Task 2.5 - Comparison of sequences

Both scenes I have looked at are fight scenes from both the Football Factory and Green Street. I have chosen these two scenes because they are both similar but they do have their differences.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFRiP3eA7WY

The titles at the beginning of this opening sequence of Football Factory are very graphic and show what hooligans have done in the past and also shows us what is going to happen throughout the film. The pace of the titles builds up to show the life of a hooligan is at a high tempo, backed up by the non-diegetic sound which is also at a high tempo. After the titles, it shows the main character, Tommy Johnson getting kicked in the head repeatedly. This a typical generic convention of a hooligan film, the use of blood and getting beaten up. Tommy is then seen walking down a street and is walking down a street. He describes his life and talks about the typical iconogrpahy within hooliganism - drugs, sex, alcohol, violence. It then cuts to 'Tottenham away' and shows police horses, who tend to be an agent of disruption in hooligan films and also shows a group of people coming out of the train station. In many hooligan films, hooligans tend to walk in a group to show that they are intimidating but to also be protected by his fellow hooligans. In every hooligan firm, there has to be a leader. It is hard to realise who the leader is at first, it could be Billy, Zeberdee or Tommy because they are communicating with each other on their phones. Tommy later explains Harris is the leader because the other potential leader, Billy Bright, is not seen as mature enough. Hooligans tend to meet up in a pub and fighting takes place outside the pub, where the Tottenham hooligans are situated. There is a lot of swearing and there is lots of bloody vioelence and the sounds of punching, kicking and the breaking of glass emphasises how violent the vioelnce really is. Women can also be seen as an influence and another agent of disruption, normally asking for the fighting to stop, as is seen in the opening the scene when the woman with the pushchair labels the hooligans as animals. After the fighting, they are in the pub, joking around, reflecting on past fights. It seems the hooligans have two very different personalities. They can joke around and be very kind but come matchday, they are brutal thugs. These hooligans have been brought up to fight and take part in other activities. In Tommy's younger days, he enjoys casual sex and being influenced by his father by becoming violent. Billy's father was always violent and grew up in rough areas, like Tommy has done. Zeberdee's main influence is drugs, beating up people to get drugs but also used to live in a rough area. It shows Billy in the present day with a nice house and a family. It is strange that a violent person can have such a nice house and loving family and could be possible that he used his violent ways to get what he wanted and uses this house and his family to cover up what he does at the weekend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmDWbNSaIU

The opening to Green Street has its similarities and differences with Football Factory. Football Factory did not have any football chanting unlike Green Street where West Ham hooligans chant 'West Ham til' I die' and Tottenham hooligans chant 'Yid Army!' The two hooligan firms meet unintentionally and the location is at a train station where the group in Football Factory also appear from. Like Football Factory, there is a lot of swearing but there is no 'banter' in the opening of Football Factory, just giving a brief overview of the story to come. Green Street 'banter' involves where West Ham are in the Football League, the Spurs thugs saying West Ham are no longer 'top flight mob.' Like the Football Factory, there are leaders but in Green Street, a former West Ham hooligan firm leader is called 'The Major'. Pete is now the current leader of West Ham and argues with the Spurs leader, whose name is unknown to us. This leads to bloody violence which has the same iconogaphy and convention shown in the Football factory fight scene. There is a lot of bloody violence and you also hear the sounds of constant punching kicing and the breaking of glass as heard in Football Factory but Green Street has no agent of disruption, like the woman with the pushchair in Football Factory. Both fighting scenes show us awkward camera angles, the quick movement of the camera and the quick cuts which increase the pace of the film and emphasise the violence shown. There is then a transition to peaceful Harvard University. The main character, Matt Buckner, is kicked out for having drugs with him, although he is innocent and his room mate hid his drugs in Matt's room. Matt calls his Dad who is not there to answer. Like Football Factory, Matt could also be seen to having a bad upbringing like Billy and Tommy, his father is not there for him and is seen as a bad influence on Matt. Like Football Factory, the main character does a voiceover but Matt sounds more educated and is seen to get an A grade for a piece of work to highlight his intelligence. The music is much more slower than the music in Football factory. The slower music represents the innocence of Matt and the sunny Harvard also represents innocence unlike London at night, which can be viewed as dangerous because of the darker picture. Matt happens to arrive in London at the scene of the fight and meets his sister. The Americans sound very upbeat and positive but the British tend to be very negative, looking for violence and the people walking past Matt and his sister were very quiet and negative.