Review by Ben Bussey
Ah, football (or soccer, for the benefit of our American readers who give that name to a sport which strangely doesn’t involve much kicking). The beautiful game, they call it; up and down the British Isles it is celebrated for bridging the generation gap, uniting communities, and giving mindless pissheads an excuse to beat the living shit out of each other on a regular basis. Yes, it’s a national obsession, and one which this writer has never seen the appeal of, at least in part owing to the hooliganism with which it is so commonly associated. However, while the image of the sport and its fans has been cleaned up a fair bit in the last two decades, things were at their dirtiest (or so I understand) back in the late 80s, when this film is set. Out to break up the organised violence between rival mobs of football hooligans, four London policemen are sent undercover to infiltrate a particularly nasty bunch of Shadwell Town supporters known as the Dogs, who congregate in a notoriously hostile pub named The Rock. The operation’s success could lead to big career advances for all, which is particularly attractive to the ambitious John (Reece Dinsdale); but the new lifestyle of hard drinking, male bonding and fisticuffs proves more than a little seductive. The line between work and real life gets progressively blurrier, leaving John uncertain as to where his true loyalties lie.
The 1995 feature directorial début of Phil Davis (better known for his acting work in everything from Quadrophenia to Sherlock), I.D. arrived at a significant time for both British film and British football. Years of violence in the football terraces had come to a head with the infamous Hillsborough disaster of 1989, which left the game and the country shell-shocked. By contrast, the 90s saw a new-found optimism in the UK film industry, a sense that British cinema could hold its own against Hollywood commercially as well as artistically; Trainspotting and The Full Monty weren’t too far away. Not unlike Trainspotting, I.D. scrutinises some unpleasant realities about working class life in Britain in a largely balanced way, certainly not romanticising the ugly truth but not completely demonising it either. We are not asked to like the football hooligans or condone their actions, but we are given a sense of why they are drawn into the way of life and how it may become compulsive. Perhaps the film’s smartest move – a directorial choice which you might not even realise on first viewing (I certainly didn’t) – is that it doesn’t actually contain any footage of football matches. This highlights the fact that hooliganism really has nothing to do with the game, and everything to do with tribalism, territoriality, camaraderie, and a sense of belonging.
As the premise mixes traditionally British hard-edged social realism with the Hollywood staple of the undercover cop movie (like Point Break as directed by Ken Loach, if you will), it’s perhaps unsurprising that I.D. is a bit uneven in terms of atmosphere and narrative. Whilst many of the scenes in the pub and on the terraces seem to aspire to a fly-on-the-wall quality, there are just as many scenes which feel a little too contrived and choreographed; take an early confrontation between John and his sergeant Trevor (Richard Graham) and a few of the Dogs who test their knowledge of the team, or a long take tracking shot of the undercover cops revising the history of Shadwell Town (a fictitious team, incidentally) on the way to their first match. Likewise, whilst the collapse of John’s marriage to Marie (Clare Skinner) is handled effectively, his burgeoning relationship with Rock barmaid Lynda (Saskia Reeves) is unconvincing and unnecessary, resulting in a rather comically overdone sex scene, which feels little more than a blatant concession to audience expectation. Meanwhile, the soundtrack also has leanings toward popular genre, with its mix of guitar-driven rock and surprisingly John Carpenter/Goblin-esque keyboards, as highlighted in the trailer below.
We might take all this as emblematic of where British cinema was at the time; anxious to appeal to an international mainstream audience, whilst retaining a uniquely British identity. Regardless, it is clear that Davis and co. were eager to make a film that is as entertaining as it is topical and thought-provoking, and all in all they were successful in this. Reece Dinsdale gives a powerful, memorable performance, making one ponder why this film didn’t lead to more major roles for him. The supporting cast is also very strong for the most part, including early turns from an alarmingly young-looking Philip Glenister (famous as DCI Gene Hunt in Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes) and Sean Pertwee (famous for doing Max Factor commercial voiceovers and dying horribly in Neil Marshall films).
I.D. didn’t make me a football fan when I saw it on release, nor has it done so now, but that’s hardly surprising. Again, while football provides a context for the story, it is not its essence, any more than There Will Be Blood is a film about the oil industry. As the title suggests, the key issue is that of identity, and how easily it can get lost under pressured circumstances; the haunting final scene suggests dire consequences. Whilst the film may be seventeen years old and evoke events that occurred even earlier, most of it still feels relevant today, particularly to Britain, so it’s interesting to note that a sequel is said to be in the works. Rather less inspiring, though, is the lack of care put into the DVD; not only does it boast no extras whatsoever, but the sound and picture quality are no better than VHS (whether the Blu-Ray is any better I couldn’t tell you; what can I say, I’ve yet to join the HD revolution). This is a rather disappointing effort for a film which, in spite of its flaws, remains noteworthy and often unfairly overlooked.
Anchor Bay Entertainment release I.D. to Region 2 DVD and Blu-Ray on 14th May.