“Rise of the Footsoldier” is a British crime film that shows you just how tough some of Britain’s thugs are. It starts off as a hooligan flick like “The Football Factory” and “Green Street” and then briefly dips into some “Road House” territory before becoming a full-blown gangster movie. It’s based on the life of real gangsters from the Essex area.

Carlton Leach (Ricci Harnett “28 Days Later”) starts off as West Ham hooligan in the late 70s and early 80s before becoming a nightclub bouncer. He soon moves on to drug dealing and quickly becomes a major British gangster in the 80s and 90s until the Rettendon murders in 1995.

The characters in this movie are absolutely vile. They do drugs, commit adultery, swear like it’s a sport, beat their wives, destroy property, hit people with metal bars, torture people, threaten to kill and/or rape the families of their enemies and stab people with knives. Ricci Harnett does a really good job as Carlton Leach yet it’s Craig Fairbrass (“Cliffhanger”) as Pat Tate that steals the show. Pretty much every character in this film is a thug and if they are not, they are victims of thugs. The performances from most of the cast members perfectly suit the style of the film.

I must warn people that this is an extremely violent film. There are graphic torture scenes, close-up shots of faces that have been blasted with shotguns and many other disturbing images. The movie also features lots of drugs and nudity. This movie is a lot more intense than American gangster films such as “Goodfellas”, “The Godfather” and “The Departed”. From what I have read, I believe this film is also a lot more accurate than other films about the Rettendon murders such as “Essex Boys”. This is a great gritty flick from Britain that belongs in the same league as “Bronson”.