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I love football not just for the entertainment, but because tribalism creates a thrilling atmosphere of passion. I was lucky enough to be born at a time when football hooliganism has died out remarkably quickly compared to what Green Street Hooligans shows. This comedy-drama shows the thuggish side of English football “firms” as Charlie Hunnam’s Pete takes American posh-boy Matthew (Elijah Wood) under his wing and into the Green Street Elite, the firm of West Ham United.

Not only does director Lexi Alexander balance the brutal violence with a mania that makes you understand how someone like Matthew would become swept up in this life, but there is an undercurrent of insecurity in every character in the film that presents the real reason they would join the GSE: a need to belong.

‘Green Street Hooligans’ Presents These Thugs as Soldiers in the Heat of Battle

Image via Universal Pictures

At first, one might be forgiven for thinking this film would be a surface-level flick about wannabe gangsters who are just losers, as that is how Alexander draws you in. Despite the fact they don’t want to call themselves a gang, we are immediately shown the violent underpinning of these firms and the lack of reason men like Pete possess, merely attacking each other because they saw one another at a train station. However, via Matthew, our fallen angel, we are given a look into the mania and camaraderie within the GSE, characterized by Matthew’s broad and childish grin throughout.

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When Matthew gets jumped, Pete and his gang are immediately there to help, like the coming of the cavalry for innocent civilians, and the victorious singing at the pub afterward invokes the idea of triumphant soldiers at the end of war who can only do what they do because of their friends’ support. Instantly, we understand how this kind of mass mania would take hold of vulnerable young men looking for glory, thrill, and support. That is when the true cleverness of Green Street Hooligans begins to shine through.

There is Far More to the Men in ‘Green Street Hooligans’ Than Meets the Eye

There is a deeper layer to Green Street Hooligans that turns your look of horror and disgust to one of sorrow and tears by the end. We understand Matthew is looking for a way to rebel, but through characters like Bovver (Leo Gregory), Pete’s right-hand man, we see that this is all these young men have to live for. When Bovver is kicked out of the GSE and breaks down in tears, we go from hating this animalistic man to pitying him, like he is a child who didn’t know any better because no one bothered to show him another way. Furthermore, by showing us that these are regular people in their everyday lives, such as Pete being a kind and encouraging football coach for children, we see that they are more than thugs and can be good people when given the chance.

This tragic undercurrent is only hit upon more as the film goes on, and we see the stakes rise from mere pride to people’s lives being on the line. The rise in extremism throughout the film feels both natural and ridiculous at the same time. We understand why the leader of the Millwall gang, Tommy (Geoff Bell), would want to kill someone for the death of his son in a previous brawl, and this kind of tit-for-tat makes each character’s motivations feel reasonable to themselves, whilst we can watch with an objective view, understanding why they feel the way they do, but ultimately seeing the great tragedy of lives being lost over a game of football.

Personally, the last time a film had me laughing throughout before crying at the end was Four Lions, and there are similarities between the two when it comes to extremism and the idea that thuggish young men are typically vulnerable and desperate for some semblance of belonging. It would be so easy to dismiss Green Street Hooligans as glorifying street gangs. But there is so much more to this film, and Alexander’s directing is superb. The framing of these firms as soldiers fighting for each other allows you to empathize with Matthew joining them, but the way the film ratchets up the stakes and reveals the insecurity within each character presents a far more emotional narrative than one might expect at first.