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This Is England (2006)
Director: Shane Meadows
Synopsis
A lonely 12-year-old boy finds solace and friendship in the company of a gang of skinheads.
Movie review
From Time Out New York
Humor and an easy intimacy with actors have always been British director Shane Meadows’s hallmarks. Even as his defiantly regional material has threatened to clam up with sentiment (sometimes as thick as the Midlands accents), he sees it through to an appealing vulnerability, especially in his tough guys; his last feature, 2004’s revenger Dead Man’s Shoes, sharpened the storytelling to a stoic minimum. He will one day make an essential film, perhaps about a boxer.
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If his latest, This Is England, doesn’t quite elevate Meadows to the next level, it still delivers everything we’ve grown accustomed to. Most notable are the excellent, unshowy performances, especially from young Thomas Turgoose as Shaun, an early-’80s teen looking for surrogate love—Daddy’s fallen in the Falklands—and finding it in two competing skinheads, one of them a foot soldier in the ugly National Front. (Meadows cops to an autobiographical impulse.) Against Nottingham’s gray, silty skies, we see Shaun grow into a pugnacious youngster, becoming vicious against his own better judgment.
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Anyone who’s gone to the Walter Reade lately and tasted its Woodfall series—filled to bursting with angry young Brits swaddled in 1960s angst—will recognize such struggles as a hallowed tradition of U.K. cinema. Meadows is the real deal, and even though he lays on his period nostalgia a little too thick (clips of Duran Duran, Princess Diana and KITT, the talking car?), he knows to ground the proceedings in primo ska music: lilting, propulsive, a hair’s breadth from a sucker punch.
Author: Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out New York Issue 617: July 26–August 1, 2007
User reviews of this film
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- Delta Dawn said...
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Posted on Feb 16 2009 18:28
Didn't get to see it all from the beginning but was quickly caught up watching it; a mixture of horror and compulsion - how bad could it really get.
Like many gritty British movies, eg Nil by Mouth is another one; it portrays the narrow and utterly hopeless existance of the, often uneducated, poorer sectors of society. Lives governed by drudgery, little hope, escapism in drink, drugs, violence and all repeated from generation to generation because they cannot let a fresh breath of air or concept or ideal enter their world
Essentially it is less than animal level existance - as animals rarely exhibit such cruelty but merely respond to hunger and fight over territorial issues.
Makes me wonder if there is always an underclass, and believe me, I don't like throwing the 'class' word around and certainly don't do it from a sense of superiority - but there are tiers and hierarchies, naturally so in human nature. Some people are born more developed than others, more conscious, more spiritually inclined, and thankfully they advance the case for the human race. If this were not the case then we would all be lost. I would rather be dead than live in, condone or be powerless to change a situation such as portrayed by this movie.
Can one feel sorrow for somebody in the face of their ignorance and sub-human behaviour? Can we really say 'it cannot be helped; their circumstances and history made them this way ... then what of those who escape; whose basic, intrinsic conscience or humanity is not obscured and deadened, and they go on to do something with their lives.
Actually I can't be bothered to spend time on the subtleties of the relationship between Shaun and his 'mentor' although it was moving to watch the hand of support being extended 'as he himself was there once too'. However what good is friendship when it is based on 'you're either with me or agin me' or between people, families or humanity where no higher governing principles exist to do the the sacred nature of all human life; whereever, whoever race or colour. This is why we have wars, nationalism at its most corrupt and awfulness. This film gave us a microcosm of the macrocosm that is life on our planet today because mostly humans have abdicated from their spiritual potential and my goodness the results are corrosive at all levels.
As my old auntie used to say, at the end of such a spiel 'i wonder where it will all end'! - Report as inappropriate
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- sam surl said...
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Posted on Jun 21 2008 18:57
Big Phil does however have a point about the date - I would have placed it in the late 70s/early 80s if I hadn'y known it was supposed to be set in 1983.
Sam - Report as inappropriate
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- Sam Surl said...
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Posted on Jun 21 2008 18:53
Just finished watching this film for the first time and was looking for some intelligent reviews and stumbled across this site. Some of the contributions are fxxking priceless!
Contrary to what some of your ignorant reviewers seem to think, this film is clearly not supposed to be a perfect reflection of life in early 80s Britain. What it sets out to do is to use this context to explore some universal questions, such when to stand up and be counted and the complex roots of hatred.
For those that were part of these very real subcultures of the early 80s (as I was) the film also explores the drift of some white ska boys into the violent world of neo-nazi Oi skinhead culture - a very real reflection of what was happening at this time.
As for Shaly's comment - oh dear! Apart from adding some glorious light relief, the relationship between Shaun and Smell is about teenage experimentation and is entirely un-sexy. Its poignancy lies in the fact that Shaun is as unprepared for this adult reality than he is for the rest of what the adult world has thrown at him.
Oh and Rosa - the MIners Strike didn't start until 1984.
This film has real heart and it is rooted in an England that I entirely recognise. I was one of the middle class ska boys that never bought into the racist sxxt of the NF. Sadly, as a teenager, I was also sometimes too weak to speak out when other hardcore skins talked about 'Pakis'. Shane Meadows has got is absolutely right.
Sam - Report as inappropriate
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- BigPhil said...
- Posted on Jun 21 2008 18:26 Hilarious drivel. By 1983 the NF was in retreat. The Anti nazi league had been formed and hardly anyone was a skinhead. If this had been set prior to 1977 and the battle for Lewisham it might have been more believable.
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- KerryAnn said...
- Posted on Jun 04 2008 12:12 F**king Ace Film When I Watched It I Was Peeing Myself Watching It Nd Yea Also I Do Think Tha Bit With Tha Boy Nd Girl Is Not Nicee Eww =s But Tha Bit In Tha Shop Was Soo Funny Nd Why Are People Ambassed By The Film ??? Its Perfetic To Be Ashamed Ov A Film Come On Get A Lifee It Truley Is An Insporational Film Haha !! Well I Gave It 5 Star Defo One Of My Fav's
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- shaly said...
- Posted on Jun 04 2008 05:42 Felt ashamed to watch the movie specially the sceen of little boy and college girl. Is this really happens in britain to a 12 year kid ??? if it is true . and his mother's role is nothing in his life???? but it seems imposible that any boy thinks about his father like this. I could sleep when i saw the kissing seen betwwen the boy and college girl. I am oposite to such role in even films . i will not rate this film .
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- blue nose said...
- Posted on Apr 29 2008 16:38 Ace film,i used to hang around with kids portrayed in the film,most ,belive it or not have grown to be well rounded adults,some have fallen by the wayside. Bouht back memorys.
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- sharon said...
- Posted on Apr 19 2008 06:23 Atmospheric but story total unrealistic rubbish.
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- Sharon Azar said...
- Posted on Jan 16 2008 14:08 This is England is one of the finest films I've ever seen! Each character is multi-leveled and made the transition from one emotion to another with such exquisite timing and subtlety. The humanity and clarity in every scene touched my heart. I fell in love with everyone, including the director for his vision, intelligence and compassion. I will see this powerful film again and again. And the music!!! Wow!!
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- Rosa said...
- Posted on Jan 10 2008 23:14 Simplistic movie which fails to develop its characters in depth. We are left wondering what role the boys mother has in his life and what ever happened to the miners?the last straw was the over the top use of the F word by the top skinhead. it really was so osten it became a farse. ...so much so that I can only call this movie a shallow parody of events.
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- josh said...
- Posted on Dec 04 2007 14:16 Definately ONE of the best movies I have ever seen. Along with a few others, but I have seen loads and loads of films and this is definately in my top 5.
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- Clare said...
- Posted on Oct 14 2007 17:13 Powerful film, felt quite emotional!! Felt ashamed to watch it.
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- deano said...
- Posted on Oct 09 2007 13:12 Great Film Shows Exactly What British Life Is Like , The Bit In The Shop With Knife Was One Of The Best Bits Of The Film !
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- vera selig said...
- Posted on Sep 19 2007 22:39 This mirrors loneliness, isolation and anxiety felt by many in the U.S.A. today.
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- scott a said...
- Posted on Sep 06 2007 16:11 unbelieveable! best film av seen
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Cast & crew
Director: Shane Meadows
Producer: Mark Herbert
Cast: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley, Joe Gilgun, Andrew Shim, Vicky McClure, Rosamund Hanson, Andrew Ellis, Keiran Hardcastle, Jack O'Connell, Chanel Cresswell, Sophie Ellerby, Danielle Watson, Shane Meadows full cast
Genre(s): Drama
Rated: NR
Duration: 100 mins
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