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Neds directed by Peter Mullan

Set in Scotland during the 1970's this is the story of freshfaced young John McGill. He's a bright lad doing well at school and looking forward to going to senior school. His mother and aunt adore him and his little sister but the darkness at home is his shadowy alcoholic father who sidles around the house at night after John and his sister are in bed, shouting filthy abuse at his wife.
After John is threatened by a local yob he feels obliged to ask older brother for help. Turns out that his brother is a tough scally who's held in esteem by a local gang. The film shows John's life unravelling into terrible chaos after he's approached by other gang members who show him some much needed friendship.

Peter Mullan's film world is a dark tough world, witness his earlier films Orphans and Magdalene Sisters and his performances in things like Ken Loach's My Name is Joe. He's given interviews describing his upbringing in a family one of eight children with a vicious drunkard of a father, he calls Neds "personal but not autobiographical". He plays John's father himself, presumably knowing first hand the behaviour that both terrifies and stifles family life. John's mother is a hard working nurse that struggles hopelessly to keep family life on an even keel.



The film starts off in 1974 with John about to enter senior school, that's six years after my senior school start but I recognise its depiction of school as a hard place populated by sarcastic teachers but tempered by having the odd teacher who actually connected with you and inspired you. Sadly many children were turned off school and education by an uncaring system, specially for kids with special needs. It's better now without corporal punishment and with more money in special needs, but we still need to invest time and money into our kids to make a decent future for all of us.

Two actors play John, one when he was first in senior school and supremely confident of his academic abilities, innocent of the consequences of challenging a teacher. That lad is a good little actor but Conor McCarron who plays the older John is a brilliantly contained actor. He's able to come over firstly as an ordinary bright kid, but allows his attitude to change subtly along with the look on his face, from engagement through sneering resentment to blank brutality. It's his performance that makes the film believable and it must've made Peter Mullan happy to find a first time natural actor like him specially as he's asking the audience to go along with the idea that John's attitude would change over the course of one school summer holidays.

Mullan highlights the class differences that still exist in the UK education system and the attitude that being clever and successful is something to be ashamed of. John's rejection by a friend that comes from the better side of the tracks is the catalyst that angers him enough to get him involved in gangs and the aggression that involves. His downfall from promising student into violence and eventual sidelining seems horribly realistic despite some overly melodramatic touches.


4/5