The Football Factory (film)
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| The Football Factory | |
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 Promotional poster |
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| Directed by | Nick Love |
| Produced by | Allan Niblo James Richardson |
| Written by | Nick Love John King (novel) |
| Starring | Danny Dyer Frank Harper Tamer Hassan Matthew Baggott Roland Manookian Neil Maskell Dudley Sutton |
| Music by | Ivor Guest |
| Cinematography | Damian Bromley |
| Editing by | Stuart Gazzard |
| Studio | Vertigo Films Rockstar Films |
| Distributed by | Momentum Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 14 May 2004 |
| Running time | 91 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Box office | £623,138 |
The Football Factory is a 2004 English film directed by Nick Love and stars Danny Dyer, Tamer Hassan, Frank Harper and Neil Maskell. It is loosely based on the novel of the same name by John King.
The film is the first foray into film-making by video game producers Rockstar Games, credited as Executive Producers.
In 2004, Chelsea F.C. football supporters' fanzine cfcuk produced a special edition - "cfcuk - The Football Factory" to coincide with the release of the film.
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[edit] Plot
The film starts off with the main character Tommy Johnson (Dyer) being violently assaulted and with him questioning himself is fighting "worth it"? Three weeks later at the start of the film the Chelsea "firm" (the headhunters) fight Tottenham Hotspur's firm the Yid Army and eventually win.
Tommy and his best mate Rod King (Maskell) celebrate their victory against spurs in the "meet" by going clubbing in the west end, where they meet two women that catch their eye (Tointon and Linfield) and eventually end up back at one of the girls houses to sleep with the women. Tommy wakes up at knife point with the girl's brother holding a knife to his throat thinking he raped her. Rod then comes to his rescue by grabbing a cricket bat and hitting the man over the head with it, allowing the boys to flee. At the same time, Fred (Hassan), the leader of Millwall's firm (The Bushwhackers) is covertly buying drugs from Billy Bright (Harper), an older member of the Headhunters, when he finds out that his brother had been knocked unconscious with a cricket bat. It turns out that Fred is the man's brother, leading to a heated feud between him and Tommy.
The draw for the third round of the FA Cup is taking place and the firm wait in earnest to find out who they will play, but more importantly which firm they shall fight. It turns out they will play Millwall, much to Tommy's horror. The rest of the film contains nightmares that plague Tommy, featuring a faceless boy who turns out to be Zeberdee (Manookian).
Tommy tries to forget about it by fighting Liverpool's Urchins and two members of Stoke City's Naughty Forty, who mug Billy earlier on in the film. Rod, Tommy and Billy are arrested for jumping the Stoke fans and they end up in a police van with around five Stoke fans ending up in a slanging match between the Stoke firm and Billy, the only one willing to fight.
In court, Rod meets an evidence provider who fancies him and they end up going out together, putting his firm days in jeopardy, seeing as her parents are middle-class wannabes who sicken Tommy personally, especially when the woman calls him "Thomas".
In the build up to the game at the Den, Billy and Fred get into a fight at a game between Millwall and Chelsea's junior teams, instigated by Fred calling Billy a "wife-beater" and Fred attempts to jump Tommy in the toilets of the Chelsea local, only for Tommy disguising himself as Dorian and Rod giving Tommy a phone call to confirm that he is Dorian. Billy has more problems to deal with when he becomes depressed at the firm's leader Tony Harris (Denham) calling him "fucking useless" to his fellow top boys, whilst unaware Billy was eavesdropping on this.
The big day finally arrives with Tommy being woken up by Zeberdee on the morning of the game. Zeberdee can't contain his excitement in the build up to the meet and brings Tommy to the local to meet with their fellow hooligans. Tommy becomes anxious at the absence of Rod, who is having dinner with his girlfriend and her parents. Rod then becomes anxious about the meet and walks out on the family, effectively dumping his girlfriend, calling them middle-class pricks. Rod then is reunited with his firm, much to Tommy's delight, and the firm then walk to bandit country to fight their rivals Millwall.
The firms meet in the deep south, Millwall's hooliganism area, and a massive fight erupts, leaving Tommy severely unconscious after Fred beats him up and stones him half to death. It is revealed Tommy survives the fight,but is bedridden alongside his grandfather Bill Farrell (Sutton), who took a heart attack earlier in the film. Bill then asks Tommy "was it worth it?" Tommy then stumbles to the Chelsea local to re-unite with his friends, who give him a standing ovation upon his entrance. He then gives Zeberdee a lighter to go out to the toilet to snort some cocaine. While doing this a drug-dealer who Zeberdee mugged earlier in the film creeps beside him, shooting him in the head, killing Zeb instantly.
In the end, it is revealed that Bill Farrell plans to live out the rest of his days in Australia, Billy Bright is in prison for seven years for two counts of football violence, Harris still runs the firm, Raff (MacNab), Zeberdee's best friend, is still a "thieving little cunt" and that Rod lives in Penge running his air conditioning firm.
[edit] Cast
- Danny Dyer — Tommy Johnson, a bored twenty something who lives for the weekend. The thrill of the big Millwall versus Chelsea meet leaves his life scrambled as he tries to pull himself out of his nightmare.
- Frank Harper — Billy Bright, is a forty something forming part of the older generation of The Firm. He is full of bitterness in what he sees as the country and system that have failed him. Away from the crowds where he commands an audience to impress the younger guys, he's a sad and lonely character whose life is fast spiralling out of control.
- Neil Maskell — Rod, Tommy's oldest friend and confident, ambling along the path led by his mates.
- Roland Manookian — Zeberdee, younger breed coming through the ranks of Chelsea, his life has already run into a cul de sac of crime and drugs. With nothing to lose and no one to look out for him, Zeberdee aspires to be a future top boy, unfortunately his lack of intellectual guile gets him into trouble.
- Calum MacNab - Raff, Zeberdee's best friend.
- Tamer Hassan — Millwall Fred, heads the rival Millwall firm an arch enemy of Chelsea, things come to ahead when Tommy inadvertently crosses path with Fred and a revenge situation begins.
- Dudley Sutton — Bill Farrell, is representative of the older generation from a bygone era, a second-world war veteran in his late seventies who lives out the remainder of his days with childhood friend Albert Moss who plan to retire in Australia.
- John Junkin — Albert Moss
- Jamie Foreman — Racist Taxi Driver who is never afraid of letting his customers know his true feelings about society.
- Tony Denham — Harris, the Chelsea firms head who runs it like a military operation.
- Kara Tointon — Shie
- Sophie Linfield — Tamara
- Danny Kelly — Radio announcer
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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