One of director Alan Clarke's last film. The Firm was a controversial film for the BBC Screen Two strand dealing with the issue of football hooliganism, a topical subject in 1980s Britain.
This film mixed football gang violence with the influence of Thatcher's 80s Britain. The rise of the Yuppies. In fact in the late 80s there was some evidence that the new breed of football hooligans were not skinheads in denims but rather aspirational young men who were smartly dressed.
The opening scene with the protagonists playing a football match features no actual football.
Gary Oldman is charismatic as Bexy a cocky estate agent by day with a wife and young child.
He is also the leader of the Inter City firm who has vision of leading the English contingent of hooligans in the 1988 European football championship which was a damp squib for the actual English football team.
Bexy has run ins with rival gangs especially the one led by Phil Davis. This is a memorable Screen Two film not only because of its subject matter, but it also contained many rising stars such as Phil Davis, Nick Dunning as well as Oldman. It also had a few people who became better known in soap operas.
The film was remade in 2009 for a cinema release but it's this version which has stood the test of time with Oldman's performance at the centre, Al Hunter's writing and Alan Clarke's direction.
This film mixed football gang violence with the influence of Thatcher's 80s Britain. The rise of the Yuppies. In fact in the late 80s there was some evidence that the new breed of football hooligans were not skinheads in denims but rather aspirational young men who were smartly dressed.
The opening scene with the protagonists playing a football match features no actual football.
Gary Oldman is charismatic as Bexy a cocky estate agent by day with a wife and young child.
He is also the leader of the Inter City firm who has vision of leading the English contingent of hooligans in the 1988 European football championship which was a damp squib for the actual English football team.
Bexy has run ins with rival gangs especially the one led by Phil Davis. This is a memorable Screen Two film not only because of its subject matter, but it also contained many rising stars such as Phil Davis, Nick Dunning as well as Oldman. It also had a few people who became better known in soap operas.
The film was remade in 2009 for a cinema release but it's this version which has stood the test of time with Oldman's performance at the centre, Al Hunter's writing and Alan Clarke's direction.