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The Firm (Gary Oldman)


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A brutal and compelling study of football violence
Review date: 2008-01-11 Rating: 8 out of 10

Bex (Gary Oldman) is an estate agent and loving familly man by day. He is also the leader of the Inter City Crew, a violent gang of football supporters, who enjoy brutal encounters with rival gangs on match days. Bex decides that the European Championships offer some very interesting possibilities.

Gary Oldman is chillingly convincing in the main role of a film which pulls no punches at all. Graphic battles with knives, hammers and baseball bats contributed to many attempts to ban this controversial film.

Yet despite all this, this powerful and disturbing drama will keep most glued to the screen.



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Reviews


Dont believe the hype!
Review date: 2007-11-09 Rating: 4 out of 10

I was so looking forward to this film & it was dissapointing on so many levels.

Gary oldman was over the top, no character depth, fight scenes incredibly dated & a truly awful ending.

Skip this movie & watch I.D instead.

A BRUTAL FILM
Review date: 2007-08-18 Rating: 8 out of 10

England in the 1980's was famous...sorry notorious for it's football violence on the terraces. Journalists tended to "over analyse" the gratuitous violence and blame it all on Thatcherism and urban frustration, with the sadistic hooligans using the terraces as their "arena of protest against a society that does'nt care" . Many football clubs had their infamous fighting gangs (Birmingham City : The Zulu Warriors, Milwall: The Bushwhackers and Chelsea: The Headhunters) and this film was loosely based on West Ham United's Inter City Crew. Do not expect shaven headed, nazi-saluting ex-cons here, The Inter City Crew are lead by the lower middle-class, married father of one Bex (Gary Oldman). By day he is an ambitious estate agent who dotes on his beautiful young son and adoring wife, but the flip side to his character that he is a violent soccer thug who wants to be 'top boy' on a forthcoming european tournament where England will be playing. His firm, all suited and booted, hire a swish London Hotel function room to have a 'business meeting' with the leaders of rival firms. The meeting is a complete waste of time and what subsequently occurs is a war between the firms with deadly results.

TV watchdog's tried to ban this at it's time of release in 1988, claiming that it encited violent hatred between people, in reality it was just social commentary. We saw Bex's colleagues as all having respectable jobs and stable homelives. There were no 'victims of society here'. Bex's wife is far from happy with his part-time hobby which causes much friction in their marriage. Bex tries to justify his antics by simply saying "I need the buzz!".

The Firm launched the career of many household name actors in the U.K and was also the final work of Alan Clarke who previously directed gritty classics such as 'Scum' and 'Made in Britain'.

Critics have said that it was unneccesarily violent, but it added to the reality and was a true picture of what was going on at the time. It was funny, tragic, poignant and compelling and portrayed the ironic message that the 'angry young men' who were willing to die for their football club simply didn't even like football, and if they received a lifetimes ban they would go and inflict their violence at a snooker or tennis tournament.


Fireworks when Oldman and Davis fall out?
Review date: 2007-06-13 Rating: 8 out of 10

This is by far the best of a whole list of movies using this theme and I first saw it when it was shown on TV several years ago. I thought it good then and still think it is a well made, strongly acted piece of work. Oldman is the arch-typal high-earning, suited and booted employee and Davis is a bit out of his league on this score but more than equals him once the violence starts.Very good make-up and lots of what are now well-known faces.

Best of the genre
Review date: 2007-01-04 Rating: 8 out of 10

Compelling story of Yuppie hoolie Bex (a moustached Gary Oldman) and his battle with rival top boy Yeti (a pony-tailed Phil Davis) to lead England's firm at their next European awayday.
Directed by the much missed Alan Clarke, a specialist in gritty, hard hitting, realistic drama; this film (supported by the BBC) made headlines at the time for exposing the myth that all football hooligans postcarded their violent intentions by dressing like boot boys, scarves on wrists and all. The irony of the sight of lads fighting in the latest designer gear was completely lost on the majority of middle England at the time.
The main character Bex is a smart, intelligent, respectable married man in a good job who's pastime is leading a crew known as the ICC (sic ICF?) at the weekends; a true product of Thatcher's Britain.
His wife (Oldman's real wife back then, Lesley Manville) is semi-oblivious to his exploits, although he is ably egged on by his admiring working-class dad.
Various well-known faces past and present crop up throughout the film, and there's a bit of a soap theme as Corrie's Jim McDonald and EastEnders' Phil Mitchell join in for the rucks and a bit of cockney banter.
The characters are far more believable than those in the current crop of hoolie films, yes even more than "The Football Factory" so beloved of the Loaded/FHM brigade out there. The scene where Bex lays into one of his own new boys, when he doubts he has the stomach to stand and fight when it matters, is very difficult to watch; control through the threat of fear is the priority in the mind of the hardened thug.
People who complain the film isn't violent enough are completely missing the point, it doesn't need to be graphic, the film is portraying why this guy Bex chooses to be who he is. The most important thing in his life is being a top boy and the ability to walk tall on his own patch. He wants people to fear him, that's his escapism. Even his own wife fails to grasp the nettle as to why he does it; "I need the buzz" he explains to her, "Then buy a bloody beehive then", she retorts angrily.
Oldman excels in the lead role, and there are some excellent scenes of almost uncontrollable rage; whether it is having a private moment testing out his baton on an unsuspecting pillow, a surprise visit to a rivals boozer, or testing the bottle of a new boy.
Compelling; remember this character sells houses for a living, would you invite him around for a valuation on your gaff?
I like "The Football Factory" it has humour and they're all cheeky cockney Jack the Lads and all that, but "The Firm" for me is the better film, it tells it like it is, and there is nothing humorous about this dark tale. One scene nagged me afterwards though, did I really see Bex actually pay for his rail tickets? Any serious jibber would have had a good laugh at that one.

Product Details/Specifications


Artist(s):
Gary Oldman

Actor(s):
Steve Sweeney
Philip Davis

Creators:
Philip Davis (Primary Contributor)
Steve Sweeney (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Prism Leisure Corporation
Manufacturer: Prism Leisure Corporation
EAN: 5014293151054
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2004-02-02
Audience rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 67 minutes
Language: English (Original Language)

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