The Football Factory (2004)

Director:

Nick Love

Writers:

John King (novel)
Nick Love (writer)

Release Date:

14 May 2004 (UK)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

What else you gonna do on a Saturday?

Plot:

The Football Factory is more than just a study of the English obsession with football violence, its about men looking for armies to join...

Plot Keywords:

Drugs | Racial Slur | England | Police | Crack Cocaine

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Danny Dyer	...	Tommy Johnson
Frank Harper	...	Billy Bright
Tamer Hassan	...	Fred
Roland Manookian	...	Zeberdee
Neil Maskell	...	Rod
Dudley Sutton	...	Bill Farrell
Jamie Foreman	...	Cabbie
Tony Denham	...	Harris (as Anthony Denham)
Calum McNab	...	Raff
John Junkin	...	Albert Moss
Sophie Linfield	...	Tamara
Kara Tointon	...	Shie
Michele Hallak	...	Shian
Daniel Naylor	...	Terry
Alison Egan	...	Barbara

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive strong language, brutal violence, drug use and some sexuality.

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:16 | France:-16 (DVD) | Argentina:16 | USA:R | Portugal:M/18 | Australia:MA | Finland:K-18 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Ireland:18 | Italy:T | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R18 | Norway:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company:

Vertigo Films

Trivia:

A showing of the movie in Malmö, Sweden led into a brawl in the cinema between supporters of rival soccer teams Malmö FF and Helsingborg IF. The movie was banned from cinemas after the brawl.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Tommy and Billy leave the massage place and Billy gives Tommy the Viagra, Tommy is carrying his jacket. But in the next shot, when he is walking through town, he does not have it.

Quotes:

Tommy Johnson: Jesus! I was expecting a bowl of cornflakes and a quick wank...

Movie Connections:

References "Blind Date" (1999/I)

Soundtrack:

Ever Fallen In Love

Nick Love's First And Perhaps Last Great Film

An auteur is regarded as a director who has a running theme throughout their resume . For example Robert Aldrich is considered a " sadistic " director and whileis films may be tame compared to the video nasty era the likes of TOO LATE THE HERO and ULZANA'S RAID do still come across as compellingly blood thirsty and violent . The films of Martin Scorsese usually involve protagonists being caught in an existentialist quicksand where the more they try and find their goal in life the more they sink into a problem of their own making . Let's not get too caught up in the auteur theory however because much of it is simply down to movie studios assigning scripts to well suited directors " Hey Marty , we've got a script here featuring a deranged loner wanting to join the mob . Bob and Leonardo have already signed on the dotted line . You interested ? " . Nevertheless it's obvious that Nick Love in the years ahead will be honoured in this fashion if only because his films feature blackly comical stories of working class British males fed up with the state of the nation

In terms of style and execution THE FOOTBALL FACTORY isn't a million miles away from the likes of TRAINSPOTTING and TWO SMOKING BARALLS . It's very quirky , rather episodic , fairly violent and oh so bloody entertaining . You could say it contains all the flaws of recent British movies like an overuse of the words " FAHKIN' " and " KANT " but we are talking about the notorious Chelsea headhunters football hooligans and there are admittedly some unlikely coincidences involved such as two of the headhunters burgling a house that belongs to... but unlike Love's later OUTLAW you never feel at how contrived these plot twists are which probably says much of the film's entertainment factor . It could also be that the original source was strong in the first place since I get the feeling that Love totally fails as a screenwriter of original material , certainly the problem with OUTLAW was an underdeveloped script with very underwritten characters who lacked a recognisable motive . Here it's obvious but never overstated that the motivation of becoming a hooligan is to belong to something . And unlike in OUTLAW when something funny happens in THE FOOTBALL FACTORY you genuinely do laugh instead of scratching your head wondering if in fact it's supposed to be funny

I have to confess that I've seen the feature films of Love back to front . I saw OUTLAW when it opened in the cinema in March , I saw THE BUSINESS a couple of months after that and saw THE FOOTBALL FACTORY for the first time last week . If Nick Love had released his films in that order then I would have said that here is a film maker who is really hitting his stride as his films just get better and better . Unfortunately what this means in reality is that Love is on a downhill curve and that nothing has come close to matching THE FOOTBALL FACTORY . One can only hope that the big screen remake of THE SWEENEY , a TV show well remembered for its mixture of black comedy and violence , will see a return to form for an underrated auteur