Best movie of this year hands down!

the audience applauded

just watch it!

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

First Time I Watched It Was In 2005. Bought The DVD In November 2007. Thought It Was A Excellent Film. Making Gary Oldman Become A Worldwide Diverse Actor

Eighties football in England was blighted by hooliganism and organised firms of violent hooligans. This is the story of Bex Bissell, leader of a football firm based loosely on West Ham's Inter City Firm, and how he tries to organise a firm to cause trouble at the 1988 European Championship.Although it is a little dated, the film was made at the height of the yuppie era and brick like mobile phones and sharp suits predominate, The Firm's portrayal of groups of men who love violence, but in the case of Bex Bissell have respectable careers and mortgages, is accurate for the time as hooliganism had moved on from the unemployed skinhead image it had in the late seventies. Also Bissell's main rival, Birmingham hooligan Yeti, played excellently by Phil Daniels, drives around in a Volkswagen Golf GTI and wears designer clothes.As for the violence, even now it is quite shocking, but true of the era it was made in. In one scene a young hooligan has his face slashed, in retaliation Bissell tortures the man who carried out the attack, and in the final scene, a vicious fight between Bissell and Yeti sees Bissell gunned down and killed. Also it's debatable whether some of the men have any interest in football, Yeti is seen at a match discussing violence and for all Bissell is seen playing in the opening credits, he seems more interested in his firm and the next fight than match results.All in all The Firm is an excellent film made in the era just before football became the new rock and roll and became respectable. Look out for Steve Mc Fadden( Phil Mitchell) in a cameo and the late Terry Su Patt is excellent as Yusef, a new hooligan who gets his face slashed on his first outing with Bisell's firm.Ironically after I posted this review, there has been hours of rioting by England fans in Marseille, which proves the problem isn't totally dead.

Long before Nick Love was helping stockpile DVD bargain bins with those terrible football hooligan movies (including a remake of this film), Alan Clarke - the highly underrated director responsible for such landmark British TV dramas Scum (1979) and Made in Britain (1982) - released The Firm, causing a moral public outcry that was the fashion of Thatcher-era Britain in the process. On the surface, it seems to glamorise these yobs and their violent tendencies, but viewing it in hindsight, it's actually about a Britain suddenly awash with money during the 'Lawson Boom', with the thugs caught up in it having grown bored and seeking out that extra buzz they receive from brutality.Although they are essentially 'football' hooligans, Clarke makes a point of showing little of the game itself. Apart from the glimpse of Arsenal's old Highbury stadium and a Sunday-league kick-about at the start, the beautiful game is little more than an excuse for these idiots to go to town on each other. ICC ringleader Bex (Gary Oldman) hopes to unite rival firms in order to take on the Europeans in the upcoming Europeans Championships, but his opposite numbers, including the particularly loathsome Yeti (Philip Davis) of the Buccaneers, inform him that his firm must rumble with theirs first if he wants to be top dog. This however is only a loose plot that binds together what is ultimately a slice-of-life approach.While the media portrayed these men as disaffected youth, a lot of them were in fact middle-class, able to afford fancy cars and suburban housing. Bex is happily married with a young son, making a comfortable living as an estate agent. When his son picks up his father's Stanley knife and starts to chew it, Bex's domestic life is thrown into disarray. It's in these quieter moments that the film is at its most disturbing, and in truth, there is less violence on show than the controversy drummed up on its release would have you believe. And when it does come - a young ICC member gets a particularly nasty face slashing - its all the more powerful. The open-ended final scene holds back from making any overt social or political statements but instead lingers with an observant fascination at these lager-swilling arseholes. Like with Scum and Made in Britain, The Firm defines the mentality of Britain at the time, and features what is undoubtedly Oldman's finest performance.

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.