Green Street Hooligans: A Must-See for Film School Students

Rating: 6/10 (21 October 2006)

Green Street Hooligans is an independent film by German-born director Lexi Alexander. Starring Elijah Wood and Charlie Hunnam, it tells the story of an American's introduction to the violent culture of English football hooliganism.
It's an interesting idea: GSH tries to portray a subculture that, to my knowledge, has never received a motion picture treatment. This alone makes it unique, a clever hook to tell a story about violence taking control of a man's thought process. This is usually Lesson One in any art form: finding a new story to tell.
Unfortunately, this film has a lot of problems. There are problems with the script, problems with the acting, and problems with the photography. That's why I am giving it a poor rating. It's also for this reason I heartily recommend it for all film school students. All of the problems are completely salvageable, for the premise and foundation are sound. It just has some problems with execution that could be quite educational for aspiring filmmakers. A few of the lessons to learn:
1)When casting against type, modify your script accordingly. Elijah Wood is a fine actor, but he doesn't quite sell the role of a football hooligan (even if the character is a fish-out-of-water). Frankly, he's too small. But the script writers could have compensated for this, by playing up not only his American ancestry and his lack of knowledge about football, but also his small stature. If that was *also* given to his character as an obstacle, the film would have been more interesting. As it is, they glide over that aspect of the character.
2)Every troubled character needs a conscience. In every story, especially stories with violence, you need a "Jiminy Cricket" character to represent the internal conflict to a troubled character. This adds the element of decision, of choice, and, therefore, of choices gone bad. Yet Wood's character, Matt Buckner, doesn't have any such character as counterbalance. The sister character doesn't really sell, she doesn't have the authority. And clearly Matt Buckner has contempt for the father character (which is nice, but not really effective as the conscience of the film).
3) Believable, exciting violence is difficult to film. It's taken years to get the technique down. Apparently, Lexi did experience hooliganism herself to some extent, but experiencing it and being able to convey it on screen are two different things. Some fight scenes work well (the brawl in the bar and outside the train station come to mind), but others (like Buckner's first fight in the alley) do not. It was probably a budget restriction, but a good fight choreographer could have done wonders. At the very least, research other films with great fight scenes before attempting to film one yourself.
4) The climax needs a believable element of risk and danger. In the film, Matt Buckner's sister is endangered by a rival gang. Sadly, her reason to be there, and her entrance into the fracas, is horribly contrived and makes no sense. The audience can forgive a lot of plot holes if the film is good, but if the plot hole immediately proceeds the big finish, it takes away a lot of the film's momentum.
5) Don't underestimate the value of sex. If there's anything this film needed, it was at least a smattering of sex. These are adult men engaging in this world of violence, yet there are no women around! Highly unbelievable. I don't think hooligans are an abstinent bunch, it simply doesn't make sense. There is this one brief scene where Matt Buckner gets the phone number of some blonde, but he never hooks up. Are hooligans gay or something? It makes no sense, there should have been some women around, even one-night stands. A well-placed female lead could have provided the conscience needed in #2, or the risk needed in #3.
6) A character's journey needs to be shown, not simply implied. At the end of the film, Matt Buckner confronts a man who screwed him over in college. After perhaps a year of fighting and football-watching, he doesn't look very changed at all. Yes, Wood has a bit more of a scowl, but he just doesn't convey the tough-guy image. The director should have spotted this and made some adjustments, coaching the actor better. It was also a make-up problem: his face isn't even tanned (die-hard sports fans are quite tan in the face); and he doesn't have visible facial scars. His stance isn't even that tough.
7) Music is everything in film. There are some great soundtrack moments (gotta love the Stone Roses), but right at the end, after Buckner's confrontation, it really needed a "hurrah" musical moment. Yet there isn't much of one. There is the chanting of "bubbles", a pub song oft sung by the gang, but it really needed a bigger moment than that. It just doesn't sell. I don't think the film needed a big John Williams orchestration at that point, but "bubbles" wasn't enough.
I don't mean to be overly harsh of Lexi Alexander. She did give it a good try, and I hope she learned from the experience. And I do like the general concept. Perhaps, some time in the future, someone will make a better movie about this subculture. And hopefully Lexi will continue working in film, I sense that she does have a good story in her somewhere.
6 out of 10, but still worth watching for the lessons it provides.
Barky