Not So Sweet and Tender Hooligans

I.D. (1995) - Director: Phillip Davis

Violence among sports fans is hardly unknown in the U.S., but it pales in comparison to the carnage associated with European soccer. And while street battles between rival fans are endemic at large matches in Italy, Spain, Russia, Germany, Holland, France and Turkey, none have captured global audiences' imagination as has the English soccer hooligan. Nevertheless, only two films have attempted to enter the world of the hooligan: Alan Clarke's The Firm and Phillip Davis' I.D.

British cult director Alan Clarke, best known for his controversial films Scum and Made in Britain, was the first to explore the hooligan phenomenon with his 1988 film, The Firm (the title of which is taken from the British slang term for "gang.") Clarke's film is notable for two reasons. One is Gary Oldman's trademark, barely-under-control performance as Bexy: a respectable real-estate agent, husband and father by day; but by night he is the vicious hooligan leader (aka "top boy") of the Inter City Crew (ICC), a loose group of friends who play soccer and drink together. The gang's composition is the film's second notable attribute. Although hooligans have historically been characterized as blue-collar whites, Clarke casts the ICC as a group of multiracial and cross-class individuals, with Bexy and several other members clearly representing the middle class. By doing so, it is apparent that Clarke's film is attempting to portray the real, and changing face of hooliganism.

The Firm's plot follows three distinct stories: the ICC's rivalry with two other firms; Bexy's attempt to unite his fellow hooligans and lead them against German firms at an upcoming European tournament; and Bexy's personal addiction to "the buzz" of hooliganism. The latter is arguably the film's key element, as any viewer will naturally wonder why these men with seemingly normal lives feel the need to batter each other on the weekend. Clarke's explanation is simple: for hooligans, it's all about the fight. While Bexy finds relative happiness in his married life and fatherhood, he desires the bonding rituals of the firm and the fights to provide "meaning" to his existence, however irrational and self-destructive that path may be. (The American film, Fight Club, explored a similar theme a decade later.) Clarke's rationalization is a logical one, and mimics many sociologists' explanations for hooliganism, once they "discovered" it wasn't just unemployed delinquents running amok.

While Bexy's personal obsession - arguably addiction - to hooliganism is depicted realistically, the rivalries with the other gangs are not. In The Firm, inter-gang violence includes such acts as trashing rival members' cars, and the maiming of one firm leader in his home. However, in real life, hooligan violence rarely extends outside the bounds of game-day fighting, with the occasional exceptions of brawls in clubs. The idea of hooligans targeting individuals during "off hours" or at their homes is thoroughly misleading. In addition, the depiction of the rival firms meeting to discuss who will lead them in Europe is equally inaccurate. While English hooligans do observe a kind of "truce" while abroad supporting the national team, this is an unspoken rule, and it's hardly organized. Whoever can make it to the continent - money and security being the main obstacles - makes it, and those who do gravitate to one another rather than follow some elaborate plan.

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