Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Cass Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 15, 2008

A loose biography film with an extra touch of violence, “Cass” (2008) chronicles the story of notorious football hooligan Cass Pennant. Filled with plenty of archival footage the film effectively links British hooliganism to politics, racism, and poverty. Courtesy of UK-based Optimum Releasing.

A black boy adopted by a white family Cass (Nonso Anozie) witnesses a fierce brawl involving two groups of football hooligans. The winners, a motley crew of West Ham United fans, conquer the youngster’s heart and he begins visiting the local pub where they gather. As time goes by, the boy gets more and more fascinated with the dark side of British football.

A few years later. Cass earns the respect of the fans and becomes their leader. He also hooks up with a local gangster (Tamer Hassan) on his way to prison. More time passes by and Cass and his buddies establish what will become known as the I.C.F – the Inter City Firm, an underground organization whose members engage in fierce fights with other rivaling firms.

After a series of attacks and plenty of articles focusing on the rise of British hooliganism, Margaret Thatcher’s government steps up. A lot of the firms are discarded and their members thrown in jail. Cass Pennant is one of them. In jail he meets his old gangster buddy who promises to help him out. Cass likes the idea. He gets out and immediately begins working for his jail mate. A few months later Cass is shot in front of a famous night club.

Busted!

Cass chronicles the true story of British hooligan Cass Pennant. The film follows a well-defined episodic structure where the action skips back and forth from the early 1950s, 60s, and 70s, all the way to present days. More importantly, the story incorporates a substantial amount of archival footage highlighting Margaret Thatcher’s response to the rise of British hooliganism and its impact on the country's international image (raw footage from the Heysel tragedy is also shown).

Still, Cass isn’t a political film. On the contrary, it comes off as the candid confession of a man who has come to terms with the terrible crimes he has committed. Unsurprisingly, there is a multitude of long close-ups in Cass where Jon S. Baird’s camera spends a great deal of time studying the powerful but silent emotions raging in the main protagonist’s soul.

Furthermore, Cass is also a film where all of the secondary characters are notably weak. Plenty of them walk in and out of Cass’ life, but no one leaves a memorable impression other than, arguably, his wife (Nathalie Press). As a result, Cass sustains the intimate tone I mentioned earlier quite well, and avoids becoming an entertaining gangster film that lacks substance and style.

I am unsure if I enjoyed Cass more as a personal story, or a period tale about the rise of football hooliganism in England. I suppose there is a little bit of both that appealed to my taste for different reasons. I liked the fact that Jon S. Baird blended politics, race, and poverty together in an attempt to expose the true catalyst behind British hooliganism, but I wasn’t particularly impressed with the conventional roles all of the supporting characters were granted with. On the other hand, I liked the intimate tone of Cass, but in the grand scheme of things there were too many loopholes in the narrative that effectively altered its desire to be objective. (Learn more about the real Cass Pennant here).

Cass Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC, and granted a 1080p transfer Cass arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of UK-based distributors Optimum Releasing.

As far as I know, Cass is yet to receive a US distribution deal. With other words, this Blu-ray disc is my first exposure to it. I mention all of this because Jon S. Baird's story has a very interesting video composition (which had me pondering quite a few things) – it is soft-looking, perhaps meant to replicate a dated atmosphere of some sort, with a muted color-scheme, and plenty of film grain. Similar to This Is England, another recent period drama, Cass does not favor sharp colors and immaculate contrast. On the contrary, most everything here looks subdued. One of the main reasons for such a stylistic preference, I would assume, is the fact that the story jumps through a number of different years, from the early 1950s all the way to present days. There is also plenty of archival footage showing Margaret Thatcher addressing football hooliganism, etc. Therefore, I think that the soft look you would see, primarily during some of the indoor scenes, is certainly intentional. This being said, there is probably a bit of digital noise in the picture as well. Given the specific video composition I described above, however, I don't think that you would find it to be particularly distracting. On the other hand, the actual quality of the print provided by Optimum Releasing is good – I did not detect any dust spots, specks, or debris. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" release which you won't be able to play on your Region-A PS3 or SA. You need to have a Region-Free, or Region-B, hardware in order to playback it).

Cass Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is what Optimum have provided for Cass. Before I get to commenting on the audio track, I would like to note that I absolutely had to have the English subtitles on. The accents are quite strong here, and I assume that a lot of you will likely want to have the subtitles on as well. They are white and of decent, mid-size, font. The actual DTS-HD Master mix is quite good. Cass isn't a film with an overly impressive sound structure, but whatever its creators have envisioned for it is captured by the DTS-HD Master mix rather well. For example, there is a good amount of activity in the rear channels, and especially during the fighting scenes you will hear a variety of sounds (mostly enhancing the kicks, punches, etc). This being said, do not expect anything substantial either, this is mostly a dialog-driven story with a fairly basic audio structure. Finally, the dialog is, as mentioned earlier, rather difficult to follow if you are not used to the heavy accents (some of the more colorful expressions are quite difficult to figure out the first time around). Suffice to say, however, I did not detect any disturbing hissing, pops, or cracks.

Cass Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The following extras are found on this disc - (please keep in mind that all of them are in standard-def PAL, which means that you will have to have a Region-Free player that converts PAL- NTSC in order to view them in NTSC-land. If you have a multi-system TV that accepts PAL then you don't need to worry about anything) – a "behind the scenes" featurette with plenty of standard footage from the shooting of the film where some of the cast members address their contribution in this autobiographical project; "Cass Pennant In His Own Words" is a featurette with the real Cass commenting on his troubled past; a short film "It's A Casual Life"; a trailer for the main feature and TV spots.

Cass Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

An interesting film chronicling the rise and fall of Cass Pennant, arguably the most famous member of the I.C.F (the Inter City Firm), Cass will likely appeal to those who liked the flashier, and slightly more graphic, The Football Factory. The Blu-ray disc herein reviewed, courtesy of Optimum Releasing, is of good quality and fans of the film should certainly look for it.