20 years on...

Rating: 10/10 (26 October 2005)

Why do I think this film is excellent...? Its menacing reality is brilliant and even at the end, the Millwall never got beaten and I will go into why this is so important to me.
The film is almost my life and others I know in startling clarity from twenty years ago, yes I am a Millwall supporter and yes I belonged to the legendary F Troop and like all good hooligans, we grew up and went into the woodwork waiting for moments like this film to relive the days of war on the streets.
And war it was, this is part where the film lets itself down, because the real scene was much much worse... It was strange to see the Police so low profile when looking back at the last excursion with Birmingham, it was the Police that probably started the riots a few years back.
And it has been going on a long time also...
Millwall in fact invented many things of the "hooligan" brand, the calling card, the "Millwall Brick" (a method of taking a tabloid newspaper and making it into a very quick and deadly weapon capable of breaking a thigh bone) but the very thing, the football violence began at Millwall in 1920.
After a shocked parliament debate, it led to since that day, police presences at all football matches.
I think the film casters could have done better than Elijah because of his typecasting as the "Ringbearer", he looked out of place and out of sync with the film whereas the lesser actors did their part excellently, this is not a criticism of Elijahs acting prowess but the type of person required in this was more your Ray Winston than your typical Hollywood actor. Elijah lacks the ability to pass off as a thug with any credibility, Imagine you are some 18 stone heavy and he comes at you... what would the result be? Paté de ringcarrieré The passage of boy to man in this is sound enough though, which in essence this film is really about, mixed in with a bit of revenge and plenty of wanton violence in small bursts, keeps the pace running well.
However, the boring bit from this end is that looking back at it all, from my early teens growing up in the south London slums, it can never be justified and I wonder if people out there will identify with this film in the way that I and others identified with ID, the Firm, Scum, Made in Britain, that gives people the boost to move out of the fantasy stage and go forth and create real violence on the streets.
This is probably why this film is being banned in some parts of the US because some people out there see this type of film as an agenda for life and whilst some of us make the break and walk away, I know plenty of ex-Millwall boys either dead or imprisoned for a long long time.
Good film though, he writes looking at his Millwall tattoos, good film indeed.