the UK
There are tons of great football movies that you can watch on a Friday night and feel happy. But there is a whole different side of football that most of us tend to forget – hooligans.
This is a culture that developed in the UK. So naturally, most of the greatest movies about it were made there
So if you would rather spend your weekend watching a compelling drama about the darker side of football, here are some suggestions.
The Firm (1989)
The Firm is the movie that started the trend of hooligan movies. It stars Gary Oldman who plays Bex Bissell. Bex is a family man who loves his wife and son. But he also loves violence and is the head of the local gang called the Inner-City Crew (ICC).
Bex’s plan is to unite all the rival firms and lead them together to the Euro’s in Germany. But this is not as easy as one would think. It requires a lot of skull bashing, broken bottles, and knives.
The Firm caused a lot of controversies after it was released and was even banned in certain countries.
I.D. (1995)
I.D. is a story about a policeman John (Reece Dinsdale) and his partner Trevor (Richard Graham) who are assigned to a secret mission with the goal of infiltrating the Dogs’ gang. The Dogs are supporters of the Shadwell Town football club and are responsible for most of the crowd riots that happens during football matches. More so, they are responsible for the majority of crime that occurs in South London.
However, John allows his darker side to take control as he goes deeper and deeper into the life of a hooligan while being undercover. It unleashes the worst in him and causes Trevor to get concerned about both him and the mission.
The Football Factory (2004)
The Football Factory, starring Danny Dyer, is probably the most popular British flick about hooligans that you will come across. Although the story revolves around football hooligans, it is much more than that. It describes a man who is addicted to violence and finds that the only purpose for his existence is to belong to a firm.
The movie has been shot in a documentary-style handheld, making the violence and the story all-together much more realistic and devastating.
Green Street Hooligans (2005)
The story revolves around an American student Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) who is expelled from Harvard. He heads on to London where he meets Pete Dunham (Charlie Hunnam) who gradually starts to draw him into the world of hooliganism.
Matt quickly joins the Green Street Elite, supporters of West Ham United, who are one of the toughest football firms in London. Matt’s new life quickly starts to take a toll on the people he loves the most.
