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Stock footage. There's a wide and varied array of sights. Soldiers. Punks. Royalty. War. Explosions. Dying. Death. Thatcher. All of this set to the tune of some catchy reggae.
So begins This Is England, Shane Meadows' film about growing up in 1980s England. It presents the life of 12 year old Shaun, a lonely misfit who meets up with a group of skinheads on his way home from school one day. Gradually, Shaun becomes initiated into the gang.
At first, the skinheads aren't the stereotypical violent racists that most people imagine skinheads to be. They live and act like any of the other cliques, with a penchant for destructive behaviour. This all changes when former gang leader Combo (Stephen Graham) returns home after three years in prison.
This is where the film truly begins. Combo's turn in the joint has changed him. He encourages the gang to follow his new ideal - English pride by way of hate crimes against the recent influx of Pakistani immigrants. His plans cause the gang to splinter into two sections, and it's at this point that Shaun really has to make the choices that matter.
I'm not sure how many other people do this (probably a lot), but when I watch a film about a very particular subject matter (in this case, skinheads) I tend to compare it in my mind with other films I've seen with the same subject. It's very easy to watch This Is England and be reminded of, say, American History X or even Romper Stomper. Of course, even though all three films are about skinheads, This Is England is far different in its approach than the latter two.
This Is England does ends up demonising the skinhead way of life, it doesn't do it in such a heavy-handed way. Combo first appears by crashing the skinheads’ relatively benign party, spouting racist taunts and stories of jail, but later scenes show that he is not just a one-dimensional thug. He has a heart and is genuinely nice at times, which makes his occasional outburst even more shocking (especially the story’s climax). It’s much more ambiguous, and much more interesting that way.
It’s a well-made film, no doubt. Meadows pulls good performances out of every player. Stylistically, the film doesn’t do anything dramatically over-the-top, which fits the story fine. And of course, I’ve got to give props to the reggae on the soundtrack. That was a surprising touch for a skinhead movie, but a smart one at that, because that’s one of the things that makes This Is England a notch above other skinhead movies – the many ways that it turns the popular myth on its head, and thus manages to turn movies on their head in one bleakly realistic portrayal of life on the fringe.
THIS IS ENGLAND
(Shane Meadows, 2006)
(Shane Meadows, 2006)
Stock footage. There's a wide and varied array of sights. Soldiers. Punks. Royalty. War. Explosions. Dying. Death. Thatcher. All of this set to the tune of some catchy reggae.
So begins This Is England, Shane Meadows' film about growing up in 1980s England. It presents the life of 12 year old Shaun, a lonely misfit who meets up with a group of skinheads on his way home from school one day. Gradually, Shaun becomes initiated into the gang.
At first, the skinheads aren't the stereotypical violent racists that most people imagine skinheads to be. They live and act like any of the other cliques, with a penchant for destructive behaviour. This all changes when former gang leader Combo (Stephen Graham) returns home after three years in prison.
This is where the film truly begins. Combo's turn in the joint has changed him. He encourages the gang to follow his new ideal - English pride by way of hate crimes against the recent influx of Pakistani immigrants. His plans cause the gang to splinter into two sections, and it's at this point that Shaun really has to make the choices that matter.
I'm not sure how many other people do this (probably a lot), but when I watch a film about a very particular subject matter (in this case, skinheads) I tend to compare it in my mind with other films I've seen with the same subject. It's very easy to watch This Is England and be reminded of, say, American History X or even Romper Stomper. Of course, even though all three films are about skinheads, This Is England is far different in its approach than the latter two.
This Is England does ends up demonising the skinhead way of life, it doesn't do it in such a heavy-handed way. Combo first appears by crashing the skinheads’ relatively benign party, spouting racist taunts and stories of jail, but later scenes show that he is not just a one-dimensional thug. He has a heart and is genuinely nice at times, which makes his occasional outburst even more shocking (especially the story’s climax). It’s much more ambiguous, and much more interesting that way.
It’s a well-made film, no doubt. Meadows pulls good performances out of every player. Stylistically, the film doesn’t do anything dramatically over-the-top, which fits the story fine. And of course, I’ve got to give props to the reggae on the soundtrack. That was a surprising touch for a skinhead movie, but a smart one at that, because that’s one of the things that makes This Is England a notch above other skinhead movies – the many ways that it turns the popular myth on its head, and thus manages to turn movies on their head in one bleakly realistic portrayal of life on the fringe.