I can understand the criticism this film received. There isn't much plot, virtually zero character development and a huge amount of gratuitous violence which the director obviously relished.
However if you accept it on it's own terms as a drug and adrenalin fuelled roller-coaster ride through the British criminal underworld then it's a thrill a minute. The opening scenes showing the early days of the I.C.F. are possibly the best portrayals of football hooliganism committed to celluloid. I've never found films like the Football Factory or Green Street very convincing and the Rise of the Foot Soldier makes the fight scenes in them look like a jolly wheeze. The I.C.F. were frightening and sinister and the people involved were capable of extreme and sadistic violence. The scene where they are ambushed on the underground by the terrifying surgical mask wearing Millwall firm is particularly scary.
Overall though the film is patchy and a little bit random selecting bits and pieces of Carlton Leaches criminal life. He gets through two wives but we don't really get to find out anything about them or what motivated them to be with him. There was some humour though, I liked the scene when Leach first takes ecstasy.
I did find it slightly confusing that the film opens as a story about Carlton Leach only to find half way through that he becomes a minor character. The focus then switches to Tony Tucker, Pat Tate and Craig Rolfe, the victims of the notorious Range Rover Killings. I'm not sure exactly what the film wanted us take away from this. I personally thought the world was a better place without these three scum bags in it. I didn't find the scene where Tucker and Leach express their friendship for each other particularly moving. Both of them after all had committed numerous acts of terrifying violence in their day. Just because they showed some bizarre loyalty to each other doesn't really make up for the misery they had caused.
Pat Tate was, if the film is anything to go by, a mindless thug and Craig Rolfe a revolting cowardly retch of a human being. I don't think even Leach was crying for those two when he finds out about the murders.
As a last thought it does show that British crime is still, thankfully, nowhere near the level and violence of American crime. The Range Rover Killings are still regarded as a major event in British crime history. A bunch of drug dealers being blown away by shot guns would be business as usual in America.
However if you accept it on it's own terms as a drug and adrenalin fuelled roller-coaster ride through the British criminal underworld then it's a thrill a minute. The opening scenes showing the early days of the I.C.F. are possibly the best portrayals of football hooliganism committed to celluloid. I've never found films like the Football Factory or Green Street very convincing and the Rise of the Foot Soldier makes the fight scenes in them look like a jolly wheeze. The I.C.F. were frightening and sinister and the people involved were capable of extreme and sadistic violence. The scene where they are ambushed on the underground by the terrifying surgical mask wearing Millwall firm is particularly scary.
Overall though the film is patchy and a little bit random selecting bits and pieces of Carlton Leaches criminal life. He gets through two wives but we don't really get to find out anything about them or what motivated them to be with him. There was some humour though, I liked the scene when Leach first takes ecstasy.
I did find it slightly confusing that the film opens as a story about Carlton Leach only to find half way through that he becomes a minor character. The focus then switches to Tony Tucker, Pat Tate and Craig Rolfe, the victims of the notorious Range Rover Killings. I'm not sure exactly what the film wanted us take away from this. I personally thought the world was a better place without these three scum bags in it. I didn't find the scene where Tucker and Leach express their friendship for each other particularly moving. Both of them after all had committed numerous acts of terrifying violence in their day. Just because they showed some bizarre loyalty to each other doesn't really make up for the misery they had caused.
Pat Tate was, if the film is anything to go by, a mindless thug and Craig Rolfe a revolting cowardly retch of a human being. I don't think even Leach was crying for those two when he finds out about the murders.
As a last thought it does show that British crime is still, thankfully, nowhere near the level and violence of American crime. The Range Rover Killings are still regarded as a major event in British crime history. A bunch of drug dealers being blown away by shot guns would be business as usual in America.