Projects » Green Street Hooligans

Also Known As: Green Street (UK), The Yank (USA)
Production Year: 2005
Directed by: Lexi Alexander
Genre: Drama
Tagline: Stand Your Ground
Rating: 7.3/10 (6,317 votes)
Runtime: 109 min
Country: USA / UK
Language: English
Also Known As: Football Hooligans, The Yank, Hooligans, Green Street
MPAA: Rated R for brutal violence, pervasive language and some drug use
Certification: UK:18 / USA:R / Czech Republic:15 / Iceland:16 / Netherlands:16 / Hungary:18 / Malaysia:(Banned) / Finland:K-15 / Brazil:16 / Mexico:C / Singapore:M18 / Germany:16 / Australia:MA / UK:18 / Ireland:18

Plot Outline: Unjustly expelled from Harvard when a stash of cocaine is found in his possession, Matt (Elijah Wood) moves to London to live with his sister and her husband Steve (Marc Warren.) He is quickly introduced to Steve's chirpy, cock-sure younger brother Pete (Charlie Hunnam.) Initially, Pete is reluctant to get acquainted with Matt and allow him to tread around the capital city with him because he may be seen by others as an 'outsider', but after a heavy drinking session with him and his mates he quickly changes his opinion of him. On the way back from a football match, Matt is viciously accosted by a gang of Birmingham City thugs, until Pete and his friends step in and save him. It is from here that Matt learns the truth about Pete and his friends- they are football hooligans, operating the GSE (Green Street Elite) 'firm.' Initially afraid of the violence, Matt soon ends up becoming as desensitized to it as his new found friends- but as events roll on, suspicion, shocking revelations and unsettled scores combine to a devastating climax where London's most fierce football rivals- Millwall and West Ham United- are set to go head to head.

Awards

Green Street Hooligans won 3 awards.

Won a "Best of the Fest Award" at the Malibu Film Festival, 2005
Won "Best Feature" at the LA Femme Film Festival, 2005
Won "Special Jury Award" at the SXSW Film Festival, 2005

Cast

Elijah Wood .... Matt Buckner
Charlie Hunnam .... Pete Dunham
Claire Forlani .... Shannon Dunham
Marc Warren .... Steve Dunham
Leo Gregory .... Bover
Henry Goodman .... Carl Buckner
Geoff Bell .... Tommy Hatcher
Rafe Spall .... Swill
Kieran Bew .... Ike
Ross McCall .... Dave
Francis Pope
Christopher Hehir .... Keith

Trivia

When Matt goes to his first West Ham game we are told that they are playing Birmingham, when really the game they are watching was West ham playing Gillingham
Cameo: [Cass Pennant] One of the Manchester riot police at the train station. Cass Pennant was one of West Ham United's Inter City Firm's (ICF) leaders and a notorious hooligan in the late '70s.
The film's British title, "Green Street", comes from the street in London where the Boleyn Ground (formerly Upton Park) is located.
To research his role, Charlie Hunnam met with real members of the ICF (the Inter City Firm, the name given to West Ham's former hardcore firm of football hooligans).
The actors playing the Green Street Hooligans had to work out with the production's trainer for four or five hours every day. The trainer, Pat Johnson, had most of the actors throwing up, he was working them so hard. A typical day would involve basic strength and fitness training for about two hours, followed by choreographing of the fight sequences. Rehearsals would take place in the afternoon, and then in the evening they would all go out drinking (which is probably why most of them were throwing up the next day). Elijah Wood was absented from most of this rigorous schedule to emphasize his outsider status.
West Ham were approached by the film-makers who wanted to shoot scenes at their Upton Park ground. As they were under the impression that the film was celebrating the glorious game and its fanatical supporters, they agreed. Once they realized the film's true take on the subject (after filming had taken place), they disassociated themselves from the project.
The film's working title was "The Yank".

Goofs

Miscellaneous: When Steve is trying to con Pete into taking Mat to the match, the money he is holding goes from folded in half to thirds and back to half again.
Factual errors: Actual trains departing London to Manchester leave from Euston Station, not Kings Cross or Paddington.
Factual errors: The fight scene with Manchester United fans clearly was filmed outside London Fenchurch Street station, not in Manchester.
Continuity: When Matt has the Chelsea grin, he is obviously bleeding a lot in the corners of the mouth. But in the next scene with the van and then with the fight, the blood is gone and it doesn't show and sign of wounds and him wiping the blood away.
Continuity: During the first bar scene when Bovver is shown standing on a table singing their West Ham song, he is clearly shown drenched in beer as they throw it everywhere. The next scene is shown in the bathroom with Bovver and Matt and his sweater is completely dry and shows no signs of the beer throwing.
Continuity: Pete says the last time West Ham and Millwall played each other was 10 years previous. Steve tells Matt that he met his sister Shannon soon after the last fight with the Millwall Firm, which resulted in the death of Tommy's son and Steve leaving the GSE. But earlier in the movie, Shannon tells Matt that she has not seen him for 3 years. Matt says that she ran off for England after their mother's death. This leaves a 7 year difference between the time Shannon and Steve would have met.

Quotes

Pete Dunham: You don't run, not when you're with us... You stand your ground and fight!
Matt Buckner: Pete Dunham's life taught me there's a time to stand your ground, and his death taught me there's a time to walk away.

Matt Buckner: I've never lived closer to danger, but I've never felt safer. I've never felt more confident, and people could spot it from a mile away. And as for this, the violence? I gotta be honest - it grew on me. Once you've taken a few punches and realize you're not made of glass, you don't feel alive unless you're pushing yourself as far as you can go.

Matt Buckner: [singing] I'm forever blowing bubbles / Pretty bubbles in the air / They fly so high / They reach the sky / And like my dreams they fade and die / Fortunes always hiding, I've looked every where / I'm forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air!

Matt Buckner: Was that a terrorist attack? What happened here?
Shannon Dunham: Welcome to match-day madness. Tottenham was in town last night.

Pete Dunham: So, I'm guessing you're not much of a fighter.
Matt Buckner: Fighter? That's probably the first fight I ever had.
Pete Dunham: You call that a fight?

Matt Buckner: You know the best part? It isn't knowing that your friends have your back. It's knowing that you have your friends' back.

Matt Buckner: What are you talkin' about, baseball is a girl's game? The Red Sox has a guy that pitches the ball over 90 miles per hour!
Pete Dunham: Who cares? All that means is that he can have a wank faster than you.