I.D.: Football hooliganism and the loss of identity

Everyone has their own unique identity. It is something that defines each one of us and makes us stand out from everyone around us. It stems from what we like, love and hate, the culture we were raised in, the people we interact with and much more than that. Every breathing moment our identity changes minutely because of what we experience and this ultimately defines the person that we are and the person that we will become.

England in the 1980s has tremendous problems when it comes to hooliganism; particularly football hooliganism which stems from jingoistic support for favourite clubs and results in violence and uncouth behaviour on the streets. In the Shadwell district, police officer John and his team is assigned to infiltrate the firm (gang of football hooligans) of the local football club Shadwell FC to bring down the top dogs of the group and put an end to the violence. In order to do so, John and his three colleagues are required to go undercover and win over the trust of some of the most aggressive men from the district. Somehow they manage to join the firm but in his attempts to bring down the perpetrators, John begins to empathise with the villains. He faces a big challenge when he is close to completing his mission but actually losing himself in the bargain.

I.D. was commissioned by BBC Films to showcase football hooliganism. It is a period film set in the 1980s and was directed by Philip Davis for a release in 1995. While the film shows the darker side of supporting the beautiful game of football, it really is about a person losing his own identity in one that he has made up for himself. It involves no mental condition or disorientation of any sort, it is purely about a police officer getting too close to his case and adopting his undercover persona for himself as he starts to empathise with the criminals. Unfortunately he loses out on his regular personal life as his wife and friends abandon him when they are unable to understand the change in his personality and he refuses to listen to reason as they try to connect with him. Eventually, he indulges his character so far that he crosses the line and has to face the repercussions.

Football hooliganism has been documented in many films in different forms. Some films focus on the passion of the supporters while others highlight the fact that hooliganism stems from the need for them to do something with their lives to make it less monotonous. This film touches upon the fact that hooliganism grows out of a mutual hatred for rivals which either first starts in the game and then lands up on the streets or the other way around where social hatred results in hooliganism and ultimately courses through every part of their lives including football. Unfortunately, most of the films and documentaries that focus on football and football hooliganism do not attain mainstream commercial success in spite of the popularity of the game. Likewise, this film did not receive much praise when indeed it should have.

Instead of focusing solely on the sport and the passion for it, this film focuses on the individuals that love the sport. It is more of a character story and appeals to a wide audience.

Mean Machine: A British comedy on prison football

When it comes to remakes, some are done splendidly well and outrank the original, some turn out to be quite poor as compared to the original and some are just plain average which no one tends to care about much. But sometimes a remake is twisted so differently from its original counterpart that it comes across as an entirely new project which has little to do with the initial film. Mean Machine is a 2001 remake of a 1974 film titled The Longest Yard which is similar to the original but has plenty of elements changed to seem as a completely different project altogether.

Danny Meehan is a former English football player who is hated by the entire nation for fixing a match between England and Germany, England’s biggest rivals in the world of football. After getting arrested for getting drunk and assaulting two police officers, Meehan is thrown into prison with a three year sentence. He is recruited by the warden to train the prison guard team, but not wanting to entice the anger of the inmates, he suggests organising a warm up game between the guard team and an inmate team which he will spearhead. In this endeavour, he is assisted by two fellow inmates, Massive and Doc. Meehan is left to convince the other inmates to join the team, train them and put up a decent side against the guards which he manages within the four walls of the prison.

The original film, The Longest Yard, was a Hollywood flick centred on the sport of American football. Mean Machine, on the other hand, is a British film which features around association football, the pulse of sports fanatics in Britain. This is one of the first and biggest standouts between the two films. Quite a bit of the script changes owing to the difference in the two sports which are featured in the films. Another difference is that Mean Machine is meant for British audiences; hence the language used employs a heavy amount of British slang; dialects which are native to the countries in Great Britain and references which will be more appealing to a British population have been employed in the film. Even the British humour which takes precedence in certain parts of the film is a stark difference from the original. One of the most hilarious scenes in the film occurs during the football match between the guards and the inmates when the commentators, who both share the name Bob comically, are conversing while providing updates for the prison inmates who are listening while locked away.

It is a decent film which is quite hilarious in parts but nothing exceptional. It is worth watching once and enjoying, at the very least.

The Firm: A limp attempt at exploring football hooliganism

Football is a huge sport which is followed and loved around the world. There is a certain level of passion which goes into the sport which can be seen particularly in Europe, and delving further, it can be seen that England is one of the countries in the forefront when it comes to football. But a residue of the passion that goes into the sport manifests itself in the form of hooliganism which leads to violence. An attempt to depict this life beyond the sport has been made with the 2009 film The Firm which was directed by Nick Love.

In 1980’s England, Dom is a teenager who lives in with his parents and hangs out with his regular group of friends, especially spending time with his best friend Terry. When looking for something more to do with his life, apart from slacking off while working with his father and wasting time smoking and break dancing with 

his friends, he has a run in with Bex, the leader of a group of hooligans who strongly support the local football team. Bex develops a soft spot for Dom because of his wit and willingness to do what he is told and invites him to be a part of the group. Dom slowly gets drawn into the world of hooliganism by taking part in fights, visiting cross country football matches and shoplifting from local apparel stores when he can’t afford expensive clothing which will help him fit in. But soon enough, Dom realises that he isn’t cut out to be a thug and struggles to find his way out of a group of people who don’t take lightly to traitors.

The film doesn’t really do justice to the full world of football hooliganism and the passion that actually leads to fans turning into hooligans to defend their turf and their local football teams. The dialogues in the film are riddled with 80s British slang terms which makes it difficult for universal audiences to follow. The film also has plenty of references to local areas and customs which don’t necessarily appeal to an audience that isn’t of British origin.

In all, the film is less about the passion for the sport and the ideology of the fans and more about the stupid ambition of one of its central characters. Without even exploring the full identity of the character that pulls most of the strings in the film and the reasons for his behaviour, the film is just a limp attempt at documenting what football hooliganism is about but fails miserably. It isn’t a film which would be recommended to be watched.

Football Rebels (Les rebelles du foot): More than just a sport

The world looks up to people with power. That is what power is all about, the ability to impact the world for the better or the worse. Being famous and successful automatically grants a person power and when it is achieved through the means of sport, the honour is all the more prestigious. The French documentary Les rebelles du foot (Football Rebels) is about international footballers who achieved a status of being great and then used their power to make a change for the better.

The documentary is narrated by one of the greatest footballers to have graced the sport in the recent past, Eric Cantona. Cantona was well known for have a fiery personality and playing exceptionally well during his illustrious career which makes him an ideal candidate to host this documentary about personalities who have made a difference using their sporting background. The first footballer in the limelight is Ivory Coast’s Didier Drogba who used his fame as the national team’s captain to unite his broken country and bring peace in a time of eminent war. Next up is Carlos Caszely, a man who was made to suffer personally for publically refusing to submit to military rule during Chile’s coup d’etat in 1973. Another personality who was celebrated was Rachid Mekhloufi, a rising star who left his professional club to form a football team that would support the formation of the state of Algeria. Predrag Pasic is the last person who is celebrated in the documentary for starting a school in Sarajevo which would teach children to play football and live peacefully in a time of war.

All the stories in the documentary feature prominent personalities that have caused a positive impact to their respective countries in their own ways. From being as subtle as the formation of a school in a war-ravaged city, as was done by Pasic, to taking a public stance by making announcements as was done by Drogba and Caszely, each have risked losing their fame and fortune and, on occasion, their lives for the sake of a cause they cared strongly about. The documentary celebrates the people who have gone past being mere footballers to being strong political influences.

Every moment that has strong emotional or ethical ties in the documentary sees the interjection of Cantona as narrator who asks the audience if they can imagine living in the middle of war with a gun against their head, or at times he draws from his own personal life to narrate a story which affected him and his family as he grew up to be the great footballer that he was. The documentary also uses stock footage from the actual events and footage gained from revisiting the locations which has an additional effect to lend to the film. The interviews with the personalities as they speak from their own experiences can be quite emotional at times and quite inspirational as well.

For any football fan, this is a must see to witness how football transcends the boundaries of being a mere sport and becomes a great influence in life. For a person who cares less about football, it is a narrative about how simple people who live with honour and dignity can rise above themselves to move a nation and the world around it.

United: A depiction of disaster, passion and brotherhood

A famous personality in the world of football, Bill Shankly, once stated that “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that”. This single quote is able to capture the emotion of any true football fan. It shows the passion and drive that goes into the sport which crosses any barriers, especially when it comes to a time of disaster that the sport happens to witness. One such huge instance is depicted in the 2011 TV drama film United.

In the late 1950’s, the football club Manchester United was managed by a man named Matt Busby, a revolutionary in the world of football who propagated training youngsters from within the ranks of the club to build a youthful team that was bound together by a love for the club and a sense of comradeship. This led to his team consisting of young adults who were affectionately nicknamed ‘Busby Babes’. Bobby Charlton was a 20 year old footballer who was just breaking into the team. He was coached by Jimmy Murphy who had a special spot of affection for him and supported him as he started making a name for himself. In 1958, the entire team flew to Belgrade, Yugoslavia, for a match, except for Jimmy who was attending to other duties. On the return flight to Manchester, England, the plane stopped off at Munich, West Germany, to refuel. In several attempts to take off amid the torrid weather, the plane had a horrendous crash which led to the deaths of 23 of its 44 passengers, including 7 members of the Manchester United football team. The story is told from the perspective of the surviving Bobby Charlton as he and Jimmy Murphy attempt to reconstruct the football team with support coming from around the world of football and local community.

The story is an emotional perspective for anyone that loves the sport of football and all that it stands for. Even those who have no affiliation to the sport can understand the impact of the disaster on the lives of the players, the families, the community and others. Even actor David Tennant, who plays the role of Jimmy Murphy, claimed to have no particular soft spot towards the sport but was moved by the story and put in a rousing performance in the film. The story showed how the footballing community came together in a time of distress. It is a chronicle of an important event which claimed the lives of a few, wrecked the emotion of the survivors and shook the lives of many.

Whether a supporter of the sport or not, the film is a must watch. It does not particularly depict the sport itself but is more about the occurrences in the lives of the people the sport affects. It is possible for anyone to connect with the story and put themselves in the shoes of the people on screen.