Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fine British Drama, 3 Jun 2008
Lonely youngster Shaun (talented newcomer Thomas Turgoose) lives on a poor council estate in 1980's northern England. Tormented by schoolmates for his old fashioned clothes, Shaun struggles to fit in and to come to terms with the death of his father in the Falklands conflict. One afternoon, whilst walking home from a particularly miserable day at school, Shaun meets a surprisingly affable bunch of older skinheads who take him under their collective wing and provide the friendship he needs in the absence of his father. Unfortunately, the fun is ruined when the violent and racist Combo (Stephen Graham) is released from prison and returns to resume control of his old gang.
Director Shane Meadows is a master of turning a light-hearted film into something much more sinister by coaxing natural and truly believable performances from his actors. In 'A Room For Romeo Brass', local dimwit Paddy Considine quickly turned into a dangerous nutter and in 'This Is England', the arrival of Stephen Graham marks a complete turn of direction. Meadow's skinhead gang are nothing like you would expect, even going so far as to having a black gang member, these lot are just about the fashion and music, not about violence and racism. The charismatic leader, Woody (Joe Gilgun) is a polite and funny young man who genuinely can't stand to see Shaun upset. He encourages such camaraderie in his gang that he organises fun days out and the occasional group hug so that no-one feels left out. His polar opposite is the bitter and aggressive Combo who has become even more right wing in prison and immediately embarks upon a personal vendetta of hate upon his release. Graham may be familiar to film fans as Jason Statham's comedy sidekick in 'Snatch', but he shows his acting range here as a muscular shaven-headed psycho. The scene where he turns up at a house party with ex-cellmate Banjo, is unbearably tense and this is when we know everything is going to fall apart. Soon Combo has forced his violent rhetoric on the group and divided them into two. Woody and a few others refuse to desert black pal Milky, whilst some of the younger members including Shaun are drawn to Combo's side. Shaun goes from the happy go-lucky kid he had become into something else altogether as he becomes involved with petty vandalism, drugs, National Front rallies and the intimidation of asian people. His performance is exceptional, naturally sweet and vulnerable but easily led into darker territory. Meadows expertly increases the tension until the inevitable and violent finale where Shaun's world falls apart. Meadows is brilliant at making truly authentic looking British cinema and his attention to detail is how he does it. From his very natural script writing, to the rolling hills of the midlands (Dead Man's Shoes) to the Thatcher references, Falklands footage and Roland Rat of 1980's "This is England', he has produced a fine portfolio of work. This may not be his best but it is probably his most accomplished.
Like this? Try: Dead Man's Shoes
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A time machine back to '83......, 7 May 2008
This film is an absolutely perfect snapshot of early eighties Thatcher-era England.
Everything from the dodgy skinheads, the mums haircut, cars, jumpers, clothes attitudes etc, reminds me of being an 11 year old growing up in that era....
People I have watched the film with have all said they had a mum like the young lads in the film...with the Dierdre Barlow glasses and the Brian May shaggy perm.
Many films that attempt to look period simply do not pull it off...I can think of only a handful that do. Fine detail is encapsulated here.
It is a charming, beguiling yet and occasionally ugly and depressing movie that captures something rare in films...character ambivalence.
People who should be nasty appear pleasant when they shouldnt be....a true Shane Meadows hallmark.
This film comes very highly recommended and I would say it is the best British film for a good while.
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
8/10. This was England, 23 Feb 2008
Dubbed the `Scorcese of the Midlands', Shane Meadows is one of the UK's brightest modern filmmaking talents. This is England continues a series of excellent films by the director set around working class Nottingham that often feature non-professional actors and a liberal use of improvisation. While belonging to a British cinematic tradition - social realism with a twist of surreal humour - that owes much to the work of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, this is a classic rites of passage drama with roots that can be traced back to Trauffaut's 'Les Quatre Cents Coups'.
You have to have lived in Thatcher's Britain to fully appreciate the attention to detail put into recreating the mood of the times here. The credit sequence - a montage of contemporaneous news footage - sets the scene: royal weddings, the Fawklands war, the miners' strikes and class conflict. For all the verisimilitude, though, it's the honesty and intensity of the performances that carry this film. Meadows looks at the skinhead movement with the sympathetic eye of someone who experienced it first hand. He does not seek to demonise those involved, but to show how what began as a fashion with roots - paradoxically - in black culture, became politicised at a time of class strife and social alienation. Meadows uses a ska soundtrack to demonstrate the contradiction at the heart of the skinheads, that the music they loved was directly influenced by reggae imported to the UK by Carribbean immigration.
The way that Meadows uses contemporaneous music makes the Scorcese comparison seem more astute than it initially seems. Not only does it set a sense of time and place, but it brings a tangible voice to the emotional turmoil of his characters. At times this can be a little too literal, especially in the final sequence when we are treated to some of Morrissey's finest lyrics: "See, the luck I've had / Can make a good man turn bad". It's a shame that they couldn't use the original Smiths song, for the singer in the cover version is a pale imitation of Morrissey. That said, this is another sad, beautiful film from one of the UK's best directors.
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