tikemyler Reviews

Green Street Hooligans (2005)

A personal transformation through the culture of sport

[6 September 2005]

Hopefully this film will not be limited in its reception as a "sport" film, and more disparagingly in America as a "soccer" film. It is much more than either distinction, for it portrays the transformational awakening of a young man as he becomes proactive rather than reactive about life.

This transition occurs within the often misunderstood culture of "football hooligans", hordes of zealous football fans who display a jingoistic allegiance to their teams and the locale from which they hail. The insight provided into this world reveals more than gang triviality for these men do not compete for the sake of criminal enterprise or the carnal spoils of women. Their skirmishes, often times brutal, are for stake in a sense of pride that reminds us that athletes put glory in our sport, but for some fans, glory is the sport. That pride, as it is conveyed, does well to offset the characterization of drunken recklessness that could easily be assessed to "hooliganism".

I highly recommend this film --- it's not "soccer". It's awakening to self.

John Henrik Clarke: A Great and Mighty Walk (1996)

Great and Mighty

[10/10 · 14 April 2005]

The world does not run on truth but rather on competing perceptions. This is why our politicians deal in "spin" (the weaving of perceptions) and our legal system has a standard of "reasonable doubt" (judgment rendered from how facts are perceived), rather than absolute verity. This documentary, noble in its aim, advances a reconciliation of how this adage has been advanced via the Eurocentric perception of history. Mr. Clarke, an eminent historian and educator, compels the truth seeker with his authoritative command of historical accounts long omitted, manipulated and rejected by the revisionism of European recorders of history. Perhaps others from other cultures will someday endeavor to unearth, reveal and make available to all their histories and make similar contributions to the world's historical reconciliation of truth, for as long as we continue to labor under the false, misguided and in some cases sophistic perceptions that govern our thinking, we will continue to be slaves to the dissent that divides the human family, rather than be liberated by the unbiased knowledge of our shared contributions and value to history. I recommend this film for its advancement of this aim.