Gary Oldman is Clive ‘Bex’ Bissell, an intelligent family man with a good job, who also happens to be the leader of the notorious East London hooligan firm, the Inner City Crew. Bex plans to unite rival gangs into a national firm to take to the European Championships, but that will mean defeating Oboe’s Birmingham crew and the South London Buccaneers led by arch rival Yeti (Phil Davis). As Bex’s craving for violence becomes an obsession, events spiral out of control.
Alan Clarke’s unflinching drama courted much controversy when it was first broadcast in a toned down version on the BBC. Now, it is rightly considered a masterpiece, due in no small part to the brilliance of Oldman’s central performance – one of the finest of his career.
Newly transferred in HD, The Firm is presented here in two versions: the never-before-seen Director’s Cut, which re-instates a number of bold sequences previously considered too controversial for audiences; and the original BBC TV broadcast version.
All films newly remastered in High Definition
The Firm: (Director’s Cut): painstakingly reconstructed from Clarke’s personal workprint
Optional audio commentary with Gary Oldman
The Firm: (Broadcast version)
Optional audio commentary with actors Lesley Manville, Phil Davis, author David Rolinson and the BFI’s Dick Fiddy
Elephant (1989): Alan Clarke’s sparse, shocking drama about The Troubles
Optional audio commentary with Danny Boyle and critic Mark Kermode
Alan Clarke interview (1989): the director discusses Elephant and The Firm
Alan Clarke: Out of His Own Light (2016, 36 mins): new documentary about the making of Elephant and The Firm
