The Football Factory (2004)

The Football Factory (2004)

Directed by Nick Love. Starring: Danny Dyer, Frank Harper, Tamer Hassan, Roland Manookian, Neil Maskell, Dudley Sutton. Drama/Comedy.

Synopsis: A gritty urban drama looking at a group of English working class friends who live for football (soccer), rowdy partying, and fighting rival groups.

First off, American viewers who see this DVD on the shelf should know that it is a misnomer as far as its title, this movie is about soccer fans, the sport known as football everywhere else save the U.S and Canada. And, even getting by that, its also important to realize that this film has very little, if anything, to do with the sport itself. You won't see any scenes of actual action from the English Premier League spliced into the story, nor is the allegiance of the main characters to their favorite team (Chelsea) really developed or demonstrated in any way other than the willingness to fight about it.

Most who follow the world's most popular sport or have paid attention to international news casts over the years are well aware of the (mostly deserved) reputation of some English soccer fans, called "hooligans", who pepper their fanatic devotion to their team with drunkeness, violence, and boorish behavior. This film goes into that, but is non-judgmental and handles it with plenty of humor, most of it dark humor.

The protagonist of the story is Tommy Johnson (Danny Dyer) a working class man who is pushing 30 in age, going on 18 in maturity. Tommy also does the narrartive for us through the movie, as we follow his exploits-set up in the film against the backdrop of the next game for his beloved Chelsea team-along with some of his hard drinking, fight loving buddies, such as best pal Rod (Neil Maskell), group leader Billy Bright (Frank Harper), and Zeberdee (Roland Manookian). We see that the culture on display is passed from generation to generation, as Tommy's grandfather (Dudley Sutton) and his best buddy spend their time drinking, telling WW II stories, chasing women, and, of course, rooting for Chelsea.

The story is told in flashback, with several flashbacks within the main one, not to mention a lot of foreshadowing in the form of Tommy's dreams. The setting and the film are both gritty, but very real and you get a flavor of the lifestyle and the culture very easily. I don't think you have to be a fan of soccer, or knowledgeable about English culture at all to appreciate the characters. Change the accents, have the guys drink Bud instead of Newcastle, and the talk precipitating the fight could be about the Yankees/Red Sox or Celtics/Lakers or Packers/Bears rather than Chelsea/Milwall, and you know, or know of, guys like this.

However, you might not have seen it quite as raw as it shown here, there is a good deal of violence here, most of it by hand, which makes sense when you realize how hard it is to own a handgun in Britain, and almost all of it senseless. The primary means of income for Tommy and his buddies seems to be the casual dealing of Ecstasy, and you get the feeling that any serious profit from this business is frittered away on buying the lines of cocaine that most of the characters are inhaling in several scenes.

The setting and the plot sound rugged and possibly unappealing, but there is an underlying theme to the film, which to me, is the bonding/friendships between males. I know that is kind of vague, but I don't want to do more for fear of being a spoiler, especially of the ending which takes us to a place we might not have anticipated. In addition, there are plenty of laughs throughout.

Nick Love is obviously a very talented director, and those who watch the special features on the DVD will see that he made exactly the kind of movie that he intended to make, and your feeling when meeting some of the actors is that they really aren't all that far apart from their characters, at least in demeanor, and you have to think Love took this into account when casting the film.

A note of warning: there is excessive profanity in the film. I don't think I have ever seen a movie with more use of the "f-word" and, yes, I'm well aware of Scarface and Good Fellas(two of my all time faves), but neither of them comes close. Here it is almost non-stop and coming from all of the major and minor characters including some children. Also, the "c-word", rarely heard in American cinema and, therefore, maybe even more offensive to some, is also sprinkled liberally through the film, even coming from a couple of the rare female characters. And, for those of us with U.S. ears, understand that this isn't James Bond English you are going to hear in the movie, the Cockney dialect is, at least for me and I would think most Americans, a lot harder to follow than the higher class English dialect that we usually hear in movies. But, that could just be because we usually hear it. My point? Even though everyone in the movie is speaking-technically-the "Queen's English"- don't be surprised if you find yourself saying "What the hell did he just say?" a few times and hitting the back button.

I think this is a very good film, and well worth a shot for anyone interested in a very  well directed movie that tells a real story , and does not mind some messy violence, profanity, and a few disturbing cultural themes.   But, if you look up the phrase "its not for everyone" in the dictionary, you'll see a picture of this movie's box cover there. Hopefully, this blog has given you enough to determine for yourself if you think its worth a look for you or not.