damian + turion

[160106] Stand Your Ground

I watched Football Hooligans at Golden Village earlier today after school... So what is it all about? For the basics, it isnt a pure football movie just on football.. this is not GOAL... it's more to do with the supporters of a football club, their 'firm' so to speak.

It's a film, starring Elijah Wood and Charlie Hunnam, about football hooliganism in England. In the U.S., the film has the title Green Street Hooligans. In other countries, it has the title 'Football Hooligans' The film previously had the title Hooligans in the U.K.. An American college boy falls in with a violent English football firm and is morally transformed by their commitment to each other.

The film is named after Green Street, a street in Newham where the Boleyn Ground, home to West Ham United, a team notorious in the past for their fans' hooliganism, is. The film has provoked a largely negative response in the borough, with many comments in the local paper, the Newham Recorder, about how they felt that trust had been betrayed and that the area was no longer plagued by football violence.

What's a firm u may ask, no no it isnt the firm as in Lawyers etc but rather a football firm is an is an organized gang – mostly supporting a football club – that engage in fights with firms supporting other clubs. The fights mostly take place far away from the football grounds to make it as hard as possible for police and other law enforcement to interrupt. Football firm violence has in many countries replaced the more unorganized violence related to sports, though in the public eye both forms of violence are considered hooliganism.

The film was based around West Ham's United firm which in the film was known as the Green Street Elites but in actual fact they are known as the Inter City Firm (ICF) in real life... The show basically has quite a basic storyline, not much plot twists except for one towards the end... I had thought 'The Major' referred to Pete's Dad or something.. didnt expect it to turn out the other way... The fight scenes in the film looked decent and realistic enough and the music sound track's not too bad... overall a decent film but if you're not into the football culture, i would think there're other nicer shows around.

Football Hooligans - 2.5 popcorns out of 5

Yesterday's memories