The Firm (1989)

From my favorite movies..

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

One of director Alan Clarke's last film, The Firm was a controversial film for the BBC Screen Two strand dealing with the issue of football hooliganism a topical subject in 1980s Britain.This film mixed football gang violence with Thatcher's 80s Britain with the rise of the Yuppies. In fact in the late 80s there was some evidence that the new breed of football hooligans were not skinheads in denims but rather aspirational and smartly dressed.The opening scene with the protagonists playing a football match features no actual football.Gary Oldman is charismatic as Bexy a cocky estate agent by day with a wife and young child but also the leader of the Inter City firm who has vision of leading the English contingent of hooligans in the 1988 European football championship which was a damp squib for the actual English football team.Bexy has run ins with rival gangs especially the one led by Phil Davis. This is a memorable Screen Two film not only because of its subject matter, but it also contained many rising stars such as Phil Davis, Nick Dunning as well as Oldman and rather a few people who became better known in soap operas.The film was remade in 2009 for a cinema release but its this version which has stood the test of time with Oldman's performance at the centre, Al Hunter's writing and Alan Clarke's direction.

I watched this last night on digital Film4 channel that are having a season of British Films. I saw it long before but decided to watch again in all curiosity. This time i found it all to be more enjoyable owning to all experiences. Gary oldman plays a hard working sosciopath type who is willing to die defending his status in streets. At war with a home rival gang who they are forever locked in battle. Yet share a mutual love for footballThe speed of the film was fast moving and full of tension. Philip davis as gang opposition leader Yeti makes a great contender in contrast to Gary oldman. To see them both in confrontation and each angrily spitting out bitter remarks is funny. in that they are both enjoyable and fun to watch and determined to control a tempest of emotions.

Firstly, I'd like to say that the first two reviewers for this film have completely missed the point. I could easily take their reviews apart.This film is as true as can be to portray how the hooligan had evolved from the 70's. The culture had swiftly moved onto the lower-middle classes by the 1980's. No longer did they need to be "Skinheads" or "Working class scum" who used the movement as a means to protest against the state.In order for the hooligans to survive they had to become more intelligent and more cunning to outwit the police. The football shirts were put in one draw and the suits and cotton shirts were pulled out of another - the element of disguise.Gary Oldman is Bex, the hilarious yet psychotic estate agent who has one goal - to be top boy in Europe. Along with his crew, The ICC, Bex puts it to two other rival firms that he wishes to lead them all into Europe...but they're having none of it. They let him know that the only way he will get that position is if his best ten can beat theirs.As well as trying to keep him marriage together Bex battles his way to becoming "top boy"...but does he actually succeed? Alan Clarke's films are always witty, gritty and as realistic as they can get. Its a shame the man made only one more film before being taken from this world (cancer) in 1990.More realistic than "Football Factory" and "I.D", its highly recommended you watch this Made-For-TV classic.

... because the culture of 'hooliganism' has moved on since this was made. It certainly hasn't gone away, but the organisation of such things is tighter these days with the aid of technology like the Internet. Hopefully these developments will be addressed in upcoming fare like "The Football Factory".So the 'values and ideals' shown in this film are different because it's a bygone age. Less materialism and more violence exists EVERYWHERE these days, so showing it creeping into suburbia isn't necessarily as shocking now as perhaps it was when viewed at the time. There are some nice performances here though from a wealth of British acting talent who went on to bigger things, and Oldman keeps you watching throughout as only he can; holding the screen with his intense passion. Disappointingly, though, the scenes which are most effective are often undercut by what follows, with the pace never quite finding itself even at a short 67mins. The ending can similarly be seen as a damp squib, but the one or two powerful moments in getting there make this a worthwhile experience for fans of some of the actors.