Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1137 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-09-28
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 101 minutes

Synopsis
Paul Carty (Nicky Bell – LIFE ON MARS, CREEP) is a teenager driven out of his mind with boredom. Living a dull, suburban existence in the shadow of his dead mother and grieving father, Paul craves excitement and that's exactly what he finds when he meets Elvis (Liam Boyle – ROBIN HOOD, SPOOKS) who introduces him to a gang known as The Pack. But all is not what it seems and Paul soon discovers that Elvis is disenchanted by The Pack and for all it stands. Although Elvis does his utmost to dissuade Paul from joining the gang, recognising a kinship between them that seems impossible with the other 'nobodies' within, Paul is drawn into the group by his fascination with their dark and vicious world.

Customer Reviews

Joggers Not Runners
If the late seventies into the early eighties were part of your (misspent) youth, then Awaydays will transport you right back there with its rites of passage tale set in 1979.

Carty (Nicky Bell) is tired of watching Tranmere Rovers in the company of his Dad and the other Steady-Eddies at Prenton Park, and decides that getting amongst the ranks of "The Pack" - a notorious hooligan element that follow Rovers home and away, will bring the necessary excitement to his life that he craves. At the same point, Elvis (brilliantly played by Liam Boyle) - a key member of "The Pack" is looking for a way out of his existence, and yearns for a more stable life than the mixed up world of drugs, violence, and loneliness he currently dwells in. Each wants what the other has, but both also have common ground by way of the team they support, and their love of the music and club scene that was on offer just over the water in Liverpool.

Awaydays takes you along on the journey that these two very different people embark on, as they attempt to find what they're looking for, and invariably both find that you should be careful what you wish for.

The film is set to a superb soundtrack of classic songs from the period (Echo And The Bunnymen, Joy Division, The Cure, Wire, and OMD to name check a few, and the opening sequence which is set to "Young Savage" by Ultravox! along with the one of the fight scenes set to the Magazine track "The Light Pours Out Of Me" are two of the high points of the film.
The is also a cameo appearance from Wirral band - The Rascals, who play the part of an embryonic Echo And The Bunnymen playing a gig in Eric's club on Mathew Street.

If you're looking for a stereotypical brain-in-neutral football hooligan film then you may well be disappointed, but if a story set to the background of your youth gets you interested then you're in for a treat.

Awaydays on DVD faithfully converts the story played out in the cult novel to the screen, and you could do a lot worse that getting hold of a copy of the soundtrack to go along with it.

Independent cinema at it's best!
If you are expecting Awaydays to be nothing more than a footie violence film along the lines of Green Streets and Football Factory you're very wrong! This is a beautiful coming of age film about two young lads (Elvis & Carty), who, in 1979 NW England, find themselves members of "The Pack", a gang of football fans who follow their team across the country (hence the title Awaydays) to cause trouble and fight rival fans. A pure independant British film, a friend of mine put it perfectly when he said "Awaydays doesn't look like a no-budget film as much as it looks like it was actually made in 1979". The film makers have gone to every effort to make the set, costume, haircuts and even the shots and lighting of the film feel like something thats come right out of 1979 (just look at the soundtrack to confirm this!), and as a result Awaydays has achieved something special that it's fellow genre films dont even attempt let alone succeed in doing. There is sex and violence that will appeal to fans of Football Factory etc (it didn't get Nuts film of the week for nothing) but this is also a film that has a depth that any lover of cinema will appreciate. Destined to become a cult classic along with the book, this is possibly this is the first DVD that is a must have for both art students and football fans.

Class, pure class.
I may be biased because I'm a Birkenhead lad, but this is how it was. Incredibly evocative and moving.