Rise Of The Footsoldier Review

"Rise of the Footsoldier" is the story of former football thug turned Essex gangster Carlton Leach and it's about as graphic and brutal as you'd expect. Ricci Hartnett stars as Leach, who rose from the ranks of West Ham's feared ICF Firm to become one of the most notorious members of the Essex underworld of the late '80s and early '90s.

Director Julien Gibley has ensured that all the staples of the genre are here and he certainly doesn't shy away from the reality of the life Leach and his friends lives; there's more drugs, violence and 'industrial' language than you probably expect. However you get the feeling that Gibley isn't simply out to 'glamourise' the lifestyle - if anything it should put any aspiring gangsters off. Hartnett carries off Leach well and manages to span the years as we follow him from over a twenty or so year period.

However the latter half of the film deals with the infamous murder of three of Leach's associates in Rettendon in 1995 and, while it's an interesting subject, Gibley perhaps allows it to shift the focus from Leach - the film is meant to be about him after all - to the three men who were killed. Mind you Craig Fairbrass's turn as one of the ill-fated trio is about as unsettling a performance as you'll see this year.