Director: Donal MacIntyre
Narrated By: Sean Bean
Running Time: 79 minutes
Certificate: 18
In recent years there have been some tremendous sport documentaries made: SENNA, TT3D CLOSE TO THE EDGE and ONCE IN A LIFETIME all stellar examples. HOOLIGAN is Donal MacIntyre’s look into the world of football hooliganism, and won’t be joining that list. MacIntyre has previous with hooliganism; in the 90s he went undercover with the Chelsea headhunters, Chelsea FC’s most violent fan group. This documentary was terrifying, MacIntyre was in well over his head, and was assualted on numerous occasions. The film led to convictions for a number of the group, and threats against MacIntyre and his family’s lives. Revisiting this world must have been difficult for MacIntyre, and he’s made it hard work for the viewer too.
HOOLIGAN is a documentary so confused it’s almost feckless. Narrator Sean Bean takes us through the action and talking heads with some of the worst voice over work I’ve ever experienced; Bean gives off an air of superiority that is disrespectful to how serious the focus of this documentary is, and the humour hits so wide of the mark it’s extraordinary it made the final cut. Also, the contributions made from talking heads range between current and former hooligans, and well… that’s about it. Snippets are given to a police chief and a few other authority figures, but none are given more time than a current Millwall hooligan who can’t be named for legal reasons, and Tamer Hassan, Millwall fan and ropey actor.
MacIntyre’s Chelsea headhunters documentary was a genuinely powerful film; to see and hear the terrible things that were happening gave the public food for thought, and helped a small amount in bringing in the Football Banning Order, used to prevent hooliganism and violent behaviour. HOOLIGAN is so hideously misjudged it almost feels like MacIntyre is sending a sorry note to each of the hooligans he helped imprison. The violence shown is terrible, however the narration and talking heads render the effect void; seeing a man punched in the face repeatedly or a woman hit with a truncheon should cause shock and dismay, but here it is overused and loses all effect. A particularly puzzling element is the last eight minutes which, following Bean’s question ‘do you want some more? Well DO YOU?’ is simply a montage of violence played out to the ever-present heavy guitar-riff, which almost glorifies the events. HOOLIGAN does have one positive: whilst speaking with the Barra Brava – Argentina’s hooligan element – some fans describe how young players are being forced to Europe to escape the corruption brought on by the Barra Brava, and their power over owners and managers. This interested me because of the detrimental effect this is having on Argentine football, if more of the documentary had chosen this angle than it could have been much more engaging. As it is, HOOLIGAN, like the participants on film, should be locked away for a long time.
HOOLIGAN is released on DVD 20th August.
