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Gary Oldman, Lesley Manville, Philip Davis

This is the story of rival "Firms" of football (soccer) supporters, and how one man has a wish to team them up for the European Championships of 1988. However, when this is discussed, the opposing lea...( read more  read more... )ders are not happy, as they believe this is a challenge to their authority. This Film shows how football violence has progressed from pure violence to a form of organized crime, to the extent that all the leaders know each others home phone / mobile phone numbers.

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2,506 ratings

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Directed by: Alan Clarke

Release Date: January 1, 1988

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Flixster Reviews (232)

  • EarthlyAlien
    January 18, 2009
    EarthlyAlien
    "We come in peace, we leave you in pieces."

    When people (regular cinephiles) hear the title The Firm, more than 90% immediately think of the 1993 American film starring Tom Cruise, but there is also a very British film called The Firm, made for TV in 1988 b...( read more)y Alan Clarke. Clarke's most successful films have been about angry and violent young men and The Firm would be his final masterpiece (he died of cancer in 1990).

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    Gary Oldman plays Bex Bissell, a successful estate agent living in the London suburbs with his wife (Lesley Manville) and kid. However, he also leads a 'firm' of football hooligans (West Ham United supporters), setting up rumbles with rival gangs in London and Birmingham and inducing fear in all who know him, friend or foe. Oldman is totally in his element here. His portrayal of Bex is so intensely angry and unpredictable that you cannot help but be scared of him. Try to picture all his villain roles (Léon, JFK, True Romance) together and then multiply their madness by 10. The hatred that he spits out as he practices killing a rival gang-leader with a metal rod on a pillow still makes me pull back from the TV even after having seen this film about 6 times.

    Clarke makes no attempt to explain the characters' addiction to extreme violence except for a comment made by Bex during an argument with his wife about his extra-curricular activities: "I need the buzz!" he explains, to which she angrily replies, "Well, buy a bloody bee-hive then!". Lesley Manville is wonderful (as usual) as Bex's wife and she is one of the few people who dares to stand up to him.

    Since 1988 it has become apparent that the most violent of football hooligans aren't the unkempt, uneducated yobs they were thought to be in the 1970s. They are often well-dressed men with good jobs who travel first class on the train to get to a match in time to beat a rival group to a pulp. Clarke shows us this reality in an almost documentary-like style, even suggestively crossing the line between drama and documentary in the final scene when we actually see the camera crew being taunted and cajoled by the firm itself.

    As with many of Clarke's films (including Made in Britain), this is shot chiefly on grey days in dreary English surroundings, which gives it a depressingly realistic atmosphere for 1980's Britain. The storyline gets a little confusing sometimes as it's hard to keep track of who belongs to which firm, but that doesn't detract from the most important and disturbing aspect of the film: violence simply as a hobby.
  • organgrinder136
    March 6, 2008
    organgrinder136
    the first of the football hooligan genre! this one's directed by alan clarke who's a pretty decent top notch english chap... who's dead apparantly. always interesting to see gary oldman act. its runtime is a bit short but its shock factor isnt. noticed a couple of actors in it th...( read more)at gary oldman used in his directorial debut "nil by mouth". after all this though you're still left wondering.... why do they bother doing it?
  • Lemure
    November 6, 2009
    Lemure
    There are a lot of football-violence films, but they're all Spurs, Villa, et al. This film is the Manchester United treble-winning team of '99 - unstoppable. This is mainly all thanks to Oldman going bugnuts and off the wall in one of his best performances as a man who leads two ...( read more)lives, which can only end in tears and bloodshed. It shows both sides of their actions and nicely distances itself from the actual game, proving that these 'firms' are actually nothing to do with football. This film is the King, the Top Dog and the Guv'nor.
  • djkynky1
    June 18, 2008
    djkynky1
    Great british film about football and the associated firms. Its dated horribly compared to the football factory, but Oldmans performance is still head and shoulders above everyone else.
  • DrLappos
    May 29, 2008
    DrLappos
    Extremely good view of the early eighties firms.
  • dipa89
    December 12, 2009
    dipa89

  • dublingunner
    June 7, 2009
    dublingunner
    the best film about a football firm ever made, green street can only dream of been this
  • BewaretheChan
    June 4, 2009
    BewaretheChan
    Bit dates, but thats how it was
  • sportboy
    March 29, 2009
    sportboy
    want to see sometime in my life.
  • jackdee77
    February 17, 2009
    jackdee77
    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 ...( read more)television drama starring Gary Oldman as Clive 'Bex' or 'Bexy' Bissel. The film is often described as being among the best of the football hooligan genre of films.

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