david_tomlinson100 Review of The Football Factory

The Football Factory (2004)

A lively and realistic portrayal of a continuing problem that should not be swept under the carpet

[7/10 · 17 August 2006]

The earlier comments about this work greatly vary. You either love it or loathe it, and some of the criticisms are understandable and are probably fair. Few films qualify as being really original. Yes this one has at least one scene that shamelessly copies Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci in 'Goodfellas' but then you could say the same about 'Lockstock and Two Smoking Barrels' copying 'Casino'. I watched TFF (courtesy of Film Four) on 16.08.06. It didn't require the brains of a rocket scientist to immediately see that it was about football hooliganism. Having been given a book called 'Tottenham Massive' for my Birthday by my wife - she genuinely didn't realise it had nothing to do with the glory, glory days of my beloved Spurs, I was aiming to switch off TFF thinking it would be more of the same. Something made me continue watching and I was not disappointed. There IS a moral to this film although it is really deferred until the twist right at the end. Dyer's recurring nightmare in the face of the looming confrontation between the Chelsea and Millwall crews is a legitimate example of dramatic license, although the implication that one only becomes psychic on a cocktail of lager and cocaine could be dangerously misleading! The cocaine and alcohol abuse is suitably unglamourous. Having had a premonition that he will himself get a really serious kicking, Dyer does indeed wake up in hospital where he immediately enquires about Zeberdee's welfare. Welcoming the good news that Zeberdee came through, Dyer feels that his none too certain defiance of superstition has been vindicated and gloats in his lack of remorse and regret. Then his instincts turn out to have been right all along, and the viewer is left with a very real sense of just deserts particularly for Harper but also for Dyer who will be devastated by Zeberdee's death. We are left with a very strong sense of the whole pathetic futility of their way of life. The film also depicts in a very effective way the pecking order of bullies, and how the weak when picked on, go on to pick on others who are even weaker. We are reminded that very few bullies would never have been bullied themselves. There are some very realistic performances. The two main thugs played by Harper and Denham are frighteningly credible: the greater respect afforded to Denham because of his better sense of strategy alarming, but not bogus. The inclusion of the two elderly heroes of WWII who fought Hitler to defeat racism provides a powerful balance to the intolerable attitudes demonstrated by the main protagonists and by Jamie Foreman's cab driver. Dudley Sutton's virtuous and tactical attempts to inject a bit of moral backbone into his errant grandson also provide welcome and touching relief. Foreman's objectionable lines are just a little too like the satirical utterances of the Private Eye taxi driver to allow his character to be really believable, but he delivers them with his usual panache. The film moves at a great pace, a desirable quality that not all British film makers really appreciate as much as their American counterparts.