The Football Factory (2004)

An insight on the gritty life of a bored male, Chelsea football hooligan who lives for violence, sex, drugs & alcohol.

Director:

Nick Love

Writers:

John King (novel), Nick Love

Stars:

Danny Dyer, Frank Harper, Tamer Hassan

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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 MacNab	...	Raff
John Junkin	...	Albert Moss
Sophie Linfield	...	Tamara
Kara Tointon	...	Tameka
Michele Hallak	...	Shian
Daniel Naylor	...	Terry
Alison Egan	...	Barbara

Storyline

The Football Factory is more than just a study of the English obsession with football violence; it's about men looking for armies to join, wars to fight and places to belong. A forgotten culture of Anglo-Saxon males fed up with being told they're not good enough and using their fists as a drug they describe as being more potent than sex and drugs put together. Shot in documentery style with the energy and vibrancy of handheld, The Football Factory is frighteningly real yet full of painful humour as the four characters' extreme thoughts and actions unfold before us.

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Plot Keywords:

drugs | violence | trading insults | bandaged face | awakened by doorbell | 

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Taglines:

What else you gonna do on a Saturday?

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 May 2004 (UK)

Also Known As:

Football Factory

Filming Locations:

Bermondsey, London, England, UK

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£207,683 (United Kingdom), 16 May 2004, Limited Release

Company Credits

Production Co:

Vertigo Films,Rockstar Games

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

During the encounter between Billy Bright and Millwall Fred at the junior game, Frank Harper ad-libbed most of his lines, including the "Kebab shop" racial slur. The anger shown by Tamer Hassan is genuine and Nick Love kept it in the film.

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Goofs

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.

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Quotes

Tommy Johnson: Getting beaten up by football hooligans is like having V.D. The fucking pain goes on forever. But that's what makes it so exciting.

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Connections

References Scooby Doo, Where Are You! (1969)

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Soundtracks

Going Underground
Written by Paul Weller (as P. Weller)
Performed by The Jam

User Reviews

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