ID (film)

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I.D.

Directed by	Philip Davis
Produced by	Luciano Gloor Sally Hibbin
Written by	Jim Bannon Vincent O'Connell
Starring	Reece Dinsdale Warren Clarke Claire Skinner
Music by	Will Gregory
Distributed by	Polygram
Release date(s)	1995
Running time	107 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

I.D. is a 1995 British film about football hooliganism, directed by Philip Davis and starring Reece Dinsdale, Sean Pertwee and Warren Clarke. It is set in England, mainly London, in the 1980s; the heyday of football violence and the far right National Front. The tagline is "When you go undercover, remember one thing... Who you are."

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Four police officers go undercover to infiltrate a hooligan firm that supports the fictional football club Shadwell Town FC, in order to discover the identity of the ringleader. However, as the officers are drawn into the macho world of hard drinking and frequent violence, John (Dinsdale) soon finds himself turning into one of the thugs that he was originally sent to investigate. The other three officers are able to keep some perspective on their relationship with Shadwell and its fans.

John's transformation into a violent, drug-taking, foul-mouthed hooligan leads to him splitting up with his girlfriend, and to him starting a relationship with the landlady of the football firm's local pub, Lynda (Reeves). When he has sex with Lynda on a table, a Shadwell tattoo is revealed on his buttock. His new status as a hooligan is apparent when he fatally stabs a Tyneburn fan in the midst of a pitched battle.

The film is renowned for its powerful yet very bleak ending, with Trevor (Graham) policing a National Front march when he sees John participating in the march as a white power skinhead. John tells Trevor that he is on another undercover mission, but as the film closes, it appears that John is embracing the life of a neo-Nazi in the same way he embraced the lifestyle of a football hooligan.