Green Street

One of the many brutal fight scenes in "Green Street"


This movie (released to about 10 screens in the US under the name "Green Street Hooligans") depicts life as a member of a football 'firm', which is what the Brits call a gang of football fans who have a penchant for violence. To understand the nature, I'll explain a quick bit of history. Back in the 60's, 70's and 80's, football grounds had no seating, there were only railings, known as terraces, where fans would stand and watch the entire game. If you were in a visiting team's firm, the goal was to rush over to where the home fans were standing and 'take over' their area, by violent means if they didn't run straight away. Successful invasions from the away supporters would help them gain respect from other teams, just as a home team successful defending their area or running the away fans out.

Obviously, due to the amount of violence this caused, it is no longer an occurance in football stadiums. But as a consequence, the firms (which still do exist in the dark alleys and pubs of England) have moved into the streets. Specifically, "Green Street" is about an American college student who was wrongly kicked out of Harvard and through coincidental circumstances falls in with West Ham United's firm, the Green Street Elite (yes, the very team I went and saw and whose ground is the picture of my Facebook profile. I didn't see any hooligans though).

The film is, of course, very brutal and contains several extended scenes of graphic violence, but it's also very true in some senses. I don't think firms are as prevalent as they used to be, and you never see articles in the papers about hooligans anymore, but I'm sure they still exist. The truthfulness comes though, from the fact that some kid could just fall in with them and get wrapped up in it. As was clearly shown by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, humans are, at their essence, animals. And when the law isn't close at hand or you've had a few pints, they can often revert to that sort of behavior.

Ebert makes a great point in his review that at first he was thinking of all of the different people who would have been better for the part of an American who goes to England and gets in fights all the time than Elijah Wood, but then he realized that was exactly what the movie was about. Any normal person could fall into the same trap that Wood's character does, and it's that much more realistic when its an innocent-faced, unsuspecting actor like Elijah Wood.

posted by Brad @ 1:57 PM 0 comments