Football Hooliganism; It's A Mug's Game (The Football Factory (DVD))

Member Name: rleigh

Product:	The Football Factory (DVD)
Date:	11/03/08 (160 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An excellent film, by far the best of its genre.

Disadvantages: Doesn't focus at all on football as a game.

'The Football Factory' is the 2004 film from the director Nick Love. It stars Danny Dyer and just as the title would inform you, it focuses on football hooliganism and the violence that takes place when two rival football firms come together. Football violence has long been a fascination of mine, it's an exciting and yet really quite ridiculous element of the great game that is football. When football games are played, it is often organised beforehand a meeting place for the game, an arena at which to fight it out; a clash of the titans as fans from either side pit it out in a no holds barred brutal bloody battle.

The FA Cup is without doubt the most exciting event in domestic football. The Premiership is the top league, but in the FA Cup anything can happen and it is this that makes it such an exciting cup event. Teams of all level and ability take part, and all teams involved would love to eventually be drawn against a team from the top flight. For football hooligans the FA Cup has a similar draw, there are many top football firms in the country and not all of which are in the top league. Millwall for example have a strong reputation for having a nasty football firm, they're one of the leading names in the world of football violence and yet their football team are only in the third tier of football. For teams such as Chelsea, the only opportunity to play competitively against Millwall in a season would come either in the FA Cup or the League Cup, and with 'The Football Factory' this is exactly what happens.

It's the day of the FA Cup third round draw, we're shown various Chelsea fans around London as they wait for the draw to be made in their various hangouts. Although they're all separate, they're joined in the act of listening to the draw and waiting to see what the cup will have in store for them. What they were all hoping for happens, 'Millwall will play Chelsea' and so it all begins. There are a couple of weeks before the game takes place and already they Chelsea football hooligans are gearing themselves up for the big game, games like this don't come around very often at all and when they do you need to make the most of them.

The film follows the lives of a number of Chelsea fans in the lead up to the big game, one of whom just happens to be Danny Dyer. Ever since 'Human Traffic' he has appeared in British cinema such as this. He even gave his voice to the hit video game 'Grand Theft Auto: Vice City' in 2002, a game that is actually played at one point during this film. Danny Dyer is well suited in roles such as this and plays his part incredibly well I feel. He has a hard man swagger about his character, a cocky cockney geezer with a penchant for taking drugs. Danny Dyer has actually starred in all four of director Nick Love's films since 2001. He appears in not only 'The Football Factory', but 'The Business', 'Outlaw' and 'Goodbye Charlie Bright' also. The director is obviously a great admirer of the actor that is Danny Dyer, and given the types of films that all four of these films are; it is no surprise that he chose Danny Dyer to appear in them all. Danny Dyer has without doubt become typecast, but he suits the genre perfectly and I actually feel that outside this genre of violence and crime he would not be very well suited anywhere at all.

The performances are all pretty strong in this film, the cast are well chosen and all those involved are believable in their football hooligan roles. It takes a certain type of person to play a part of this sort, and everyone selected was obviously picked well as no one looks at all out of place (which is more than can be said of the 2005 film 'Green Street' in which the Lord of the Rings hobbit Elijah Wood stars as one of the main hooligans of the film). It is easily comparable to the 2005 release 'Green Street' and yet in my opinion 'The Football Factory' is done a hell of a lot better. The plot line of 'Green Street' is similar in that it follows the lives of West Ham fans in the lead up to an FA Cup game against Millwall, but the two films just don't even compare. 'Green Street' is so full of factual inconsistencies that at times it's just painful to watch. There is clearly a lack of research that went in to the making of 'Green Street', but 'The Football Factory' is done well and is therefore a much more believable and enjoyable film to watch. Compared to its competition, 'The Football Factory' is fantastic and stands strong as my favourite film of this sort.

When watching 'The Football Factory' you get a real feel for the characters and as you watch it all unfold you don't want things to go drastically wrong for anyone. When you actively take part in football violence then you run the risk of seriously getting hurt, it's a fact of life that if you regularly participate in street fighting then the likelihood is that sooner or later someone is going to do some serious damage to you. You want things to pan out smoothly for this bunch of Chelsea fans and yet ultimately you feel that if they were to get hurt then it would be their own stupid fault for taking part in football hooliganism in the first place. Not all fans of football participate in the violence side of things, in fact those that do so are in the minority and at times give a bad name to the mass majority of football fans that do not behave in this way. Football hooliganism is a British culture that will perhaps never die, it's a way or proving masculinity and showing to others that you're man enough to throw a punch and provide pain to another individual. It's stupid, but it's true.

'The Football Factory' is an excellent British film and one that I personally hold in particularly high regard. There are few British films that I appreciate as much as this, but this genuinely is one of my favourite British films of all time and is one that I can watch again and again without ever tiring of. Football is a great area of interest to me as is football hooliganism, it's a part of the game that has been present for many years and although not everyone will agree with it, it's existence can not be ignored. I am a great fan of all Nick Love's films, and 'The Football Factory' is just one of four astonishingly brilliant films that he has directed. It's now four years since this film was released and nothing of its type has even come anywhere close to topping it. 'The Football Factory' remains to be the best film of its genre and will probably stay there for some years to come. I can't recommend this film enough, it's excellence astonishes me with every viewing and never yet has Nick Love disappointed as a director.


Director: Nick Love
Year of release: 2004
Genre: Crime/Drama
Language: English
Runtime: 91 mins
BBFC Rating: 18

Summary: 'The Football Factory' is a brilliant film, it's focus on football hooliganism is fantastic.