Scene from the film, The Firm _460
LOOSELY adapted from Alan Clarke’s seminal 1989 TV drama, The Firm is a brutal and unflinching portrait of hooliganism and male bonding, set to a funky soundtrack of The Gap Band, The Jam, Kool & The Gang, Donna Summer and Tears For Fears.
We are transported back to 1980s London, a mecca of wannabes who need to own the latest tracksuits and trainers to fit in.
Clarke’s version concentrated on the gangs, but here Nick Love takes a different tack, trying to draw in a younger audience (even with the deserved 18 certificate) by viewing events through the eyes of a disenfranchised teenager who is seduced by this dangerous world, but then doesn’t know how to get out again.
The script doesn’t flesh out the characters so what we get is another pummelling from a film-maker who trampled through similar territory in his 2004 film, The Football Factory.
