Hooligans

This was my favorite movie back in my teens, I still love it and I always will but I do acknowledge it's not perfect. The acting is sometimes way over the top and Charlie Hunnam's London accent is worse than mine and I'm not even a native speaker. The story is simple yet appealing, it's easy to get invested into it. The unlikely event that an American Harvard student moves to London and becoming a football/soccer hooligan is oddly appealing and it made me curious as to what's gonna happen next. I was not completely sold on the drama elements but what this movie lacks in complexity it makes up for in entertainment value. When I saw this for the first time I was on the edge of my seat throughout the entire movie.

If you looking for popcorn entertainment this is the movie for you.

If you looking for a deep story that will stick with you, you may wanna look elsewhere.

First of all there hasn't been a good film about English Football Hooliganism. Both ID in 1995 and last years FOOTBALL FACTORY either failed to convince or just went down the familiar exploitative road of glamorising the buzz and thrill of violence.

HOOLIGANS as the title suggests depicts what these aforementioned films centre upon with the added value of having a story and characters you care about. There's no avoiding the cliché's as the ranks of these organised gang members are portrayed as gangsters.

Similar to BBC's Gary Oldman drama THE FIRM broadcast in 1986 it also show the characters as normal members of society, family men with respectable jobs. FOOTBALL FACTORY took the extreme and unconvincing scenario that these weekend animals are florist's during the week which might be amusing but the subject matter of organised territorial football hooliganism needs to be given a serious look at.

Fortunately HOOLIGANS portrays this more realistically, sure there's the stereo types in designer clothes (The Chavs) as we call them now where loyalty, respect, revenge, dignity and pride are what they live for, not the enjoyment of the actual sport. This simply acts as the excuse to fight in a traditional gang warfare environment. The prospect of West Ham's cup tie with Millwall brings joy to the faces of both sets of fans.

Casting Elijah Wood is a bold move, he looks like a Choirboy but this adds to the films main storyline of innocence corrupted. The acting is better than average, despite letting his cockney accent slip on occasions, Gang leader Charlie Hunnam shows a genuine mix of anger, aggression and compassion which holds the film together.

This won't win awards but it's refreshing to see a film finally tackling the subject matter that unfortunately has been a shameful factor of Britain's attitude towards football as we are constantly under threat of being disqualified from International tournaments due to the bad behaviour of soccer hooligans.

As an English ex-pat and a football fan, I went along to the Alamo Draft House hoping for the best but expecting the worst. I got the best. This film is simply brilliant and finally provides us with an accurate portrayal of life amongst the hooligans in a way The Football Factory or ID never did.

Central to this are the amazing fight scenes and the performances of the primary actors with Hunnam in particular doing an outstanding job. And if anyone believed that all Elijah Wood movies would forever be tainted with the image of Frodo Baggins, think again. Within about 10 seconds of screen time, any lingering thoughts of LOTR are gone.

Yet whilst the direction, actors and the stunts will attract all the plaudits, for me, the main reason why this film works so well is the very clever story and the amazing script. Yes, in many respects the subject has been 'Americanised' but it has been done in a way which is very subtle. I suspect that much of the credit for this goes to the writer Dougie Brimson because it is obvious very early on that there was a strong English influence on both the plot and the dialogue.

Given the level of violence, not to mention the subject matter, I'm not that sure mainstream America will respond that well to it but for me, the big test will come when it's shown in England but I suspect like me, the English audiences are going to love it.

It has been interesting reading the comments here. It might be helpful to some, particularly our American and Canadian cousins, to have a little background information on the West Ham following over the years.

For some years (approx. 1967 - 1985) and before I realised the error of my ways and retired I was an active member of the West Ham mob, which was made up of several different firms from around the East End and parts of Essex. The main ones being the Mile End ('67 to around '74) and the TBF ('70's & '80's). The ICF got going around 1978 and carried through to the '90's. It was more of an umbrella name given to the combined firms who all came together for the away games. The West Ham mob consisted of between 300 to 400 individuals. The ranks would sometimes be swelled by several hundred regular supporters, so called scarfers (non violent). Often, particularly mid week matches up north, there could be significantly less. It would not be unusual to find oneself on a freezing cold terrace for a night game mid winter only 30-40 handed and outnumbered by a hostile opposition 20-1. It made for some hair raising experiences, particularly trying to navigate back to the railway station after the game through some pretty hostile unfamiliar back streets. West Ham always had a reputation for sticking together and never leaving anyone behind. There were some fearless individuals who held the line no matter the odds and the expectation was that everyone would stand with them. You earned respect by not bottling out, even if you were not much of a scrapper and had legs like jelly.

Our traditional rivals have always been Millwall. Correctly depicted in the film. This rivalry goes back at least to the 1920's and is steeped in the history of the London Docklands. West Ham also have a particular aversion to Manchester United and Chelsea for differing reasons.

Any West Ham supporter who was there will tell you that the most violent clash ever at a football match involving the club, and there have been many over the years, was actually a friendly. A mid week testimonial game against Millwall at the old Den (Millwall's old stadium) in 1972. Fortunately the two clubs play in different leagues and therefore do not play each other much, no doubt to the great relief of the Metropolitan Police.

Now to the film, I was expecting I would not enjoy Green Street as I had been disappointed by all the other Hooli films that had gone before. However, despite a questionable story line and some glaring inaccuracies, including the abysmal accent of the lead character played by Charlie Hunnam, I quite liked it. One has to make allowances for the fact that this was fictional and not a documentary. I thought the acting was generally pretty good and the camera work was of a high standard.

I am afraid that the Elijah Wood character would not have made it into our firm in my day. He would have been politely pointed in the direction of the scarfers and told to tag along with them, not because he was an American, if he genuinely supported West Ham this would have been good enough for us, no it would have been because he would have been considered a liability and we would have had to assign someone to keep an eye on him.

Finally in the real world the GSE would never have been the top firm down at Upton Park. The age range was too narrow and physically they were too light weight compared to some of the real life characters who graced the West Side, the South Bank and the Chicken Run.

Irons!!!

Let me start off by saying that I absolutely loved this movie. I've been waiting for it to come out in DVD in the United States for a very long time and I was amazed that the movie lived up to my high expectations.

Reading through the comments others have made about this movie, I was shocked that so many people hated it. It seems that many people, mostly Brits, hated the movie because they didn't think it was realistic enough, there were too many clichés, and because Charlie Hunnam's impression of a cockney accent wasn't very good.

I don't get it. First off, this is a fictional movie, not a documentary. I thought the plot of this movie was very compelling. Yes, you do have to suspend your disbelief a bit, but you have to do that for almost every movie made. Some folks simply could not accept Elijah Wood as a tough guy. I agree that it's difficult to picture Frodo as a tough guy, but I thought he did a very good job. I also thought Charlie Hunnam was OUTSTANDING. He has an incredible screen presence and I look forward to seeing him in future movies. Mark Warren was also great. In fact, the entire supporting cast was great in this film. Claire Forlani was great, Leo Gregory was fantastic, all of the guys that played Pete's friends were great (even the guy that played Tommy Hatcher was perfect). GREAT performances all around!!!

This is a great film. I've already ordered a copy for my DVD collection. I've seen it three times and I will watch it again when my copy arrives. It's that good! I give it an 8 out of 10.