Green Street
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| Green Street | |
|---|---|
 Green Street movie poster |
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| Directed by | Lexi Alexander |
| Produced by | Donald Zuckerman Deborah Del Prete |
| Written by | Lexi Alexander Dougie Brimson Josh Shelov |
| Starring | Elijah Wood Charlie Hunnam Claire Forlani |
| Distributed by | Baker Street Odd Lot Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | 2005-09-09 (UK) |
| Running time | 108 min. |
| Country | USA / UK |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Green Street is a 2005 drama film about football hooliganism in England. It was directed by Lexi Alexander and stars Elijah Wood and Charlie Hunnam. In the United States, the film is called Green Street Hooligans, while in the United Kingdom it has the title Green Street after initially being called Hooligans. In other countries, it is called Football Hooligans. In the film, an American college student falls in with a violent English football firm and is morally transformed by their commitment to each other. The movie received an R rating from the MPAA for brutal violence, pervasive language and some drug use.
Contents |
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Elijah Wood | Matt Buckner |
| Charlie Hunnam | Pete Dunham |
| Claire Forlani | Shannon Buckner Dunham |
| Marc Warren | Steve Dunham |
| Leo Gregory | Bovver |
| Ross McCall | Dave |
| Rafe Spall | Swill |
| Oliver Allison | Ben Dunham |
| James Allison | Ben Dunham |
| Terence Jay | Jeremy Van Holden |
| Scott Christie | Millwall Lad/Ricky |
| Joel Beckett | Terry |
| Tom Vloothuis | Firm Member |
[edit] Plot
Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) is kicked out of Harvard after authorities discover cocaine in his room. The drugs actually belong to his roommate Jeremy Van Holden (Terence Jay) but Buckner is afraid to speak up because the Van Holdens are a powerful family. He is given $10,000 for his trouble, and uses the money to travel to Britain where his sister (Claire Forlani) lives with her husband and young son. Unbeknownst to Buckner, his sister's husband Steve (Marc Warren) is a former leader of the Green Street Elite (GSE), a fictional football hooligan firm that supports West Ham United F.C.. Buckner develops a friendship with Steve's brother Pete (Charlie Hunnam), who is the current leader, and becomes engrossed in the world of football hooliganism. After Steve is seriously injured in an attack from a rival Millwall F.C. firm, the film reaches its climax with a large fight between the two firms. During the fight, Pete is killed by the leader of the Millwall firm. Buckner then returns to the United States with his sister and nephew, confronts his former roommate and announces his intention to return to Harvard.
[edit] Cultural context
The title comes from Green Street [1], a street in the London Borough of Newham where Boleyn Ground (more commonly known as Upton Park) is located. This is the home of West Ham United F.C., a team that was notorious in the past for their fans' hooliganism. The film has provoked a largely negative response in the borough [citation needed], 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. The film has also received considerable criticism concerning the exaggeration of the level of violence shown between the firms in the movie; however, the real life West Ham firm (the Inter City Firm) and their cross-London counterparts from Millwall, the Bushwackers, are two of the most notorious football hooligan firms in the UK. [2] [3]
[edit] Trivia
- The West Ham firm in the film is called the Green Street Elite (GSE). The real-life West Ham firm is called the Inter City Firm (ICF), so called because of the firms use of the Inter City trains to travel to away matches.
- Charlie Hunnam, who plays the part of Pete Dunham, has received criticism for his attempt at a Cockney accent. Whatever part of London he may be trying to sound like in the film, Hunnam's northern roots — he is a native of Newcastle — manage to show through.
- The South London Press reported that (then Millwall manager) Dennis Wise, had heavily fined and suspended two of his players for attending the film's premiere.
- Terence Jay, who played Matt Buckner's (Elijah Wood) roommate, also wrote and performed several of the film's soundtracks.
- The first game in the film showed West Ham at home to Birmingham City F.C.. The action on the pitch, however, was played out between players of West Ham and Gillingham F.C..
- Burnley's Jon Harley makes an appearance playing for West Ham in the first game.
- Although not a remake, the premise is very similar to the 1995 British-made film ID, in which the unlikely inductee to the world of football violence is an undercover police officer. Unlike ID which used fictional names, Green Street uses real club names and locations.
- Claire Forlani, who is English, plays an American in the film.
[edit] Awards
LA Femme Film Festival
- Lexi Alexander won Best Feature (2005)
Malibu Film Festival
- Lexi Alexander won Best of the Fest (2005)
SXSW Film Festival
- Lexi Alexander won Special Jury Award
[edit] External links
- Official website (requires Macromedia Flash)
- Green Street at the Internet Movie Database
