This Is England
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | This Is England Cross-title: This is England - the end of a childhood |
| Original title | This Is England |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2006 |
| length | 100 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Shane Meadows |
| script | Shane Meadows |
| production | Mark Herbert |
| music | Ludovico Einaudi |
| camera | Danny Cohen |
| cut | Chris Wyatt |
| occupation | |
| |
This Is England is a British film of the year 2006 . Shane Meadows directed and scripted the film . The content is about Great Britain in the early 1980s under Margaret Thatcher , the time of the Falklands War and the revival of the skinhead subculture.
action
The film takes place in 1983 in an unspecified town in the Midlands : The main character in the film is twelve-year-old Shaun, whose father was killed in the 1982 Falklands War. His mother, Cynthia, does not have enough money to buy him decent clothes, which is why he is a regular victim of ridicule at school, which does not even stop at the death of his father. After Shaun was once again particularly heavily teased, he happened upon the skinhead gang around the charismatic but relatively apolitical Woody. He takes Shaun under his wing and integrates him, albeit many years younger, into his gang.
Conditions come to a head after the 32-year-old Combo is released from prison. In contrast to Woody, who appears slightly anarchist, his political ideas are clearly nationalistic and xenophobic . He splits the gang into a part that is “loyal” to him and those who “don't want to go with”. Shaun is deeply impressed by Combo and finds something like a father figure in him.
After some crimes such as xenophobic graffiti, the gang raids a Pakistani kiosk. In addition, Combo is increasingly politicizing the group, bringing them on his course. However, when he receives a rebuff from his former lover, who to make matters worse is still connected with Woody, he goes completely mad. He invites the only dark-skinned Skin Milky who stayed with Woody to smoke pot with him and his boys . For racist reasons that a "dark-skinned" person has a better position in life than himself (representing a "real" Englishman), he almost beats Milky to death, but weeping regrets this act and takes him to the hospital with Shaun.
In the closing sequence, Shaun thinks about what happened while his mother assures him that Milky is doing relatively well. Shaun goes to the beach alone and throws an England flag given to him by Combo into the sea.
Scenes from Great Britain in the 1980s are shown in the opening credits and excerpts from the original footage of the Falklands War are shown shortly before the final scene.
music
- 54-46 Was My Number - Toots & the Maytals
- Come On Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners
- Tainted Love - Soft Cell
- Nicole Instrumental - Gravenhurst
- Morning Sun - Barry Al & The Cimarons
- Louie Louie - Toots & The Maytals
- Pressure Drop - Toots & The Maytals
- Do The Dog - Specials
- Ritornare - Ludovico Einaudi
- Return Of Django - The Upsetters
- Warhead - UK Subs
- Fuori Dal Mondo - Ludovico Einaudi
- Since Yesterday - Strawberry Switchblade
- Dark End Of The Street - Percy Sledge
- Oltremare Edit - Ludovico Einaudi
- Please Please Please Let Me Get - Clayhill
- Dietro Casa - Ludovico Einaudi
- Never Seen The Sea - Gavin Clark
criticism
“An ironic-critical look back at the Britain of the Thatcher era , striving for authenticity , which makes the shift to the right of the youthful subculture understandable. The moving film portrays a lost generation and at the same time the study of a society frozen in emotional cold. "
background
This Is England is a coming-of-age film about the loss of innocence. The child-like lead actor "Shaun" first finds a father figure in "Woody" and then in "Combo". The development of the character to a right-wing racket is also symptomatic of the skinhead scene of the early 1980s. The hubris for the character finally comes when Combo beats the black, smart skin "Milky" unconscious. As a sign of his change, the main actor then symbolically throws his English flag into the sea. In this case, Critic.de spoke of a "style break compared to the actual quality of the film, its unadorned realism."
It was a concern of the director to show the skinhead scene as it presented itself to him in his youth. With his film he wanted to show the phase in which the Oi! separated from the ska and reggae culture of the original skinheads and slowly seemed to form a right and an apolitical front. For Shane Meadows, the Falklands War was the second hook of the film. The complete helplessness of the British towards their state was to be reflected in the film.
The British National Front was not satisfied with their portrayal in the film and protested against the film on their website. The film portrays the party as a gang of thugs who attacked Asians and blacks. According to the director, the filmed session of the party is based on a real event in his youth.
Shortly after the filming of This Is England on December 30, 2005, the mother Sharon of the main actor Thomas Turgoose died of cancer. The film is therefore dedicated to her.
The four-part miniseries This Is England '86 aired on Channel 4 in September 2010 and the three-part miniseries This is England '88 on Christmas 2011 . In 2015, the four-part miniseries This Is England '90 followed, the so far last offshoot of the series.
Awards
BAFTA Awards 2008
- Award in the Best British Film category
British Independent Film Awards 2006
- Prices in the categories
- Best British Independent Film
- Best newcomer for Thomas Turgoose
- Nominations in the categories
- Best Director for Shane Meadows
- Best Screenplay for Shane Meadows
- Best supporting role for Joseph Gilgun and Stephen Graham
- Best technology (music) for Ludovico Einaudi
Web links
- This Is England in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- This Is England in the online Film Database
- Official site
- Film review at the Guardian (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ This Is England. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed April 1, 2017 .
- ↑ Review on Critic.de
- ↑ Interview on the homepage of the film ( Memento of the original from August 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ National Front film review
