CASS/BAD BOY GETS GOOD

Two stories for the price of one here: the tale of Cass himself, a 1950s Jamaican orphan baby who grew up to be the most feared hooligans in the country and then a nice guy, plus a history of hooliganism itself.

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First time director Jon Baird says : Previous films with similar subject matter have inadvertently glamorized the world of football violence without exploring the motivations behind it and the ultimate repercussions it can lead to.

Baird was determined to make a different kind of movie and, in many ways, he has. There is a heart-warming side to Cass’s final salvation.

But inevitably you can’t have the redemption without showing the hell that has gone before, so the film has plenty of head bashing as well.

Glamour? Not a bit of it. This is full on terrifying brutality (main photo), with a totally convincing performance from esteemed thespian Nonso Anozie (above) which makes for uneasy watching,

Check out the good, the bad and the ugly at www.cassmovie.co.uk.

Cass opens nationwide on Friday, August 1, 2008.

Posted Monday, July 28, 2008.