06/23/06 Green Street Hooligans

Green Street Hooligans (2005), directed by Lexi Alexander

watched w/ Leslie (partially); DVD rental (Blockbuster) @ home

So, as you may have seen from the silly photo of me from my movie theater concession stand days on the website...today is in fact my birthday. Yes, not to make a big deal or dwell on the date...just putting the choice of the day into perspective. Aside from my birthday, there is also a personal favorite occasion of mine currently underway in Germany throughout the month...and that is the World Cup. I'm a huge soccer (excuse me, football) fan, and this every-4-years event fills me with excitement and hopes for the rest of my fellow countrymen to take the chance to work up into a ntaionally patriotic frenzy for the sport...and alas, simply to have my dreams dashed once again as our team loses and its pushed aside for the other sports' headlines the next day. Oh well, I still have my Challenge! That leads me to my choice, albeit biased..."Green Street Hooligans," that states in a more frenzied way the bloodthirsty fervor that accompanies match play in the World Cup for other countries. The film is based in London, where Elijah Wood plays a wrongfully expelled Harvard journalism major namd Matt who chooses to jump the pond and live with his sister & her newfound English family. Once arriving in the city, Matt is taken unwillingly along with new brother-in-law Pete to a football match, where his status as an American outsider is under local surveillance. Pete and his footballing buddies are more than just rabid fans of their local team, but after being saved in a street fight by some thugs...soon reveal to Matt that they are an embedded gang of hooligans known as the GSE (Green Street Elite) firm. At first, both parties are reluctant to form a bond; with Matt unsure of the archaic violence for some foreign pride, and Pete & the gang unsure of trusting an outsider. Once he proves his battling worth to protect the firm and his new friends, Matt begins to enjoy the brute force and camaraderie (see "Fight Club"). However, not revealing the fact that he was a journalism major (another Brit football firm no-no) in school, the boys believe him to be a traitor and the betrayals begin to escalate. All the while, Matt is struggling to keep his disruptive family life in order, with a non-factor father and sister who has tried to escape her own family's violent hooligan past. It's a raw film that blatantly displays the crazy lengths many will go to support a team and a cause, unsettled scores, and the importance of family/friend bonds. Once you get past the fact that little ol' Elijah Wood probably wouldn't be able to hold his own on a kindergarten playground turf war...the rest of the teenage hooligans and the fighting are brutally believable. Again, I'm partial to the sport and the passion that it can bring out. I'm not condoning the violent ends seen here, but hell it's fun watching a match, drinking a few pints, and talking crap with the fellas. Hey it's my birthday, I'll fight if I want to.

5 out of 5 stars