It tells the story of two young boys who live in a rough neighborhood of the industrial city of Newcastle and who want to buy season tickets for their local football team Newcastle United. But because they don't have any money they will have to try anything to find some. They try to find some scrap metal which they can sell, but will also steal, try to rob a bank and do many other illegal stuff. But their actions don't go by unnoticed and soon they are caught by the justice department. Their dream of going to the football that season is over or isn't it...

The movie makers in the UK seem to prefer socially realistic dramas over other genres of movies (although costume dramas are popular as well) and I must say that I can appreciate that. It's that feeling of realism that keeps me interested time after time and when they add some very fine humor to it like they have done in this movie, I only like it more. There are people who will say that it is hard to like little criminals like the boys in this movie, but personally I don't have any problem with it. Fact is that there are indeed still a lot of impoverished areas in the industrial cities and why should these areas or the people that live there not be shown in a movie? Is it because that only disrupts some people's image of a perfect society? I don't know, but it isn't so that the movie glorifies the actions of the boys. It actually gives some biting social commentary on the broken families where they come from, the poverty which they live in,...

Even though I'm not a soccer fan I really had a good time watching this movie. That's why I would like to say that, even when you hate the game, you can still like the movie. Watch it for the biting criticism, the fine humor, the good acting by the boys,... and you'll notice that this movie is underrated by many. I give this movie a 7.5/10.