Football Factory (Special Edition) [2004] [DVD]

It is a deft, if loose, adaptation of John King's blistering debut novel, with characters amalgamated and - in some cases - invented for the purposes of the story which Love has pulled away from King's episodic, elliptical inner-narrative and grounded with a tight time-frame and tit-for-tat war between Chelsea and Millwall thugs. In addition, protagonist and narrator Tommy Johnson has been tweaked and tailored according to the quirks and mannerisms of lead actor Danny Dyer, who is absolutely sensational and deserves to go onto great things in his career (hopefully with Nick Love guiding the way). To label the character a 'Mark Renton' for the 21st century is a little short-sighted, for Love's script walks a tender line with the morally ambiguous redemption of the character, which leaves the audience to ponder the character's future (although those of us who read King's third book, England Away, don't do much guessing there!!!), and does no credit to the way Dyer admirably rises to the occasion, eschewing his troublesome Moff (from Human Traffic) persona that had previously typecast him in earlier films.

Love's adaptation of the novel is assured. He takes many liberties with the source material, but is not afraid to make the almost unfilmable prose palatable for a mainstream audience. Structurally, it doesn't achieve the heights of his 'Goodbye Charlie Bright' script, which very cleverly shifted pace according to the emotions of the characters, while at the same time being an 82 minute critique of all that was wrong with Britfilm, but The Football Factory moves along at a great pace, with interesting and intriguing characters who hold your attention throughout. The riot scenes are also brilliantly staged and totally believable.

Fast, funny, violent and with an honesty and authenticity lacking from the pathetic 'I.D.', or the overly-judgemental Alan Clarke BBC drama 'The Firm', The Football Factory comes highly recommended.


Either love it or hate it...   July 21, 2006
Blairomatic (Sydney, Australia)
8 out of 12 found this review helpful

It seems like people either love or hate this film.

Initially I expected better from an adaption of John King's novel 'The Football Factory' but with hindsight I have grown to love this piece of film making.

I find myself replaying scenes over and over, and this is the mark of a special movie.

The music, the characters, the landscape etc etc are fused into one in a way that is real, exciting, dull, humorous, scary.

What makes this true to the art of telling stories is that you are successfully immersed into the life of a person (ie Tommy or Rod) who otherwise you may dislike and have nothing to do with in reality.

I try to understand why so many people despise this movie with a passion? Did they expect more football? Fights on the terraces? By the time this film was set, all the terraces at soccer stadiums in the UK had been torn up and replaced by plastic seats. If there is any organized fistacuffs, then they are more likely to occur outside the ground, in dark and dingy back streets. This is where Football Factory hit the target.

It's not a perfect film but I gave it five stars. It's ugly, unpleasant and a snapshot to a world that is still out there, albeit less so these days. The old adventure and lure of 'running with a gang' is still very alive here though. This concept of young men and gangs will never die, for better or for worse!

Blair