"This is England"

Previous lesson we watched a film called”This is England.” The film is written and directed by Shane Meadows. The film, which is characterized as a drama came out in 2006.

The film is about the skinhead subculture in England in the 1960. The subculture originated among the working class youth and was influenced by the mod culture and rude people. They shaved their heads and their clothing, music and lifestyle showed signs of West Indian and Jamaican influence. Originally, skinheads had no specific relation to politics but later they have become associated with racism.

In “This is England” we meet a 12-year old Shaun who lives with his mum. His dad died in the Falkland war. Shaun does not have many friends and he gets into a fight one day when someone at his school makes an offensive joke about his dad. He then gets in touch with skinheads on his way home. They are a lot older than he is but they accept him as one of them. The “leader” called Woody becomes some sort of a brother figure to Shaun. He also develops a romance with Smell, a girl with a punky new-wave type of style. Everything changes when a former member of the group, Combo, comes back from sentencing in prison. He is angry and tries to bring a nationalism into the group. Even if Milky, who is a black skinhead who has immigrated from Jamaica is a part of group, he tries to impose a conviction that immigrants and black people steal jobs from the British workers. Combo identifies with Shaun and becomes a father figure. Shaun adopts the racist and nationalist views and one day he even mugs his local shopkeeper who is also black. One day Combo snaps and beats Milky unconscious. The film ends when Shaun throws his flag, which is a symbol of the friendship with Combo, into the sea.

I really enjoyed this film. “This is England” nicely portrays the life of a young boy and how it is easy to be convinced by your friends to do things you would not have done otherwise. Especially if you do not have that many friends and are afraid of losing the ones you have. The film is also about the love and protection a mother has for her son. It was easy to indentify with the main characters even if the social environment of the film seems distant.

I can confirm that a lot of what we saw in the film teaches the views a lot about working class England. The people, the accent, the houses and the society were all very similar to what I experienced living in York last year. Even a subculture that is very similar to the one of the skinheads still breathes in the area I used to live. They are called “chavs” The term “chav” is typically associated with unemployed British teenagers, mainly with a white working class background. They are frequently involved in crimes and are among those people you would not want to provoke or approach with when walking alone. I liked watching a film about a society I felt I had some real life experience with. However, I do recommend other people to watch “This is England.” It paints a realistic picture of the subculture of working class England as well as being entertaining and exciting all the way through!