New Movie Examines Genesis Of Hooliganism
It’s a nightmare scenario. A cop infiltrates a gang of soccer thugs to identify the ringleaders and becomes a hooligan.
“John” becomes a hero to the gang by starting fights at soccer matches and in bars. His three colleagues warn him he’s carrying the undercover work too far. What they don’t realize is that he’s no longer working.
John gets so sucked into the life of a soccer hooligan that he loses everything: his integrity, girlfriend and job.
The final scene in the movie “i.d.,” released this week in London, sees John, now an ex-cop, marching among a group of right-wing extremists chanting racist remarks with their right arms raised, Nazi-style.
Spotted by an ex-colleague, who is monitoring the march, John whispers that he’s still working undercover. By now, the viewers know that’s untrue.
Partially-financed by the British Broadcasting Corp., “i.d.” is already sparking controversy from critics who believe it glorifies soccer hooliganism in a year when stadium violence is again on the upswing.
Some British Members of Parliament were denouncing the movie even before it hit the theaters, but one lawmaker who has seen the film feels it has a legitimate message.
“It actually shows what soccer violence can lead to, how a person can get totally cut off from reality and clearly lose his own roots,” Labor party MP Kate Hoey said after a preview at the Houses of Parliament.
“It’s not a pleasant film and I found the constant cursing pretty wearing. But I don’t think that any young people who watched it would become encouraged to behave like the people in this film.”
Set in the 1980s, when soccer violence was rife in Britain and also spreading across Europe, the movie provides a sharp and accurate insight into the life of a soccer thug.
The gang, supporters of the fictitious, London-based club of Shadwell Town, meets in a pub called The Rock, which is run by a man who has the same violent tendencies and provides a safe haven from the law. At the pub, the supporters shout, chant, sing and plan ways of ambushing rival fans at the next game.
It’s in this atmosphere that John, played by British actor Reece Dinsdale, makes the transformation from kind cop to nasty hooligan.
“We meet this regular guy, he’s smart, ambitious and fun,” Dinsdale said. “He has a good job and a lovely girlfriend. Then he puts on this undercover job and there’s something in his personality that enjoys mixing it with these violent yobs and he can’t help himself.
“I believe we are all capable of this type of violence and if we taste it we can get to like it.”
The scenario is similar to one spelled out in the 1992 book “Among The Thugs,” American author Bill Buford’s chilling, real-life account of his time spent with hooligans.
The movie is not based on Buford’s book, but it does come at a time when hooliganism is again stealing the headlines. This season fans have died in Italy, France and England, plus a riot by English fans in Dublin forced a match to be abandoned.
“This film is not about a game of football,” director Philip Davis said. “In many cases, the football is just a sideshow for what is actually going on in the terraces (stands).