This Is England Film Review

Shane Meadows' Accomplished Brit Flick Starring Tommo Turgoose

Nov 25, 2008

A look at This Is England, Shane Meadows' modern social realist drama that exposes racism and poverty in 1980s Britain through the eyes of a bruised and bullied boy. 7/10

This Is England is a brutal paean to Britain in the 1980s. The opening montage provides a jumble of memory-laden stock footage, set to a pumping ska soundtrack; a joyful reminiscence for anyone who lived through the Falklands war, the Thatcher government, the launch of compact discs and the dawn of breakfast television. But before long the film has identified its true subject matter as the racist underbelly of fringe culture. Through the eyes of Shaun (Thomas Turgoose), a 12 year old boy who has lost his soldier dad in the Falklands war, the pressures of social conformity and the attraction of radical politics is humanised. Like the German film The Wave (Die Welle), This Is England demonstrates how the desire to fit in, to dress, act and think the same as others, can be a very powerful, dangerously emotive force.

Stephen Graham's Frighteningly Real Performance as Combo

The gang of skinheads Shaun initially hangs out with in This Is England are a harmless bunch. They are led by the affable and intelligent Woody (Joe Gilgun), who demonstrates his soft spot for the underdog by attempting to cheer Shaun up after he's been bullied at school. It's when the sociopathic ex-con Combo (Stephen Graham) turns up that the mood changes from one of humour to fear. Stephen Graham's performance combines stillness, facial ticks and explosive energy to readily convince as a racist psycho. His opening rant about the black bully he encountered in prison is a thinly veiled attack directed at Milky (Andrew Shim), the only black member of Woody's gang. Despite Combo's claim that 'a bully's a bully, regardless of colour', he clearly takes issue with Milky's presence, and sets out to create an atmosphere of intimidation. It's an uncomfortable scene, given extra cinematic resonance through cutting the sound of Combo's voice and focusing solely on the bile and vitriol in his face.

The Influence of Alan Clarke and Mike Leigh on This Is England

This Is England takes its cues from heralded British films such as Made in Britain, Meantime and The Firm. Films which reflected what, for many, were grim realities of life in 1980s Britain. This Is England follows in the footsteps of the greats - directors Mike Leigh and Alan Clarke – but by re-treading ground that has been long overgrown, it fulfills an important need. The need to remember the horrors of the past. Just as The Boy in the Striped Pyjama's, another film from a child's perspective, re-lives the horrors of Nazi Germany, This Is England serves as a timely reminder of Britain's shady past. With the BNP currently hard at work marketing propaganda door to door, and Britain slumped in a cash-flow crisis, This Is England stands as a necessary education for a new generation. It's an important reminder of youth culture's dangerous flirtation with the national front. Of what can happen if violence and intimidation are allowed to become an accepted part of society. Of the need to learn from past mistakes.

Minor Flaws but Overall Strong Performances in This Is England

Writer/director Shane Meadows, who bravely admits the character of Shaun was based on his younger self, has crafted a film of compelling drama. The only real flaw lies in the rather hurried shoe-horning of young Thomas Turgoose's character into a very adult world. A trait common to Meadows' previous film A Room for Romeo Brass - which coincidentally starred a much younger Andrew Shim (Milky). Some of the acting in This Is England also tends precariously towards drama school improv, and invokes a nagging familiarity for any viewer acquainted with Meadows' previous work. Indeed, having seen Shane acting in the dvd compilation Shane's World, it's even easy to imagine him saying many of the lines in This Is England himself. This is one of the drawbacks of Meadows omnipresent directorial style. But minor characterisation faults aside, most performances are strong, with Tommo Turgoose, Stephen Graham and Vicky McClure (who plays Woody's girlfriend Lol) particularly deserving of plaudits. The mood of the film is perfectly captured too, with a loving, poetic splendour accorded to the bleakest of landscapes, ably capturing a very real sense of time and place.

This realism is what makes the climax of the film so unnerving. It's obvious and expected, of course, with This Is England signposting its intentions from the very get go, but in many ways, this is what gives the ending its raw power. Tensions are allowed to simmer over and rise to an almost unbearable level, with the anxiety never letting up until the inevitable final barrier is crossed. The lasting emotion, after a gauntlet run, is one of absolute shell-shock.

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