The violence associated with British soccer is most notoriously linked to matches on the national or global scale, but Alan Clarke's The Firm attacks it as a social phenomenon only loosely related to the actual sport.  Using the same distanced approach as Elephant, he sidesteps psychological oversimplifications by placing his characters in a larger social context - a certain kind of man in a specific time, rather than individuals with their own complexities.   The result is a jarring exploration of the male psyche and the devastating consequences of pride and uncontained machismo in a society where men's lives have lost meaning.  One of the memorable scenes occurs near the beginning when men of a rival team drive their BMW onto the practice field of their local foes.  There is a geographical distance between where the teams are located, but they are all seemingly well-to-do with white collar jobs providing them with all the luxuries of a healthy middle class existence.

Clarke's approach outlines the problem, but refuses to commit to any sensible explanations, leaving the viewer to do the heavy lifting.  This decision comes about not through an inability to confront what is clearly a problem that runs deep into British culture and is related to its history, but the reality is that any explanations would be so broad and mundane as to lose all meaning in translation.  What the film presents is the rapid escalation of violence from from cruel practical jokes to all out gang wars.  The infantile nature of the men comes out through an unspoken code that they must retaliate against any act against  them if they wish to be seen as true men.  As their jobs and personal lives constrict their ability for true expression, their unexplained rage against modernity  takes on a life of its own.  As these "games" take on more serious consequences, they replace soccer as their form of release therapy, but to a degree that no one was prepared.  The final brawl occurs while an actual important soccer match goes on nearby, but in a way this confrontation is their own championship match.  In attempting to protect their own masculinity through violence, they hope to achieve a sense of self-realization, but the actual consequences of these actions, which they never actually consider, barely allow room for self-preservation.  Their perception of their lives is so skewed as to justify destruction as a means of attaining individual identities.