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:

drug abuse | nightmare | overhearing | police officer | violence | 

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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

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Chelsea/Union Flag you can see hung up on the rear window of the coach when the firm is traveling "Up North", is in fact, a real Chelsea Headhunters flag given to the project by one of the original Headhunters. Also, the specific skull and cross bone (Deads Head/Totenkopf) symbol on the flag are symbols first used by the Prussian army under Frederick the Great and later used by the Stabswache, which turned into the Nazi Schutzstaffel, and is commonly used worldwide by Neo-Nazi and White Supremacy organizations.

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Goofs

During the fight against Millwall, we see Raff on the floor with blood and bruises on his face. However, when the police arrive, we see Raff taunting them with no signs of being hurt at all.

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Quotes

Tommy Johnson: Kicked half to death, florists, cabbies, nightmares and visions; one of the old soldiers gone forever; Bright gone for a seven; and bollocks so ruptured that the only thing I'll be pulling for months is a chain.
Tommy Johnson: After all that you really do have to ask yourself if it was all worth it... course it fucking was!

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Connections

Featured in The Real Football Factories: London (2006)

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Soundtracks

Hunted by a Freak
Performed by Mogwai

User Reviews

Good movie

The Football Factory is movie about football (soccer) fans. Since they seem to be more interested in fighting than in actually watching the games this is certainly no sports film so don't let the title fool you. It's also based upon a novel that I haven't even heard of, but that could perhaps be because I'm in Sweden.

The Football Factory is a very episodic movie. Mostly it works, but sometimes I felt like I wanted to spend more time with main character Tommy Johnson or that they should at least had focused on fewer characters. Sometimes I felt that a scene was working really well, but the story quickly focused on other things. As I said, more often than not the episodic feel works fine, but not all the time.

As in almost all English movies the acting's great. From minor characters to main characters... they feel real. I especially think the voice over sounds very authentic: it's Tommy speaking, not actor Danny Dryer reading.

I think this is a good movie, it's rather violent and upsetting at times, but also funny and entertaining.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 May 2004 (UK)

Also Known As:

The Football Factory

Filming Locations:

Bermondsey, London, England, UK

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,228,003

Company Credits

Production Co:

Vertigo Films, Rockstar Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1