Films come in all sorts of packages, and are meant for all different types of audiences. Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins has guys as its target audience, and guys alone. This will probably turn most women off because of the vulgarity and over the top violence of the film. Imagine a Guy Ritchie movie turned up a few notches on the dial and you might get a bit of sense what this film is like.
Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins is the fifth movie in the franchise, and like the first film it’s based on true events. That in itself is key, true events. That’s because they sensationalize a lot of what they show on the screen and they don’t show what actually happened. A lot of it is simply made up because the truth isn’t known. Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins tells the story of Tucker (Terry Stone), Rolfie (Roland Manookian), and Pat Tate’s (Craig Fairbrass). They rise to power in the Essex underworld and everything they do leads up to their downfall. The film even ends where the first movie begins, so it is truly an origins film.
If you haven’t seen any of the other Footsoldier films you might be a little lost going into this one. This is an origin film. But the script defines these characters well and the filmmakers make the assumption you already know what happens to them in the end. Mind you, if you’ve seen films two through four you might not even give this one a chance because other than having cult status most people haven’t really enjoyed them.
Like many long running franchises each film was worse than the one before it. Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins is better than them, but it’s not for everyone. It’s extremely violent, and full of colourful language and drugs. It toned down the violence against woman that was prevalent in the previous entries. That’s perhaps due to the rise of the #MeToo movement since the first film came out, but everything else is pretty similar to them.
British gangster movies are not for everyone, and Footsoldier films have an even smaller audience. Don’t go into this thinking you are going to watch a modern Scorsese or Coppola film. You can’t even really compare it to a Ritchie or Tarantino film either. It stands on its own. Most people who watch it probably already know that, andit will meet their expectations. For everyone else however, they will probably either shut it off shortly after starting or wonder why they sat through it all when the credits start to roll.
