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I.D.

A 1995 British film about football hooliganism, directed by Philip Davis and starring Reece Dinsdale, Sean Pertwee and Warren Clarke. It is set in England, mainly London, in the 1980s; the heyday of football violence and the far right National Front.
Four police officers go undercover to infiltrate a hooligan firm that supports the fictional football club Shadwell Town FC, in order to discover the identity of the ringleader. However, as the officers are drawn into the macho world of hard drinking and frequent violence, John (Dinsdale) soon finds himself turning into one of the thugs that he was originally sent to investigate. The other three officers are able to keep some perspective on their relationship with Shadwell and its fans.
John's transformation into a violent, drug-taking, foul-mouthed hooligan leads to him splitting up with his girlfriend, and to him starting a relationship with the landlady of the football firm's local pub, Lynda (Reeves). When he has sex with Lynda on a table, a Shadwell tattoo is revealed on his buttock. His new status as a hooligan is apparent when he fatally stabs a Tyneburn fan in the midst of a pitched battle.
The film is renowned for its powerful yet very bleak ending, with Trevor (Graham) policing a National Front march when he sees John participating in the march as a white power skinhead. John tells Trevor that he is on another undercover mission, but as the film closes, it appears that John is embracing the life of a neo-Nazi in the same way he embraced the lifestyle of a football hooligan.

The Firm
A 1988 TV film by Alan Clarke, written by Al Ashton. The film is based on the activities of the Inter City Firm, football firm of West Ham United during the 1970s and 1980s although in the film the firm's name is changed slightly to become the Inter City Crew (ICC). Rival football fans battle it out on the streets in this powerful television drama starring Gary Oldman as Clive 'Bex' or 'Bexy' Bissel.
Bexy is a married man with a baby son and it is clear his wife doesn't approve of his activities as a football hooligan which provide contrast to his respectable job as an estate agent. Even when his baby son injures himself with a Stanley knife carelessly left around by Bexy he is unwilling to give up his interest in violence as he admits it gives him a "buzz". Conversely, Bexy's father shows some degree of acceptance of his son's lifestyle and may have been involved in similar activities in his own era. Bexy uses his natural leadership qualities to cajole (sometimes to the extent of intimidating those less eager) and encourage his peers and plays a key role in organising trips to rival firms. He also has a vision of a national firm, which would join all the smaller firms into one. But his ideas are not accepted by other firm leaders.
Towards the end of the film the pointlessness and futility of being involved in football violence is characterised by the main character Bexy being murdered by the leader of one of their rival firms during a violent clash. Despite the senseless killing of a family man with a child, Bexy's "followers" still regard him as a hero figure and claim that when they are fighting European thugs at a forthcoming tournament they will be doing so in memory of their dead leader. This part of the movie shows the hooligans from three different firms, which were figthing each other not long ago. They claim that Bexy is a visionary that brought them together. So Bexy, a leader of a small firm and a not very well known hooligan, becomes a legend in the eyes of the other hooligans.
Bexy and his fellow hooligans clearly only possess any kind of social status amongst their own groups and Bexy obviously relishes being looked up to and admired by the younger lads in his "firm". Bexy and his friends think of themselves as important, respected figures in their local community but Bexy's wife points out to him that the truth is somewhat different. Everyone thinks of him as a bit of a joke figure but because of their fear of his violent nature few are willing to point out to him that he isn't the working class hero he thinks he is.
Week by week they fight relentlessly, but as the European Championships draw closer, one of the gang leaders, Bex, played by Oldman wants to bring them together to form a super "firm". The film also features Philip Davis, Charles Lawson and Steve McFadden in his acting debut.
The Football Factory
The subject of the film is football hooliganism. The two firms that The Football Factory mainly focuses on are the Headhunters, who support Chelsea F.C., and the Bushwackers, who support Millwall F.C. Throughout the movie, the Headhunters fight with other English firms, such as those supporting Tottenham Hotspur F.C.; Liverpool F.C.; and Stoke City F.C..

Green Street
Green Street is a 2005 drama film about football hooliganism in England. It was directed by Lexi Alexander and stars Elijah Wood and Charlie Hunnam. In the United States and Australia, the film is called Green Street Hooligans, while in the United Kingdom it has the title Green Street after initially being called Hooligans. In other countries, it is called Football Hooligans or just Hooligans. In the film, an American college student (Matt Buckner — played by Elijah Wood) falls in with a violent English football firm run by the brother of his brother-in-law (the Green Street Elite) and is morally transformed by their commitment to each other. The movie received an R rating from the MPAA for brutal violence, pervasive language and some drug use. The story and screenplay were developed by former hooligan turned author Dougie Brimson.
Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) is kicked out of Harvard whilst on a journalism course after authorities discover cocaine in his room. The drugs actually belong to his preppy roommate Jeremy Van Holden (Terence Jay) but Buckner is afraid to speak up because the Van Holdens are a powerful family. He is given $10,000 for his trouble, and uses the money to travel to Britain with the intention of living with his sister (Claire Forlani), her husband Steve Dunham (Marc Warren) and his nephew.
Matt soon meets Steve's brother, Pete, a thuggish, loud cockney seemingly in his early-to-mid 20s. Steve proposes that Pete takes Matt to see West Ham play at home to Birmingham. Pete is very reluctant in taking a "yank" (English slang for an American) to a football match, giving the racist nature of Pete's friends and the other football fans. He is eventually persuaded into taking him, and Matt is told by Steve not to give Pete any of the money that he has just given to him.
On the way to the game, Pete tells that there is nothing less he would like to do than take a yank to the game, so he proposes that Matt gives him half the money, and the other he can keep to himself to go round the pubs and clubs. Matt refuses, keeping his promise to Steve, resulting in Pete starting on him. Matt attempts to kick Pete in his genitals, which Pete reverses and sends him to the floor. Perhaps as an admiration of his courage, Pete doesn't continue fighting, instead taking Matt to the Abbey (the local pub for the GSE, West Ham's firm) and the game, in an attempt to teach him something about violence (the previous scuffle being Matt's first violent experience).
Matt meets Pete's friends in the Abbey, all eventually taking to him, except Bovver, who completely blanks him upon meeting him. After a few beers, they all walk to Upton Park to see the game. A fight is started with Birmingham's firm, which results in Matt getting jumped by three Birmingham fans, who nearly perform a gruesome torture act (By using a credit card to perform a 'Chelsea Grin' on him) upon him until the GSE intervene, which progresses to a bigger fight with the rest of Birmingham's firm. Though grossly outnumbered, the GSE defeat Birmingham, with Matt doing well in his first true fight and being inducted into the GSE.
It is later revealed that the GSE's sworn enemy is Millwall's firm, led by Tommy Hatcher. When Bovver begins to get sick of Matt being close with Pete, he starts negotiating with Hatcher. One of the firm sees Matt in The Times' headquarters with his father, who is a renowned journalist, and is taking Matt to lunch. He tells Bovver, who mistakingly presumes that Matt is a journalist himself. The English firms, and the GSE, hate jounalists for constantly focusing on and slamming their violent actions and causing it to overshadow football victories. Bovver confronts Pete about Matt's jounalism. Pete's brother Steve finds out and goes to the Abbey to warn Matt. It is then that Matt finds out that Steve used to be the "The Major," the leader of the GSE.
When Steve was The Major, the last game he went to was West Ham versus Millwall, to which Tommy Hatcher bought along his 12-year-old son. Tommy constantly boasted about how hard he'd bought him up to be. After the game, a fight broke out between the GSE and the Millwall firm. Tommy's son got badly caught up in the fight and was killed. Since then Tommy Hatcher "lost it," blaming the death of his son solely on the GSE, mainly Steve Dunham. After seeing Tommy's son die, Steve quit the GSE.
Bovver eventually arrives, and there is a big argument in the Abbey, which is eventually resolved, but Bovver still doesn't trust Matt. Infuriated, he goes to Millwall's local and asks Tommy Hatcher to come to the Abbey to sort stuff out. At first Hatcher is reluctant, until Bovver tells Hatcher that Steve Dunham is there.
The Millwall firm crash the Abbey, with Tommy Hatcher petrol bombing the bar and confronting Steve Dunham. Whilst Steve proclaims he's no longer part of the GSE and says he has a wife and son. Tommy gets even angrier, shouting that he "had a son once" and stabs Steve in the neck with a broken bottle, saying, "If you die tonight, we're even."
Whilst the fight is going on in the Abbey, Bovver is knocked out outside, after being smashed over the head with a glass bottle and being called a grass (slang for informer) by the Millwall firm. When he comes around, Steve Dunham is being carried out of the Abbey with blood flowing from his neck, which causes Bovver to be distraught and sends him into deep regret. Steve is taken to the hospital by Pete, Matt and Bovver, where Pete blasts Bovver for getting his brother in hospital and being a grass, saying that he trusted him the most and now despises him.
Previously, West Ham had been drawn to play Millwall in the FA Cup, which both sides were happy with as they could fight the other firm. But now with Steve being put in hospital, a post-match fight is ditched simply for a straight fight between the entire GSE and Millwall, near the Millenium Dome.
The end fight is perhaps one of the most memorable scenes in the film, as both sides go into a resolution brawl, in a gritty and brutal display. Bovver shows up, fighting for GSE to try and make up for what he has done. When helping up Pete, who has been badly hurt after being beaten with a cosh by Tommy Hatcher, Pete tells him that if he wants to make up for what he's done, he should get Matt's sister and nephew out of here, who have turned up unexpectedly and is attacked by one of Tommy's men to take revenge on Steve Dunham.
Tommy Hatcher goes to go to the car that Matt's sister is in, until Pete shouts to him, asking if he wants to "finish him off." After Tommy says he's already finished off, Pete says that it's not the GSE who killed his son, and puts the blame on Tommy for not protecting his son all those years ago. This seems to drive Tommy Hatcher fully insane, as he walks up to him shouting, headbutting him, knocking him out, then repeatedly punches him on the floor whilst he is still knocked out, eventually beating him to death, all the while insulting Pete. The fight completely halts at this point, and Tommy gets pulled off, still screaming, with everyone now surrounding Pete's dead body, with Bovver by his side.
Matt then drives with his sister to the airport, where he flies back to America. He confronts Jeremy Van Holden in a restaurant toilet where Jeremy is snorting cocaine. Previously promising to hook him up after Matt took the fall for him, Jeremy agrees again to do so but arrogantly tells Matt to leave. Matt then pulls out a tape recorder and plays back what Jeremy just said, saying that it is his "ticket back to Harvard." Jeremy tries to steal the tape off him, but Matt easily reverses his attack and holds his fist up, as if to punch Jeremy, who is now a quivering wreck. Matt doesn't punch Jeremy, but instead walks out with a deserved smug smile as Jeremy collapses to the floor, defeated.
The film ends with Matt walking down an American street outside the restaurant singing West Ham's song, "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles."
Another theme prevalent in Green Street is fate, especially concerning Bovver and Millwall. Bovver eventually gets fed up with the presence of "the Yank" and rides on his motorbike to Millwall. Bovver, in going to a borough of London in which there are nothing but fierce rivals, seems to be tempting fate. Fed by his jealousy of Matt, Bovver attempts to discredit Matt by outing him as an "undercover journo." When the other members of the GSE are still hesitant to believe that their new "Yank mate" is what Bovver says he is, Bovver goes into a fit of rage and heads, yet again, over to Millwall, with the intention of getting the Millwall firm to take care of Matt, while also giving away Steve Dunham a.k.a "The Major"'s presence at the Abbey, the pub hangout of the GSE. Inadvertently, Bovver's intentions go awry, and the Millwall firm practically ignore Matt and leave Steve mortally wounded. Millwall is also a catalyst of fate in the film, often with life changing consequences. The scrap between GSE and Millwall ten years before the events of the story sets the stage for why Steve "left 'The Major' behind" and why Tommy Hatcher has it out for Steve. Additionally, the last scrap between the two firms near the end of the film results in another needless death, and also makes Matt realize that he no longer needs the GSE, the violence, and everything else associated with football firms to know that he's "not made of glass."
The name of the firm in film, the Green Street Elite, refers to Green Street [1] in the London Borough of Newham. Green Street is the road where West Ham United F.C.'s home stadium, Boleyn Ground (more commonly known as Upton Park) is. West Ham is supported by one of England's notorious hooligans: the Inter City Firm (ICF). [1] Although Green Street has received some criticism regarding the exaggerated level of violence shown between the firms in the movie, the cultural validity of the script is rooted in anthropological studies of firm behaviorism.

INITIAL PROPOSAL

1. Which topic area is this proposal for?
Crime and the media

2. What is the suggested focus?
Football Hooliganism, how it is represented in films in comparsion to real life.

3. Do you have an idea for a question/problematic?
yyeee booi. How are football hooligans represented in films in comparison to real life events..?

4. Why would you choose this?
There are a variety of different real life case studies to look at, as well as many separate texts, with films such as Green Street and The Football Factory.

5. Do you have any concerns or are there any limitations to this proposal?
Every proposal has its limitations! I think i'll be ok.

6. Can you rate it on a sliding scale 1- 5 (5 being great proposal, 0 being lousy proposal)
umm 4?