The Football Factory
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The Football Factory is a 2004 English film, directed by Nick Love and starring Danny Dyer and Frank Harper. It is based on the popular novel of the same name by John King. The film is the first foray into film-making by video game producers Rockstar Games, credited as Executive Producers.
The subject of the film, in a nutshell, is about football hooliganism. Although great measures have been taken in the U.K. over the past few decades to control the violence surrounding football, it nonetheless remains problematic. The two firms that The Football Factory mainly focusses on are the Headhunters, who support Chelsea F.C. and the Bushwhackers, who support Millwall F.C.. Throughout the movie, the Headhunters have at it with other English firms, such as those supporting Tottenham Hotspur; Liverpool; and Stoke City. No real-life firms are actually mentioned in the film, but in the scene where the Chelsea coach is heading north to Liverpool, there is an actual Headhunters' flag hung in the rear windscreen.
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[edit] Plot
The film largely follows the protagonist, "Tommy Johnson", a member of the "Chelsea Headhunters" football firm. The film explores the mindset and culture of contemporary English males, as the audience witnesses through the misadventures of Johnson (a twenty-something who lives for the weekend); Billy Bright, a bitter, "total fucking psycho" (as Tommy describes him), played by Frank Harper; Zeberdee, an amoral junior firm member who is berated for using Cockney rhyming slang; and Johnson's grandfather, Bill Farrell, a war veteran. During the film, Johnson moves toward a mental collapse as he starts to question for the first time the lifestyle of casual sex, cheap drugs, and extreme violence from which he cannot pry himself away.
The plot is a lot more subtle than first impression would create.
The movie begins with an organised attack on The Yids (Tottenhams firm) with almost military style precision. The Chelsea firm congregates company by company. A smoke bomb is then thrown into a pub of rival supporters and as they try to escape the pub they are set upon by the Chelsea firm and a fight breaks out. A passing woman mocks the fighters. Tommy than explains himself and his mate's situations as Tommy sees them. This companionship is compared to many others from his working class background like his grandfather Bill and Albert, his pa's best friend, who stormed the French shores together on D-Day. Billy is introduced as the son of a racist "who never really had much choice". Billy is 40 years old and a bully. He fights over nothing. Zeberdee is introduced as someone who prefers the firm's leader, an older fascist, to his company leader Billy. Billy bullies him continually because of it.
With the characters introduced, the plot begins to move.
Tommy's grandfather Bill, and Bill's best mate Albert, are moving to Australia to retire away from the environment of football violence. Tommy and his best mate, Rod, meet two women out on a night out at the club. They go home with them but are too drunk to have sex and fall asleep instead. Tommy wakes up with a knife to his throat held by a man that appears to be accusing him of being a rapist. Rod saves Tommy by whacking the guy in the back of the head with a cricket bat, allowing the two to escape. But afterwards, Tommy begins to have a constantly recurring nightmare, which causes him to increasingly question his involvement in the firm's violent outings. His nightmare involves him being bashed by a gang in an underpass and afterwards a person in bandages appears telling Tommy that the person in bandages is going to die.
The man Rod bashed was from the hated rival Millwall firm. Tommy forgot his wallet with ID in the girls apartment, and therefore he's the only name the Millwall firm has to go on. So, for the rest of the movie, Tommy is a hunted man. The movie ends with Tommy being kicked half to death in an underpass during a F.A. Cup meeting between the teams, and Zeberdee being shot in the head for rolling someone for drugs. There is no real attempt at a moral ending, however; Tommy ultimately decides that there is nothing he would rather do than be in the firm as he states: "Was it worth it? Of course it fucking was!"
[edit] Cast
- Danny Dyer—Tommy Johnson
- Frank Harper—Billy Bright
- Neil Maskell—Rod
- Roland Manookian—Zeberdee
- Jamie Foreman—Taxi Driver
- Tamer Hassan—Millwall Jack
- Kara Tointon—Tameka/Shie
- Tony Denham—Harris
- Stephen Humby—Hooligan
- Danny Kelly—Radio announcer
- Sophie Linfield—Tamara
- Dudley Sutton—Old Man Farrell
[edit] Trivia
The Pub in the first scene is called "The Star" but has a "T" added in post production to be called "The Start".
This is the first film to credit Rockstar Games, creators of Grand Theft Auto. They are listed as Executive Producers.
Tommy's best mate, Rod, is playing Rockstar' hit game "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" in a scene.
