Green Street Hooligans
Violence can be
contagious.
It's not an original notion,
nor is it one that has been overlooked in the movies. However, if
human history has taught us nothing else, it has taught us that frenzied
melees have a disturbing but strangely seductive fascination. This was
shown quite definitively in many films like Fight Club and
American History X. (Come to think of it, Edward Norton may be the
figurehead for this style.)
Green Street Hooligans
is the British football (that's soccer for you and me Yanks...) version
of the story. It makes sense, football fans are notoriously loyal to
their teams and volatile. Periodically stadiums erupt into massive
riots between fans of teams like Manchester United or Charleroi.
The innocent who is
introduced into this world is Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood), the son of a
foreign correspondent who has been expelled from Harvard after being framed
by his roommate, the spoiled son of a Senator. He flies to England to
see his sister (it's nice to see Claire Forlani working again...) and her
new British husband, Steve (Marc Warren).
Through Steve, Matt meets
and befriends his brother Pete, who is the head of the Firm (sort of like a
street gang) for the local team West Ham United. Pete and his group
live for game day, on which they get drunk, they watch the game and then
they search out a rumble with the fans of the opposing team. Pete is
played by Charlie Hannum, who is looking a lot more rough and tumble than he
did a few years ago as Lloyd, the dreamy British exchange student on the
cult Fox-TV series Undeclared.
Matt is initially disturbed
by the violence, but he quickly becomes hooked on the adrenaline rush and
local fame. Matt has to hide his background as a journalism student
(in these circles, a journalist ranks a little lower on the food chain than
pedophile) from his new friends, who already don't quite trust him because
he is a Yank.
As he gets deeper and deeper
into the firm culture he grows to find out about a tragic rivalry between
West Ham and Millwood. This brings secrets about his in-law to the
surface and threatens his sister's marriage.
Green Street Hooligans
is an interesting look at a subculture that seems horrific from a
distance and shows how it can be attractive from close up. It's not a
perfect film, it can be a little melodramatic and you never really totally
understand the firms' motivations and deep animosities. Then again,
that's often the way with violence.
(9/05)
Dave
Strohler
Copyright ©2005
PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved.
Posted: October 13, 2005.
