Green Street Movie Review:


I did not know what to expect from “Green Street,” a movie about an American who comes to England and gets involved in the world of football hooliganism. I feared a heavily moral tale, or perhaps a fish-out-of-water story. At any rate, I did not expect a movie as insightful, powerful and entertaining as the one director Lexi Alexander has made. It takes characters that are initially repulsive and somehow shows how they tick, elevating them to the level of flawed human beings.

The American, Matt, is played by Elijah Wood. His character has recently been expelled from Harvard after taking the fall for his roommate when cocaine was found in their room. In truth, he resents his roommate for it, but his roommate, we hear, has a powerful father, and Matt doesn’t stand a chance against him.

Matt goes to visit his sister, who moved to England a few years ago. There, he meets his brother-in-law, Steve, for the first time, and Steve’s brother, Pete (Charlie Hunnam). He’s a rude guy with bouts of violence, but Matt gets to know Pete and his friends, and grows to like them. Pete is a big football fan (‘stop calling it “soccer”!’), and takes Matt to his first match, after which he gets jumped by the rival team’s hooligans. Pete and his friends show up and a gang fight ensues. After this, Matt spends more and more time with Pete and the ‘firm’ of thugs. They get in more fights, and Matt gains respect among the fans, despite being a ‘Yank.’

The movie is by no means in favour of this behaviour, but neither does it get bogged down with anti-violent messages. There will be those offended by the movie’s violence, who think that it supports the hooligans, but I disagree. The movie shows characters who are attracted to this world of violence because, in part, it is the only way they know of gaining respect. Like most good movies, “Green Street” is more concerned with its characters than a message. If the violence is shown as exciting, it is because that is how the characters experience it. I think it would have been in poorer taste to clean up the violence, and try to stylise it or something. It’s ugly and vicious, and the characters like it that way.

I’ve always thought that football hooliganism doesn’t have much to do with football; it’s a way for violent people to express themselves. The football just offers then an excuse for it. I really didn’t like these guys at first, but as the movie introduces the hierarchy in place, I was reminded of, of all things, “The Godfather.” What these guys have is a crude mafia in place, and we, perhaps reluctantly, see things their way. It’s all a cosmetic way of hiding who these characters really are, or think they are, but the movie is smart enough not to spell this out.

Unlike “The Godfather,” however, the story is not told from an entirely closed-off world; there is an alternative choice of lifestyle, as seen through the story of Steve (Marc Warren), who is married to Matt’s sister; together they have a son. They seem happy.

This may seem like an odd choice for Elijah Wood; being his first starring role since “Lord of the Rings,” but it makes sense. He has usually played innocent or nerdy characters (“Sin City” excepted), and here he plays a somewhat similar character, but one who is entering this dangerous world to prove something to someone; maybe himself.

I’m not sure that the subplot about Matt being kicked out of Harvard is needed, and he provides the movie with a redundant voiceover. But “Green Street” was a real surprise for me. I didn’t expect to get so involved with these characters that I would have, in real life, crossed the road to avoid.

One last note, about one of the actors. Pete, the thuggish leader of the pack, is played by Charlie Hunnam, a name I knew, but could not quite place. Seeing the movie did not help, so I checked him up on the internet. When I released that he played Nathan in “Queer as Folk,” I did perhaps the first genuine double-take of my life.

Adam Whyte

After been wrongfully thrown out of Harvard University, Matt Buckner (Wood) heads to London to stay with his sister Shannon (Forlani). When he gets there he meets Pete Dunham (Hunnam), Shannon’s brother-in-law who introduces him to football and his beloved West Ham United but when he gets involved with Pete he also get involved with his firm the Green Street Elite (GSE). Making a name for themselves, as the most feared set of supporters in football, Matt becomes embroiled in their world and soon becomes part of the firm.

Football hooligans have always been a blight on the beautiful game and any movie about them always seems to glorify the violence but can ‘Green Street’ be any different?

Unlike ‘Football Factory’ the movie tries to explain the reasons behind the organised violence that drives the ‘firms’ that associate themselves with the football clubs. Now we see that this is England’s equivalent of the turf wars between the US gangs but they use their fists instead of guns. It is all about respect and their reputation amongst the firms, as these minorities of so called football fans battle amongst themselves after or before each game. The problem is that, as with ‘Football Factory’ the reason for the violence is never explained other than that the thugs involved just love a fight.

The violence in the movie is graphic and realistic but the reactions of the participants are not. After most of the beatings, the boys just continue on with their lives with no real injuries other than a few cuts and bruises. This is were the movie falls down and slightly glorifies the violence, showing that you can take a beating and recover far too quickly. There are no consequences here, neither physically nor mentally and the police don’t seem to get involved much either.

Trying to move away from his usual goody persona, Elijah Wood gives his all as Matt Buckner but he doesn’t quite have the look to be involved in the hooligan aspects of the film. While he tries extremely hard to be the Yank amongst the Yobs but his pretty boy looks don’t really look the part, especially when he is involved with the fighting. Much more believable is the performance of Charlie Hunnam as GSE leader Pete Dunham. He plays the thug well but the script lets him down because the character never really explains what he gets out of organising and participating in the fighting but he is probably the rounded character in the piece.

Supporting the two main players are some typical clichéd performances from the other members of the cast. Leo Gregory as Bover, Rafe Spall as Swill and Geoff Bell as Millwall firm leader Tommy Hatcher are your stereotypical thug types with not a single brain cell between them as they only live for the fight. The beautiful Claire Forlani plays a clichéd dumb woman who tries to save the men in her live from the inevitable brawl at the end, only to put herself in danger. Marc Warren plays Pete’s brother Steve who wants both him and Matt to leave the hooligan life style alone but has a secret to hide.

‘Green Street’ glorifies hooligan violence and gives ordinary, passionate football fans a bad name. It does try and explain the reasons behind the violence but it doesn’t go far enough for you to feel anything for the characters, leaving you to think that they are just mindless thugs who use football as an excuse to have a fight. Instead of an insight into the hooligan mentality, we have an average insight into how these idiots bring the beautiful game into disrepute.

Jamie Kelwick

Director-cowriter Alexander knows what she's talking about; this film is partly autobiographical. And this authenticity lends a sharp edge to what would otherwise be yet another gritty drama about British yob culture.

When aspiring journalist Matt (Wood) is thrown out of Harvard, he heads for London to visit his sister Shannon (Forlani) and her husband Steve (Warren). But before the first day is over, Matt has fallen in with Steve's brother Pete (Hunnam) and the Green Street Elite, a gang of football hooligans supporting West Ham. The problem is that, to these guys, the only thing worse than being a Yank is being a turncoat journalist. So Matt has a big secret.

Alexander builds an intense sense of camaraderie between members of the 'firm'--we understand why Matt's drawn in, and even how he embraces the violence. This insight makes the film both profoundly important and deeply provocative, as it seems to suggest that thuggish aggression is actually a noble posture. The gang's constant desire for fierce battles makes East London feel like a war zone. And Alexander shoots and edits with a striking sense of energy and urgency, filling the screen with attitude and bravado, abrasive characters and seriously horrific brawls.

The cast dives in forcefully, with real rage and passion. And yet the actors find the resonance inside it; this kind of loyalty might be deadly, but it's certainly not misplaced. Wood gives his most grown-up performance to date, while Hunnam continues his transition to the dark side (Nicholas Nickleby to Cold Mountain to this) as the fearsome Pete, who admittedly has a nice side in his day job as a school teacher.

The plot takes a couple of corny turns near the end--betrayal, revenge and discovery combine rather simplistically in order to ferret out a fierce climactic sequence. And the final message is more than a little mixed. But this is an important examination of one of society's biggest conundrums: Why do young men, out of a desperate need to feel both protected and protective, turn to violence? Or terrorism....

Rich Cline

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