Director – Shane Meadows – 2006 – UK – Cert. 18 – 101m
A young, pre-teenage lad falls in with a gang of skinheads in Post-Falklands War, Thatcherite Britain – originally published in Third Way in 2007, to coincide with the film’s UK release date
The above one line synopsis, although accurate, doesn’t even begin to convey the piece’s considerable strengths. (Note: Meadows would subsequently develop this into a series of TV dramas in the UK using many of the same cast and characters: This is England ‘86, This is England ‘88 and This is England ‘90 in 2010, 2011 and 2015 respectively.)
Meadows is a unique and powerful voice, a teenage school dropout who kicked off his career in features with 1996’s 60-minute feature Small Time and went on to greater things TwentyFourSeven (1997) and critical favourite A Room For Romeo Brass (1999). His highest profile effort is the less impressive Once Upon A Time In The Midlands (2002), which suffers from trying to make an epic with an all-star British cast. Meadows is not about big movies (not yet, anyway) – he began shooting movies with mates as actors and has an uncanny ability to draw incredible performances out of actors and non-actors alike, based as much on the people concerned as on their acting ability. The word ‘intimacy’ springs to mind: it’s all about what happens to locations and, more importantly, people before the camera. A Room For Romeo Brass, his best film before the current offering, features fantastic performances from young boys. This Is England likewise boasts a striking central performance from its pre-teen lead.
Deceptively diminutive 12-year-old Shaun (Thomas Turgoose), whose dad died fighting the Falklands War, gives as good as he gets. Unafraid to bloody the noses of playground bullies a few years older (and quite a bit bigger) than himself, he’s befriended by Woody (Joe Gilgun) and falls in with the gang of skinheads the latter leads. Receiving the appropriate haircut and kitting himself out with Doc Martins boots and Ben Sherman shirt, he finds within the gang a new sense of identity and belonging as they go out in outlandish costumes wreaking mayhem on derelict housing sites.
Tensions arise to split the gang when Woody’s former mate Combo (Stephen Graham) turns up at a party, machete in hand, fresh from a three and a half year prison sentence. Woody wants nothing to do with Combo’s racist attitudes. Besides, one of Woody’s gang, Milky (Andrew Shim, one of the young boys from A Room For Romeo Brass) is Caribbean. Combo insults stupid people who fought in the Falklands War, and for his pains gets assaulted by Shaun. The two bond. From there it’s a short ride to a National Front meeting and attacks on local Asian residents. Chilling stuff.
The dialogue is beautifully observed (“yer fuckin’ Pakki bastard” is pretty accurate of the period). Side-plots about Shaun’s early pre-adolescent romantic/sexual fumblings (involving a punkette gang member Smell about two years his older, played by Rosamund Hanson) impress: the question, “will you be my girlfriend?” has never been sweeter in a movie. Such material jostles with the stealing of a football from some Asians in the middle of a game (“this is ours now,” says Combo authoritatively of the ball he’s just picked up) and a terrifying daylight raid by Shaun, Combo and mates on the local Asian newsagent.
Like the Good Samaritan, the characters defy any obvious stereotype. They’re human beings with reasons for what they do. Even Combo, with his indefensible behaviour, engages our sympathy when he states that Shaun reminds him of himself at that age. Meadows’ seamless recreation of the period pales beside his and his cast’s achievement in getting under the skins of their characters. This remarkable film screams out to be seen. One of 2007’s best.
Originally published in Third Way in 2007, to coincide with the film’s 27/04/2007 UK release date.
Trailer: