← Back to Reviews
in
This is England (Shane Meadows, 2006)
This is the third Shane Meadows film I've watched in a month, and this is the one I would say is the best of the three (the other two being 24 7 TwentyFourSeven and Dead Man's Shoes). This one seems to tell a more complex and focused story, with deeper characters. He still uses what I consider both impressionistic and expressionistic technique and loves to maximize the mileage out of his soundtrack, but this is the first film I've seen of his that I would wholeheartedly recommend to everybody.
It's set in 1983 during the Falklands War and the height of Thatcherism, and although it's certainly a political film, it's even more about coming-of-age and a strong tale of friendship and wanting to belong. It's mostly told through the eyes of twelve-year-old Shaun (astonishing newcomer Timothy Turgoose) who, on the last day of term, gets picked on at school for wearing bellbottom trousers and goes ballistic when an older kid mentions his dad, who died in the Falklands. On the way home, he meets a friendly group of older skinheads (the non-racist kind), led by Woody (Joe Gilgun), and although it doesn't completely prove satisfactory for Shaun initially, he does bond with them and becomes part of their gang. This does bother Shaun's mom (Jo Hartley), but she decides that it's better for her son to have some friends than be estranged from the world.
Soon enough, Woody's friend Combo (the impressive Stephen Graham) turns up, out of prison after three-and-one-half years, doing time for something which Woody also participated in, and the gang begins to splinter because of this. Combo seems to be a friendly guy, but he also has apparently picked up a few bad habits and ideologies in prison; plus, it turns out, that he has plenty of baggage about his own father, although it's never really spelled out in the film. Shaun ends up looking to Combo to be his father figure, and tragedy eventually ensues.
This is England won the BAFTA for Best British Film of 2007, and I can agree that it probably deserved it. Besides showing England in 1983 and poking at Thatcher and the Falklands War, it also takes shots, albeit almost subliminally, about the current Iraq War. Whether everyone picks up on it, when Combo makes his speech about it being a bogus war and she lied to us, it was obvious (at least to me) that there was some commentary directed at the current situation in Iraq. Additionally, the first time through, I pretty much took for granted the well-conceived montage of events in 1983 England and the Falklands which is presented over the opening credits and immediately pulls the viewer into the time and place of the story. One other thing I halfway missed the first time was that the film, especially in the first half hour, is pretty funny. I do acknowledge it now, and most all the comedy derives from the characters, and since I find these to be Meadows strongest characters which I've seen, that's why I believe this is his strongest flick. Now I need to watch Romeo Brass and Once Upon a Time...
This is the third Shane Meadows film I've watched in a month, and this is the one I would say is the best of the three (the other two being 24 7 TwentyFourSeven and Dead Man's Shoes). This one seems to tell a more complex and focused story, with deeper characters. He still uses what I consider both impressionistic and expressionistic technique and loves to maximize the mileage out of his soundtrack, but this is the first film I've seen of his that I would wholeheartedly recommend to everybody.
It's set in 1983 during the Falklands War and the height of Thatcherism, and although it's certainly a political film, it's even more about coming-of-age and a strong tale of friendship and wanting to belong. It's mostly told through the eyes of twelve-year-old Shaun (astonishing newcomer Timothy Turgoose) who, on the last day of term, gets picked on at school for wearing bellbottom trousers and goes ballistic when an older kid mentions his dad, who died in the Falklands. On the way home, he meets a friendly group of older skinheads (the non-racist kind), led by Woody (Joe Gilgun), and although it doesn't completely prove satisfactory for Shaun initially, he does bond with them and becomes part of their gang. This does bother Shaun's mom (Jo Hartley), but she decides that it's better for her son to have some friends than be estranged from the world.
Soon enough, Woody's friend Combo (the impressive Stephen Graham) turns up, out of prison after three-and-one-half years, doing time for something which Woody also participated in, and the gang begins to splinter because of this. Combo seems to be a friendly guy, but he also has apparently picked up a few bad habits and ideologies in prison; plus, it turns out, that he has plenty of baggage about his own father, although it's never really spelled out in the film. Shaun ends up looking to Combo to be his father figure, and tragedy eventually ensues.
This is England won the BAFTA for Best British Film of 2007, and I can agree that it probably deserved it. Besides showing England in 1983 and poking at Thatcher and the Falklands War, it also takes shots, albeit almost subliminally, about the current Iraq War. Whether everyone picks up on it, when Combo makes his speech about it being a bogus war and she lied to us, it was obvious (at least to me) that there was some commentary directed at the current situation in Iraq. Additionally, the first time through, I pretty much took for granted the well-conceived montage of events in 1983 England and the Falklands which is presented over the opening credits and immediately pulls the viewer into the time and place of the story. One other thing I halfway missed the first time was that the film, especially in the first half hour, is pretty funny. I do acknowledge it now, and most all the comedy derives from the characters, and since I find these to be Meadows strongest characters which I've seen, that's why I believe this is his strongest flick. Now I need to watch Romeo Brass and Once Upon a Time...