Rise Of The Footsoldier Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES PLOT SUMMARY
Rise of the Footsoldier follows the inexorable rise of Carlton Leach from one of the most feared generals of the football terraces to becoming a member of a notorious gang of criminals who rampaged their way through London and Essex in the late eighties and early nineties. It is three decades of his life following him from football hooliganism, through to his burgeoning career as a bouncer, his involvement in the criminal aspects of the early 'rave' scene and subsequently to his rise to power as one of the most feared and respected criminals in the country. The story concludes with three members of his firm being brutally murdered in the infamous shot-gun slaying at Rettenden.
| Ricci Harnett | Carlton Leach |
| Terry Stone | Tony Tucker |
| Craig Fairbrass | Pat Tate |
| Roland Manookian | Craig Rolfe |
| Frank Harper | Jack Whomes |
| Billy Murray | Mickey Steele |
| Neil Maskell | Darren Nicholls |
| Ian Virgo | Jimmy Gerenuk |
| Coralie Rose | Denny |
| Dave Legeno | Big John |
| Mark Rudland | Roger Spooner |
| Kieran Bew | Ricky |
| George Calil | Officer |
| Brendan Carr | Jason |
| Greg Corke | Police Hitman #2 |
| Julian Gilbey |
6.90 out of 10 (318 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Where was the plot?
posted on 10 Aug 2009First off i'll give this movie a low scoring 4 out of 10! It was nothing more than a wannabe film. I felt very let down watching this film. I was lead to people it would be more drama and more facts about the true story it's based on. Instead i spent over an hour watching middle aged mean break the law and take drugs.It's abit like football factory but with no real storyline and not a good ending. After watching the film i was left wondering "What was that film all about?" If you like films with no real storyline and a lot of drug taking and swearing then this is the film for you.I'm a BIG fan of mob and gangster movies but this film did not live up to the hype. I can see where the writer was trying to go with the film but it never reached it's destination.One of the worst British films that i have ever watched. If only the movie had more of a storyline this would have bad an excellent movie.
you slaaaag, and other profanity...
posted on 27 Jul 2009Rise of the Footsoldier follows the inexorable rise of Carlton Leach from one of the most feared generals of the football terraces to becoming a member of a notorious gang of criminals who rampaged their way through London and Essex in the late eighties and early nineties. It is three decades of his life following him from football hooliganism, through to his burgeoning career as a bouncer, his involvement in the criminal aspects of the early 'rave' scene and subsequently to his rise to power as one of the most feared and respected criminals in the country. The story concludes with three members of his firm being brutally murdered in the infamous shot-gun slaying at Rettenden. the reviews were awful and the film had a limited release in cinemas, but there was something about this movie that i just had to see. if are a fan of the 'movies' by Nick Love, then you will love this slice of gangster Brit cinema.it is extremely violent and i think it's trying to break the world record for the most swear words in a movie, but it's interesting and the characters are all two dimensional hooligans, who are always 'having some'.but the main problem about the film is that the protagonist Carlton, is sidestepped toward the end of the second act in favour of Fairbrass and Murray (two eastenders veterans).it's funny to watch though, and that is what makes the film a reasonable watch, it's trying very hard to be like Alan Clarkes 'the Firm' and then goes straight for the guy Ritchie approach for the final act. but at least it's a damn sight better than 'Essex Boys' and a slew of British releases over the past few years.the film still leaves some questions unanswered, and those in the 'know' will find nothing refreshing in this film, other than the inventiveness of a pizza slicer.if you like films with lots of violence, music that points out the year that the film is set, swearing and Reece Dinsdale with a pony tail, then you could do far worse than this.but if you don't, you won't.not a bad film, but leaving the main character out of the frame in the last act is a silly mistake.
terrible
posted on 19 Jul 2009This movie was just plain awful, boring, way less about football hooliganism than it seemed like. I thought it was just terrible, I regret watching it. I wish I could get that time back to watch any of the other movies I had in que to watch, terrible. I literally cannot believe that it got anywhere near as high a rating as it has on IMDb, just shockingHey look, violence, and plot lines that kind of wander away from the main character, which they do manage to get you to like. If you want to see a football hooligan film with some substance go see green street hooligans.
Sex, Drugs and Violence
posted on 09 Jul 2009This film is considered to be the British Goodfellas; I think its slightly better. The film sees the rise of a British Gangster named Carlton Leach from his early days as a violent hooligan to the days as a bouncer to a proper gangster.It shows his life and the things he had to deal with and the mistakes he made; the actor who portrays Leach is great, even though he keeps using profanity, it is a realistic portrayal, one would assume; the film also includes the Essex Boys and shows Britians violent gangland history, the narration is very good and gives depth to characters and the violence is very fast but effective and does scare the audience at times, the scene I found very shocking was the train scene (which is real, not made up). The irony is that Billy Murray was also in Essex Boys...This is a good British Gangster Movie.
Brutal but gripping British gangster movie
posted on 23 Jun 2009I'm always wary of saying that a film is excellent after only seeing it once, but me and my wife and friends have been talking about this film since we watched it.Although extremely brutal in places this movie is one of the best British gangster titles i have seen in years now.The story is gripping and the football firm fighting scenes although perhaps a little over the top with the blood make sorry titles like green street and football factories seem like a walk in the park.I was extremely impressed with Terry Stone (known to those who have been in the rave scene as terry turbo) and as a fan of this genre was delighted to see some great bad boy actors from eastenders (jonny allen and dan for those who know).A great take on a subject that has certainly been done before, but it was also nice to see the early rave scene being covered as well, something i'm sure as time goes by we will see a lot more of. All in all if you are a fan of the genre i have little doubt you will enjoy this movie. I have a feeling once it is released on DVD this will become a cult movie. And rightly so.
No more cockney wannabe hard-nuts
posted on 15 Jun 2009I am fed up of British Films being set "Darn Sarf" and showing us how dangerous it can be because it is run by Football Hooligans (Leach) turned Drug Lords in the space of a few decades!! Who cares!!?? Why make a movie about this loser! The difference between this movie and Snatch or Lockstock is that the latter)s) were more tongue in cheek and i feel that this movie took itself all too seriously. There is a very violent mass brawl on the underground that was shot well but so what - we've seen this nonsense before. The other problem i had was the bad - i've seen these actors doing this before - acting. Not good acting at all. Some of these actors have been superb in other works but when they get in front of a camera i feel that they are desperate to prove how tough they are and push out the text. I just think way too many reels have been wasted on this subject matter and a good decade should pass before we see this type of flick again. Please no more effin and blinding!
Exceptonally violent British crime film
posted on 22 May 2009After watching Rise Of The Footsoldier i knew it was a great British gangster film, at first you think its going to be along the lines of Green Street, ID or The Football Factory but its much more and much better than that. The film follows Carlton Leech a football hooligan and all round street thug, after he has been hired as a doorman because he can handle himself in violent situations, he naturally works his way up to more criminal dealings, well you can guess the rest. With a few encounters with some very brutal people mostly his friends, the film gives you an insight into British crime like no other. Director Julian Gilbey who made his mark with the impressive Rollin With The Nines has created a powerhouse of a movie, he lays on the violence thick and fast that borders on exploitation which may put off some viewers, so if you have a problem with brutality stay away, if not check it out. It does not reach the heights of Goodfellas(but what does?), so if your looking for something hardcore, this film pulls no punches.
Enjoy the thrill
posted on 04 May 2009I can understand the criticism this film received. There isn't much plot, virtually zero character development and a huge amount of gratuitous violence which the director obviously relished.However if you accept it on it's own terms as a drug and adrenalin fuelled roller-coaster ride through the British criminal underworld then it's a thrill a minute. The opening scenes showing the early days of the I.C.F. are possibly the best portrayals of football hooliganism committed to celluloid. I've never found films like the Football Factory or Green Street very convincing and the Rise of the Foot Soldier makes the fight scenes in them look like a jolly wheeze. The I.C.F. were frightening and sinister and the people involved were capable of extreme and sadistic violence. The scene where they are ambushed on the underground by the terrifying surgical mask wearing Millwall firm is particularly scary.Overall though the film is patchy and a little bit random selecting bits and pieces of Carlton Leaches criminal life. He gets through two wives but we don't really get to find out anything about them or what motivated them to be with him. There was some humour though, I liked the scene when Leach first takes ecstasy.I did find it slightly confusing that the film opens as a story about Carlton Leach only to find half way through that he becomes a minor character. The focus then switches to Tony Tucker, Pat Tate and Craig Rolfe, the victims of the notorious Range Rover Killings. I'm not sure exactly what the film wanted us take away from this. I personally thought the world was a better place without these three scum bags in it. I didn't find the scene where Tucker and Leach express their friendship for each other particularly moving. Both of them after all had committed numerous acts of terrifying violence in their day. Just because they showed some bizarre loyalty to each other doesn't really make up for the misery they had caused.Pat Tate was, if the film is anything to go by, a mindless thug and Craig Rolfe a revolting cowardly retch of a human being. I don't think even Leach was crying for those two when he finds out about the murders.As a last thought it does show that British crime is still, thankfully, nowhere near the level and violence of American crime. The Range Rover Killings are still regarded as a major event in British crime history. A bunch of drug dealers being blown away by shot guns would be business as usual in America.
Rise of the Potty-Mouthed Naughty Boys...
posted on 02 May 2009This one will offend people by the lorry-load – and, no doubt, for the sake of money-spinning notoriety, that was writer/director Julian Gilbey's intention – and its structure is undeniably flawed, but it still stands head and shoulders above the majority of British gangster films that have been produced in the last decade.The murder of three drug dealers in Essex, dubbed the Range Rover Killings by the media, seems to have held some bizarre kind of spell over the British public since it first hit the headlines back in 1995 – a time when drug dealers were easily identifiable because they were the only people who possessed mobile phones. A veritable cottage industry has sprung up around the slayings with countless books and a couple of films offering various theories about the story behind the killings. Judging by the interest this film generated (despite its limited release), our fascination with the events surrounding that incident shows no sign of diminishing.Rise of the Footsoldier makes the strange choice of using small-time criminal and hard man Carlton Leach the apparent focal point of the film even though he had nothing to do with the slayings. The film follows him from his days as a teenage football hooligan, a key member of West Ham's notorious ICF, through his days as a bouncer and enforcer for various local criminals and his stint as a rave organiser before graduating on to bigger crimes that are never really specified. In fact, from the midway point, Leach takes a back seat and is off-screen for lengthy spells, serving only as a narrator as the film concentrates on the exploits of his two mates – Tony Tucker (Terry Stone in a comedy wig) and Pat Tate (Craig Fairbrass, giving – and I never once believed I would ever write these words – the film's best performance) As others have noted, the violence and foul language throughout this film is excessive and over-the-top, but intentionally or not, this excess succeeds, in the case of the violence, in eradicating any glamorous overtones inherent in any screen depiction of organised crime. The relentless barrage of violence, often perpetrated by unhinged villains on their apparent mates, makes their paranoia and over-reliance on drugs, all too believable, and the world depicted here isn't one which any normal-thinking person would wish to inhabit. Conversely, the habitual use of F&C words – jarring at first, but increasingly ordinary as the film progresses – merely results in making the speakers appear faintly ridiculous.Although the film proves to be consistently entertaining once you get past a desperately shaky opening reel, it improves immeasurably when it drifts away from the episodic rise of Leach (Ricci Harnett gives an increasingly soporific performance) and concentrates on the events leading up to Tate and Tucker's deaths. Unfortunately, Gilbey tries to inject an element of pathos into the story that – having seen what exploits the characters have been up to in the preceding half of the film, just doesn't work. The film suggests that the official version, which resulted in the conviction of Mickey Steele and his accomplice three years after the killings, is questionable, but gives little reason for this position, or for it's accompanying hint that the killing was a police hit in retaliation for a number of high profile Ecstacy deaths (Leah Betts died from taking an Ecstacy pill in a club at the time). The closing titles inform the viewer that Steele and Whom still plead their innocence – what they fail to include is the fact that every other inmate in their current residence is also doing the same. Real villains only own up when they stand to benefit from their confession – that's why Steele and Whom have ended up where they are.
Excellent...
posted on 12 Apr 2009OK...Low budget maybe. but a very fine piece of story telling.Yes maybe they had all the staff from east-enders...but this is budget movies.I was at football in the 80's and this is what was going on...I stood by ''harry the dog'' and others....and believe me scenes like this happened..Great music,that blended very well....ah the 'Summer of Love'...LOL Not the most PC movie or thought provoking but it stands out over the usual American moral high ground shite..Better than...Good luck chuck Better then....This is England Better then....Hot rod Better than....Knocked upWell done all involved...
heavy but good
posted on 13 Mar 2009Woo, this is one violent film (and i like that sort of thing) but be warned. Ill admit i automatically (flinched) looked away at one scene and i have seen some pretty horrific videos and not been moved.Pizza anyone! Aside from this the film portrays the thugs fairly accurately. It may seem over the top too some but this is just what life was like in the peak days of football violence in Britain. As someone who has lived in a football obsessed city surrounded by football casuals and witnessed running street battles i thought the fight scenes were very well done. if your unlucky enough to see this type of thing in real life then you will realise just how scary they can be. Shocked me as much as The Firm (Gary Oldman one) did although with The Firm i felt slightly for the characters (peer pressure, vulnerabilities etc) but with this film i had no sympathy whats so ever for the players in this story. Basically their a bunch of nutters that got what they deserve :) Remember this is based on an true account of the time and is severely brutal with savage characters and moments. This was and still is life for some people. Avoid if you cannot handle the brutality of real life.
I liked it, but I can't tell you why...
posted on 05 Mar 2009Watch this film and you will be thoroughly confused. What happened to Eddy? And Jimmy? Hold on, where's Carlton gone? There are quite a few characters who are introduced, then subsequently killed or disappear. It makes you wonder why they bothered writing them in in the first place. I do like the 80's and 90's setting, I think it is done well and gives the film some life. For me, the extreme violence neither detracts from or adds to the film. It is well done, so there isn;t a part that looks like it was done on a budget. They do spend a while looking at the three victims of the shooting, "look at this, we spent loaddsamoneey on this" the film seems to say. Other than that, it shows the violence without demanding you look, if that makes sense. Overall, it is not a great film. I liked it, but as I said, I can;t really put my finger on why that is.
Hollow Posturing!!
posted on 17 Feb 2009"Rise of the Footsoldier" wants to be something it is not. It wants to be the British Boogie Nights, the Goodfellas of Essex. The style of the film harps to those directors style and in doing so this picture cannot find its own voice.The first problem is the casting. Our 'Hero' and narrator has only one expression, "I am trying to look hard!" He is exceedingly uncharismatic, diminutive and sports a very faux/fake looking wig. He is the main focus of the film for the first three quarters and then he is sidelined for a completely different story and this concludes the film. In fact our 'hero' for the last reel does absolutely nothing. I think the casting of an actor with better acting skills, looks and charisma would have helped.The lead has a best friend. Again with a wig that looks like it was purchased in a local joke shop. Poorly acted and one dimensional, this character turns from street smart to street dumb during the course of the picture.Women are objects for sex and abuse. The few female characters on show are again paper thin in dimension and mainly used as eye candy.The main theme of the movie is misplaced. These guys are Yobs or Hooligans that dabble in crime. This does not make them full-on gangsters and to try and make them so feels forced.The film fails mainly because of the performances and the blame for that has to rest at the director's feet. There is production value here and the editing is swift and punchy but no amount of polish can save what is essentially a hollow and unfocused mess.Superior movies about British "Yob" Culture are The Firm (1988) Directed by Alan Clark and starring Gary Oldman. Has its faults but still engaging I.D. (1995) Directed by Philip Davis.
Brutal, intense and brilliant
posted on 15 Feb 2009Having never added a review on this site I felt compelled after reading the barrage of 1 star reviews which are hurting this films overall IMDb rating. This movie is excellent. Sure, it ain't for the faint of heart but it's an 18 rated gangster street flick so you'd be nuts to think it's going to be like...er....Sister Act or something? It's brutal, bloody and intense. It has lots of nudity and realistic sex. It also contains many drug scenes - in fact, the main characters could give Motley Crue and Aerosmith a run for their money when it comes to their penchant for the old 'hows your father' up the hooter! Overall tho it kept me gripped - from the opening C word to the last! If you liked Football Factory, Green Street, The Krays, I.D., Lock Stock etc. then you WILL like this. Go rent or buy it now... YOU MUG!
Reality vs Movies Making
posted on 03 Feb 2009I thought this was a great movie. I don't get all the bad comments. In truth this movie was based on real events, that's what makes it so great. They're trying to get across the grit and situations of the characters, attempting to make them more real rather than a stylized ideal of what they're supposed to be. If you can't appreciate the realism and would rather see mass produced soulless productions go see something else. For me it did the trick and is representative of the genre, i.e. movies based on real events. Take Ghost in the Darkness, it had a star, Val Kilmer, and a substantial budget yet failed to be a box office success. When a director, and actors are relating a story of this type you expect a rougher display and style. A refined actor would try to change the roll and make it more noble or classy than it was. I'll take unknowns, an interesting story, and a desire to make something more than a box office titan every time.
Mug
posted on 18 Jan 2009Are Nick Love's movies too fackin' cerebral for ya? Then get straight dahn Blockbuster and get yourself some of this. And I ain't even avvin' a bubble, ya mug.This film is allegedly based on the same true events that inspired the surprisingly respectable and proficient Sean Bean gangster flick Essex Boys, but such information suggests that this is going to have some kind of tenuous link to the real world. Not so. This is a loathsome, plot less and titanically mean-spirited cartoon that is so offensive and so depressing that it calls to mind nothing less than Meir Zarchi's evergreen vulgarity barometer I Spit On Your Grave. Overlong and aimless, the flick just ambles briskly along, taking frequent pause to go off on random, inconsequential tangents, all of which culminate in either gratuitous sex or gratuitous violence, occasionally played for repugnant laughs that'll have most audiences continuously scraping their jaws off the floor. It is completely impossible to overstate just how grotesquely pornographic the violence is, even when compared to the other specimens from this illustrious cinematic sub-genre. People are endlessly having their faces smashed in with bricks, their heads bludgeoned with metal poles, their backsides penetrated with blunt knives, often in glorious slow-motion, and even more often perpetrated by our lovably roguish hero. In 'is world, you gotta 'it em ard innit? Or else they don't respect ya, yeah?Other highlights include... Our "hero" forming an impromptu posse of about ten strangers on a subway train, who take on (and end up beating into retreat) a tribe of around two hundred machete-wielding maniacs; our "hero" romancing, marrying and fathering the children of two posh, angelic and smitten beauties a few months apart; and our "hero" being accosted by a random blonde who nonchalantly begs for permission to fellate him. And as if the swelling, disease-of-the-week string syrup on the soundtrack wasn't bad enough, the flick even has the audacity to go all Rashomon on us in the third act, pretentiously recounting a plot event repeatedly for no reason other than to garishly bask in the glory of another dozen senseless killings. And who the hell cares anyway? All that plot stuff just gets in the way of the gore. But fear not; after a couple of very brief minutes featuring three men swearing at each other in a Range Rover, the plasma is right back to flying around like jism in an apocalyptic gusher gangbang. So, in short, its just like all those other recent British hooligan movies, only worse; it is manifestly the unbridled, most peerlessly idiotic, most misogynistic masturbation delusion of the thickest teenage fantasist in all of fackin' England. Oh, and the actors are all so universally unconvincing that they make Elijah Wood in Green Street look like Lenny McLean.Trust me. You need this movie like you need a brick-shaped dent in your bonce.
British Gangster At Its Excellent Best
posted on 23 Dec 2008I myself a lover of this genre of film i think that this film covers everything you would want to see if this is your type of film. Football hooliganism, drugs, sex, violence and a look into the life of Carlton Leach one of the hard bastards in Kate Kray's book. I put this high in my favourite films alongside The Business, The Football Factory and Clubbed. But i like this film because of the violence and the the actual criminals Pat Tate, Tommy Tucker and Craig Rolfe the film is very good and i would recommend this film to anybody who likes films like this so 10 out of 10 and if you haven't seen it its worth a buy. Also my favourite bit is with the pizza cutter :)
a look into the life of a thug
posted on 07 Dec 2008Having grown up in north London and spent many Saturdays on the terraces at Highbury,i was eagerly awaiting the release of this film.In my opinion it didn't disappoint.Yes there was a lot of violence , yes it seemed over the top , & no there were no lovely, handsome, Danny Dyer stereo type heroes in this film. But all in all it was a true and accurate portrait of early 80's and 90's London, if you were in those circles.The film itself was well made although a bit more work on building characters instead of upping the importance of drugs would have made the film better, the fight scenes left little to the imagination and sometimes seemed i bit OTT but again just a true reflection on what it was really like.If your looking for Hollywood version on football hooligans stick to Green Street or Football Factory otherwise give the film a watch you may be surprised.
Gilbey's sickening appetite for scatter-shot violence that ruins the film...
posted on 19 Nov 2008Blame Guy Ritchie. The late 90s success of Ritchie's cliché-ridden Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels triggered a series of pitiful gangster movies from which the genre never really recovered. Sadly Rise of The Footsoldier - the true story of Essex hardnut Carlton Leach - isn't likely to reverse that trend. Despite a decent lead performance from Hartnett, the film falls victim to all-too familiar East End stereotypes. They're either busy blowing someone's brains out or shagging a scantily-clad blonde.From fearsome football hooligan in the eighties to a key figure in the criminal underworld during the nineties, Footsoldier charts Leach's rise through the ranks of thuggery. Leaving the terraces for nightclubs, Leach becomes a bouncer where he's given carte blanche to kick the crap out of anyone. Here he gets in with notorious gangland leaders Pat Tate (Fairbrass) and Tony Tucker (Stone), and begins to realise gang-warfare ain't what it's cracked up to be.There is fun to be had deconstructing writer-director Julian Gilbey's laughable join-the-dots yob patois, as every sentence seems to start with an, 'I'm gonna fackin'…' or 'You fackin'…' or, on occasion, 'So then I only went an' fackin'…', typically concluded with a mandatory 'caaaant!' The direction, too, smacks of sadism, especially the obvious glee Gilbey gets from filming violent scenes in close-up and, in the case of the bloody shotgun-to-the-face denouement, in triplicate.Director Gilbey's use of the classic rise-and-fall gangster narrative isn't what will condemn Footsoldier to big screen obscurity. Nor is it the fact that half way through, the film annoyingly sidelines Leach in favour of the events culminating in the infamous shooting of Tate and Tucker. It's Gilbey's sickening appetite for scatter-shot violence that ruins the film; whether it's a brick in the face or axe in the head during a vicious attack on a train, it's all unnecessarily prolonged. Footsoldier doesn't so much pack a punch as leave you feeling violated and more importantly, robs you of two hours of your life you won't get back...
A very brave,gutsy,brutal and well made film
posted on 30 Aug 2009Carlton Leach's small budget/independent film release about three decades of his very,very dangerous lifestyle; I found personally very true to life,accurate in every aspect covered; As other "Real" men/woman on the street reviewers (General Public);have stated on many sites / magazines; I honestly did not want the film to end it was so good and so riveting.The "so called professional film reviewers/critics" (Failed film producers/directors) who make a living 'some how' of going out of their way solely to destroy great films like: Rise Of The Foot Soldier, Outlaw, The Business Etc; obviously are running it down 100% I feel sorry for the likes of Nick Love; all Four of his films have been slated / destroyed by the so called reviewers/critics but all are fantastic, and now are turning their attention's to the Gilbey Brothers and Carlton Leach's baby.I class myself as a very amateur but modern film buff; I love modern day thrillers / dramas especially gangster films and even better when they are based on true stories.To end my review I would have to say that Rise Of The Foot Soldier is far better than and in every aspect than the classics: Good Fellas, American Gangster, Etc; they are all lame in comparison and so the real life characters as well they depict; Rise Of The Foot Soldier is violently graphic but the reality is that it had to be because of the details of the three decades of Carlon Leach's dangerous life style.On the extra disc during the interview with the producer; Julian Gilbey states that there were even certain parts of the true story / incidents which he could not in any way transfer into part of a film story due to the violence involved.Congratulations Julian Gilbey (Director) & Carlton Leach this film had the same effect on me and a lot of my friends as what Scum had many years ago; a deep,magnetic,detailed,chilling and shocking story which made me want to watch the film over and over again.It deserves much much more recognition and credit than what it actually is getting at the moment.