Green Street

[knobbykins]

Watched Green Street the other night and wondered what our American based board members made of it?I suppose it got a cinema run over there because of Elijah Wood but the subject matter must have lost a little in transit.Having said that i've noticed that violence at American football games has increased the last few years or is that just because the UK media is reporting more on it.With David Beckham playing there now the spotlight is on you all;you can't deny the beautiful game much longer!!!

[ChristineCB]

Knob, never heard of GREEN STREET. The IMDB review is quite glowing.



And with Beckham hurting himself or only needing minutes for someone else to take him out for the season, I don't recommend you holding your breath for the Americans to replace basketball, baseball, hockey, their football, golf, etc. with our football.



Soccer does have one huge audience in kids, though. The term "soccer mom" has been ubiquitous for at least two decades, though, conveying a notion of a mini-van packed with neighbor kids and a couple of mom's going to after-school parks for matches.



Soccer maintains some popular appeal for women athletes in college, but even with ten or eleven 24/7 sports channels, getting a single college match on TV is a rarity during any one year. And a major-league soccer game may get a weekly time-slot, but never at a favored time or on a favored station that could compete with the more popular American sports - or even talk shows about sports!



TV Contracts rule sports now. They can offer hundreds of millions to a sport or a league (college or pro), and TV won't allow dilution of their viewership when those amounts are being spent.



Beckham's recent demise was greeted with a single day's 30-second sound-clip that usually said, "Why did anyone spend that kind of money on someone hundreds of millions of people won't ever know about?"



That dismissive tone was a constant in the coverage of his injury. It fell short of "Why bother? Only 6-year old kids play, and how much money can THEY spend when Dad's titanium golf clubs will fetch $1000 every few months for upgrades?"

[knobbykins]

And yet their national have been good enough to cause a few red faces in the last few years!

When the USA hosted theWorld Cup in'94,i think,i was the first to say "what would they know about it?" and it was one of the best i've seen,but hosting makes money which,apparently,was used for other things besides promoting the game.Can't be surprised as we'd get the hump,big time if rounders,sorry,baseball tried to edge out football.

If you get a chance have a look at it,but it may be more of a bloke's film....

[ChristineCB]

Thanks for the tip, I'll look out for it. I'm not surprised the home of Disneyland can sponsor anything!



But it IS strange that for (I'm told) the last two decades have seen more American children raised on soccer than baseball pays very little pro-sports dividends with prime-time TV pimping. And that's the name of the game - it can't be "just on TV" - it's got to be pimped on TV. The women's NBA league has been on TV a little ("as little as possible" as most male commentators laugh) and without the hype and the constant air-wave assaults promoting the personalities and their various arrest records, "there is no interest".



So, even if children are getting indoctrination into soccer, the other sports are bigger carrots held in front of them. And those are being built up as "grown up sports" and what child wants to stay with kids' games? So, soccer becomes a defacto "kids game" while the more popular American sports are marketed to them 'as soon as you're a big boy'. Gee- who's going to win that battle?



It's a very curious marketing strategy, almost a "from Shorts into Long Pants" mentality.

[ChristineCB]

The "hooliganism" verbage in the Green Street promos probably would have put me off entirely without your recommendation. But the Americans have adopted a Ripping Yarns version (was it the Great Gordon or Golden Gordon - the soccer fan tale?).



Some cities that have championship teams (pro or college) have riots, destroying large portions of themselves. To heck with a few bits of smashed furniture or taped-up mirrors - let's overturn busses, burn down whole neighborhoods and kill a few shop owners that protest.



Columbus Ohio, Miami and Gainesville Florida, LA, and a handful of others - it's amazing to see firestorms that only Bomber Harris and Curtis LeMay could enjoy. And those are the WINNERS! If the loser feels like they were cheated because of an umpire's call, they DO phone in LeMay and Harris' idle bomber corps.

[Fareham_Bee]

Green Street is the biggest load of pooh made in years. Absolutely no resemblence to what happened(s). The so called firms don't even look scary for goodness sake! You have the dodgy London accents, a telephone box knocked over during a fight, how true could that be?



Then you have a Manchester firm that are supposedly clever enough to have spotters in London that nobody notices passing information up to their mates so they can ambush the oncoming firm from London without the old bill's knowledge or Green Street Elite expecting it. Then the firm waiting stand outside the station chanting "United" and some wore scarves! It is laughable and so easy to tear apart.



I like the way that someone goes through the Blackwall tunnel to South London and sees a sign saying Welcome To Millwall. Any fool knows Millwall is NORTH of the river. They may play south of the river but they don't actually play in Millwall.

BTW the pub they use for the Green Street Elite is The Griffin (one of the pubs I use before a game at Brentford) and the fight scene in the ground is out the back of the New Road stand at Brentford.



As something that is supposed to be an accurate portrayal of football hooliganism this is about as true to it as Dougie Brimson's books (he was advisor to the film apparantly) but entertaining as a film.



If you want to see the real deal, The Football Factory with Danny Dyer is far more accurate and realistic and the firms look the part too.

[knobbykins]

Green Street is the biggest load of pooh made in years. Absolutely no resemblence to what happened(s). The so called firms don't even look scary for goodness sake! You have the dodgy London accents, a telephone box knocked over during a fight, how true could that be?



Then you have a Manchester firm that are supposedly clever enough to have spotters in London that nobody notices passing information up to their mates so they can ambush the oncoming firm from London without the old bill's knowledge or Green Street Elite expecting it. Then the firm waiting stand outside the station chanting "United" and some wore scarves! It is laughable and so easy to tear apart.



I like the way that someone goes through the Blackwall tunnel to South London and sees a sign saying Welcome To Millwall. Any fool knows Millwall is NORTH of the river. They may play south of the river but they don't actually play in Millwall.

BTW the pub they use for the Green Street Elite is The Griffin (one of the pubs I use before a game at Brentford) and the fight scene in the ground is out the back of the New Road stand at Brentford.



As something that is supposed to be an accurate portrayal of football hooliganism this is about as true to it as Dougie Brimson's books (he was advisor to the film apparantly) but entertaining as a film.



If you want to see the real deal, The Football Factory with Danny Dyer is far more accurate and realistic and the firms look the part too.

I agree with a lot of that,the story was laughable in parts but the Millwall leader played a great nasty bugger,very convincing!!!

I would reccommend seeing it but bear in mind it's no classic,did enjoy it more than Football Factory,though.