Film Review: Green Street Hooligans

Take a trip across the pond, go to a local pub in Manchester, Liverpool, or any other city in England, and you might hear a song like this one on match day. Green Street Hooligans portrays this culture surrounding the most popular sport of "football." But the culture it portrays is one that many never hear about and is a black spot on the sport in England and the rest of Europe. Hooligans shows the dirty side of football-it portrays grown men fighting each other in "firms" in order to support their favorite club. It is a story that will open your eyes to how much the rest of the world cares about "soccer"-it will shock you, and at the same time make you want to be a part of it.

The movie stars Elijah Wood in the meek-type role that he plays so well. Wood's character Matt (something) is a senior at Harvard that gets expelled for selling drugs-except he was framed and he is too afraid to stick up for himself. His father being a famous journalist that he cannot contact, he ends up going to England to live with his older sister who is married and has a kid. Through his sister's husband Matt finds Peter-the leader of the GSE, or the Green Street Elite. Matt gets thrown into the violent sub-culture of firms and the rest of the film takes off from there.

Elijah Wood does a good job playing the role of a smart college kid that has had it easy all his life, has all the right connections, but has no true self-confidence. Being the main character, his transformation from being a push-over to having a strong coolness being a part of the GSE helps to draw the audience into liking the guys who get into brawls every match-day. The director/writer also does a good job portraying the guys of the firm as being regular men, like in real life, who enjoy beers and are genuinely good people.

The character that makes the movie however, is the character of Peter. He is the leader of the famous GSE firm and he is the one that looks out for Wood's character of Matt from the beginning.