Rise Of The Footsoldier Review

Rise Of The Footsoldier
Based on the real-life Rettendon "Range Rover" murders, Julian Gilbey's movie takes the curious step of telling the story from the viewpoint of an innocent bystander.

by Kim Newman |
Published on
Release Date:

07 Sep 2007

Running Time:

120 minutes

Certificate:

18

Original Title:

Rise Of The Footsoldier

Remember the mid-’90s headline about three gangsters found shotgunned to death inside a Land Rover in an Essex field? This poorly-titled movie builds up to a recreation of the case - but focuses on Carlton Leach (Ricci Harnett), a football hooligan turned gang boss who wasn’t involved in the murders (which happened to his friends) and doesn’t really know what happened (we get several possible versions).

Besides the peculiarity of making a biopic of an innocent bystander, this is yet another ordinary British thug picture, with inevitable GoodFellas-lite narration stringing together anecdotes about violent idiots with poor haircuts.

A peculiar but decidedly ordinary addition to the British thug genre.
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