Documentary about the Inter City Firm (1985)
The Inter City Firm ('ICF') is an English football hooligan firm mainly active in the 1970s,
1980s and 1990s, associated with West Ham United. The name came from the use of InterCity trains for away games.
One figure associated with the ICF was Cass Pennant,who wrote on football hooliganism in the 1990s and 2000s.
He is the subject of the film Cass, which was released on 1 August 2008.
In Congratulations You Have Just Met the ICF, Pennant, a black Londoner, maintains that the ICF
was not racist or right-wing. The ICF were the basis of Alan Clarke's 1988 film, The Firm.
Gary Oldman plays Bex Bissell, the leader of the ICC - Inter City Crew.
Members of the ICF were used as consultants on the film.
The 2005 film Green Street was based on the ICF, but not by name. Instead, the initials GSE (Green Street Elite) were used.
The main character within the film Rise of the Footsoldier (Carlton Leach) is also associated
with the ICF. The ICF make an appearance in Irvine Welsh's novellas Ecstasy:
Three Tales of Chemical Romance.
ICF left a card on the bodies of those they attacked reading, "Congratulations, you've just met the ICF."
"Leeds United Service Crew copied this from the ICF." This became, "Congratulations you've just met the famous ICF,"
when they were the subject of a Thames Television documentary, Hooligan,
which featured members of the ICF including Cass Pennant.
As Punk disappeared and the Mod and Ska revival faded, in the mid 80s, football hooligans in Britain morphed
from Doc Marten wearing Skinheads to proto-mulletted, Pringle sweatered ‘Casuals’.
Worse than the horrible violence they stirred up were their terrible sartorial inclinations and, unintentionally camp,bouffant hairdos.
This celebrated documentary followed the most famous contemporary gang, West Ham’s ICF or Inter City Firm,
so called because their members were aspiring, middle class, season ticket holders who traveled to away matches
on the Inter City rail network.
It was the epitome of the worst of Thatcher’s Britain and as such is an historical piece that transcends its narrow.
General
Complete name : M:\Documentary about the Inter City Firm (1985)..mkv
Format : Matroska
File size : 674 MiB
PlayTime : 51mn 6s
Bit rate : 1844 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2010-08-14 14:29:10
Video
Codec : AVC
Codec/Family : AVC
Codec/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Codec profile : [email protected]
Codec settings, CABAC : No
PlayTime : 51mn 6s
Nominal bit rate : 1728 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display Aspect ratio : 1.390
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Standard : NTSC
Chroma : 4:2:0
Interlacement : Progressive
Writing library : x264 - core 67 r1163+17 7d945df
Audio
Codec : AAC Main
Codec/Family : AAC
Codec/Info : AAC Main Profile
PlayTime : 51mn 6s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : L R
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
