Date: 2 November 2001 Summary: good actors, stereotypical acting
****possible spoilers****
Coming from the area and being a lifelong Newcastle United fan i was keen to
see this film and how the area would be portrayed.
Of course, as in Billy Elliot the young stars come from broken poverty
stricken homes with violent fathers- is this some sort of patern here? If a
British film wants an upmarket feel, it`s London and the south east. If it
wants poverty and gritty realism, they come north. Although based on a
little known novel "the season ticket" much of it was changed to further
stereotype the area. I dont go along with " but it puts Newcastle on the
map" brigade- yes it puts it on the map but the wrong map as far as i`m
concerned. Newcastle has so much more to offer than what is seen here- apart
from the best football club in the world. Rant over, what about the film
?
It concerns the story of two young tearaways desperate to raise £1000 for a
pair of season ticket for Newcastle United FC, and the lengths they go to
get it. Along the way they encounter well meaning social workers, drunken
violent fathers, sadistic teachers, runaway sisters ,fall in love and meet
Englands best centre forward over the past 10 years in Alan
Shearer.
While the two young leads give first rate performances, the story itself is
a little hard to believe. Firstly most young kids in the the two leads
predicament would have better things to spend £1000 on, especially if they
were into thieving and drugs as portrayed here- you never really see these
kind of people at the games as they have been priced out of the market(
although not to the extent of £500 a season ticket- when the film was made
my ticket cost £360). And with the skills these two show( come off it i
doubt a Jaguar XK8 is that easy to nick) it would not have taken them more
than a week to raise the cash.
There is also a goof at the end of the film - There are no tall residential
buildings near the ground and the tower blocks behind the Gallowgate end of
the ground have been superimposed onto the film. The tower blocks in
Question are actually over a mile away, much further west and the ground is
uphill from their position- making viewing impossible. Since the ground was
redeveloped it is impossible to see the pitch from ANY nearby
building.
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