The Football Fight Club (Green Street (Hooligans) (DVD))

Member Name: rleigh

Product:	Green Street (Hooligans) (DVD)
Date:	19/03/08 (620 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A decent film that focuses on the greatly interesting subject of football hooliganism.

Disadvantages: The film is full of factual inconsistencies.

'Green Street' is the 2005 film from director Lexi Alexander. It focuses on football hooliganism, and in particular the fictitious West Ham football firm of the Green Street Elite. The film is Lexi Alexander's first full length feature film as director and is one of which she is also the executive producer and writer of the screenplay. As a keen follower of football I was eager to see what she had to offer with 'Green Street' and as soon as it was released in 2005 I was quickly off to view it.

As the film begins young Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) is wrongly expelled from Harvard university and not knowing what else to do he makes his way off to London to visit his sister Shannon where she lives happily with her husband Steve. It is here that he is exposed to the world of football hooliganism, taken one day to a football game by Steve's brother Pete (Charlie Hunnam) he is soon introduced to all other members of the firm and before long is initiated as the newest member of the Green Street Elite. This is London's toughest football firm, and as the FA Cup draw is announced it turns out that West Ham will be playing Millwall; a club with which the Green Street Elite share a torrid and turbulent past. In the build up to playing Millwall, West Ham also play Birmingham along the way, scrapping with their firm in this encounter. Tension builds in the lead up to the Millwall game and a series of events unfold as the big game draws ever closer.

What I've always seen as the weakest element of this film is its casting. Two main people are focussed on here, the first of which starred in 'Queer as Folk', and the second was Frodo Baggins in 'The Lord of the Rings' films. Neither of these two are at all convincing as football hooligans and you just have to wonder why this pair were picked to be the central focus of the film. Elijah Wood made a great hobbit, but he's not quite so convincing in a Stone Island jacket throwing punches. The image of Charlie Hunnam is a lot more convincing, and whilst he looks a lot more at home in his role as a football hooligan his accent certainly leaves a lot to be desired. With them being followers of West Ham, Charlie Hunnam is meant to have an East London accent and whilst it does at times comes across quite pronounced, his voice is full of inconsistencies and at times comes across as really rather posh. His accent takes on a number of different forms, something that is apparent right from the beginning of the film and by the end was really grating on me. Other than these two everyone is well picked, particularly Charlie Humman's right hand man Bovver played by Leo Gregory. He is suitably psychotic in his role, a greatly believable football hooligan and one of the true stand out performances of the film. Leo Gregory deserves great credit for the acting ability he shows here, he puts everything he's got into the character of Bovver and really helps him to come to life as this unpredictable loose cannon of an individual.

Despite my complaints with the casting of this film, 'Green Street' is actually greatly enjoyable and is a film that I have happily watched many a time over the past few years. It's not as good as the similar film ' The Football Factory' I feel, but nonetheless is an interesting one to watch and is good for different reasons. When West Ham are playing Birmingham City in this film, the team that is actually shown that they are playing is Gillingham F.C. and throughout the film there are a number of factual inconsistencies in this sense that at times make for extremely irritating viewing. Despite this, the way in which this film progresses is incredibly strong and the films ending is particularly powerful. I shan't ruin it for all those that have not seen 'Green Street', but what I will say is that the ending to this film blew me away the first time I saw this film and still impresses me hugely to this day. With some films the ending can be a huge let down, but that is definitely not the case here and as the film comes to its close you feel a great sense of satisfaction with what you have just been a witness to.

The soundtrack to this film is extremely well chosen with tracks played throughout the film by bands such as Kasabian and the Stone Roses. The use of music within the film adds great depth and atmosphere I feel, helping to improve the film on the whole and giving it the electricity which it possesses. The music never fails to impress and always at all stages of the film the tracks fit perfectly with everything that is taking place on screen. The West Ham anthem 'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles' is repeated throughout the film also, a nice touch that caps the film off brilliantly. The song has been sung as a club anthem by West Ham fans since the late 1920s, and along with Liverpool's 'You'll Never Walk Alone' must go down as one of the best known anthems in English football. The film actually comes to its final close as Elijah Wood walks down the street singing it at the top of his voice, it's a great end to the film and shows the transformation of a quiet American student into a hardened hooligan of London's hardest and most fearsome football firm.

'Green Street' has its flaws, but ultimately it's a greatly enjoyable football flick and in my opinion to watch this would be 105 minutes well spent. The time flies by when watching this, it's an absolutely excellent film in many senses and for those that do not follow English football then most of the flaws would not even be at all noticeable. For fans of the hit film 'The Football Factory' this is an absolute must, and whilst 'Green Street' may be a lot glossier than its main rival; I'd certainly not say that it disappoints. The film shows exaggerated levels of football violence to that of the norm in order to enhance the entertainment value of 'Green Street', but I certainly shan't be holding this against the film and without doubt would recommend this to all as a vital viewing experience. You don't need a great appreciation of football to accept that this is an excellent film, it's not perfect but definitely does the trick as an entertaining and greatly enjoyable football thriller.


Director: Lexi Alexander
Year of release: 2005
Genre: Crime/Drama
Language: English
Runtime: 105 mins
BBFC Rating: 18

Summary: 'Green Street' has its problems but is an ultimately enjoyable football film.