The Representation of Youths: Kidulthood and Quadrophenia in Focus - Movie Review Example

REPRESENTATION OF YOUTH IN MOVIES Kidulthood and Quadrophenia in focus The youth of today is highly media literate, but that does not mean that they are well educated in terms of the media. No doubt that the media plays a significant role in setting an example for young people in terms of stereotyping. Like the debate is still going on, whether the society follows the media or the media follows the society. There are examples of both aspects too, but the more dangerous is the society following the media. "This film couldn't exist if these things weren't happening in society." said Clarke Neon who is the writer and actor of the movie Kidulthood. Our ideas about other countries and lifestyle are formed by the perspectives given to us by the media. The media can not present the world to us, in spite of their assertion of truth and reality. They rather re-present that world to us by constructing images and behaviors for lots of different groups within, and indeed outside, our own society. There are two ways in which media represents youth. Youth (as trouble) can be seen in news, soaps and media creating hype about it. While youth (as fun), is used as a great strategy for advertisement. Rather than criticizing, try coming up with a solution for young people; have a discussion of what causes social problems and how they can be remedied. Young people got attacked for wearing hoods and even waiting for the bus is condemned as lingering! Moral panic is another thing which is condemned by many groups and itmay be defined as "when the large group of people expresses their strong feelings about a specific group of people who may threaten the social order at that time." In the book, Folk Devils and Moral Panics(1973), the writer Stanley Cohen, says moral panic occurs when "[a] condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests."Those who start the panic, have a fear and threat towards the prevailing cultural values, are known by researchers as "moral entrepreneurs", while those who are targeted are known as "folk devil." They are the result and side-effects of controversies that generate arguments and social tension, or aretabooto many people. Moral Panics in the media are further divided into three stages: 1. Occurrence and signification: A natural event occurs and when the media tries to give it an extra dramatic coverage and hype that is signified as a violent, worrying one. 2. Wider social implications (fanning the flames): When a connection is made between that particular event and the societal facing a problem. Then, opinion makers and experts give such comments that they come out to be a major social menace. So public attention is focused on these matters. 3. Social control: These moral panics then look forward to bring about a resolution and eventually a change in the law; all designed to further penalize those established as the threatening deviants at the source of the panic. This gives satisfaction to the public, who believe that they are the ones bringing a change in a society and are politically empowered by the media. The movies about youth do have realistic content to show. But they might attain the power of creating a moral panic in the youth and society afterwards, just by raising an issue which will bring about a resolution in the society. Like the movie, Kidulthood, is illustrated with well known occurrences with teenagers; about today's teens living in central London have shown by common use of drugs, violence and pregnancy. Although some parts were slightly exaggerated, it did show what dilemmas teenagers face on a daily basis including sex, drugs, crime and fighting. It all proved the realistic representation of stereotypes however; the movie then ends with a moral that these things can ruin life. While, Quadrophenia is an old classic movie, it's still very popular as it shows the real pictures of the teens of early 60's and 70's. The movie shows the teens as a part of Mod culture, which later resulted in the moral panic of influencing those who were not actually a part of Mod's culture. Sub-culture films, like Kidulthood and Quadrophenia, with their focuses on youth leisure and drug pleasure are a result of other sub-cultured movies. This is due to its forceful realism, romantic alienation, romantic alienisms of teenage disillusionment and the position of drugs within the youth culture of mods. A key to understand the legacy of Quadrophenia is to focus on the hedonistic insecurity and identity formation; in the lives of young people who are part of a group. This sub-culture has been followed in the British cinema by Kidulthood. There is empathizing with the characters experiencing moments of struggle and exhilaration in the movie. They speak to us and we recognize ourselves in a multitude of differing moments. This is achieved ethnographically, in both movies Quadrophenia and Kidulthood, by the defining presence of group membership, locality and language. These movies have often been criticized for the glamorous and positive portrayal of drugs and sex as the movies speak for the contemporary generation. It is not a case of simple drug abuse or hedonism. We see individuals, who get on with their everyday lives, showing off, eating, having a drink, casual and desirable sex, being bored, interacting with their parents, having fun and laughing. Furthermore, we see individuals in agony and distress with their drug abuse, or their attempt to reduce or stop using them. In short, we see what is special and ordinary in their lives and that recreational drug consumption is just a young person's activity. An important theme running throughout is the desire of the characters to curtail their substance use. In Quadrophenia, the protagonist, Jimmy was shown spending his money on not aspirins or Victory Vs but pep pills which gave an outlook on types of drugs which were used by a seventeen year old in 1960's. They were leapers, French blues, purple hearts and black bombers. Amphetamines or Benzedrine were also used; the stuff from which the dreams are made of. Whereas, in Kidulthood, as girls did not have money to buy cocaine; a17-year-old girl and her friend did things which helped them getting hold of drugs. Later, close-ups were shown when the girls took drugs; giving a closer look by moving the camera in and out and blurring techniques. Just to make the audience feel the dizziness which the characters were experiencing. Kidulthood is a low budget and a popular British movie, an independent drama on the lives of youth, who are fifteen-year-old teenagers studying in a school of West London. A girl committed suicide after her classmate violently bullied her in class; the teenagers were expelled from the school. On the same day, many issues were raised for the leading role, "Trife" and his group of friends. They were issues like pregnancy in teenage, drinking underage, drug abuse, disturbingly brutal violence and peer pressure. However, critics argue about the realistic representation of the West- London youths and their lives. Therefore, the movie has an argument which has two sides. One is the realistic representation of youth in Kidulthood and accurate reflection of British society. While, the other side is just for the sake of creating a moral panic in the society the media is presenting a delusion about the British youth in Kidulthood. Viewers can see the authenticity to the film because the actors in the movie are not professional but regular teenagers. The narrative is based on real life experiences and stories: obviously, if there is real life evidence only then it is shown to contain some aspects of reality on screen. Like the issue of pregnancy is a realistic example, as the statistics show that 3,514 abortions were carried out on girls below 16 in 2002. Kidulthood is a good representation of some of the issues which are faced by young people today. This movie can actually act as a way to discourage people from street crimes and violence; although it is probably one of the most explicit films. There is a "vicious cycle" theme that runs throughout the movie. Plus if we consider a deeper meaning, the film was actually entertaining but only on a superficial level. The movie, Quadrophenia, became an ultimate hit in 1979. It was set in 1964. The story's main character Jimmy Cooper was a Mod living in London. He has a dead-end job as a post room boy in an advertising agency. All he did with his earning was financing his mod lifestyle. Sharply tailored suits and a pill habit consumed most of his pay. Other portions of his pay were for the motor scooter, a Vespa, Gran Sportique. The scooter had spotlights, mirrors, racks on front and back, fur trimming and a side-panels of chrome. It had cost him a lot to have them done, but by looking at the sparkly metal and the beauty, it was worth it. At night, he used to go for clubbing and to parties. He returned home really late and used to have quarrels with his parents as they were against it; they couldn't understand him. Being an active member of a mod gang, he was among those well-dressed youths, who used to ride Lambretta scooters. They always had clashes with Rockers, who wore black leather and rode motorcycles. Jimmy was fanatical of been called a 'face'; he was a fashion chief of the Mod group. The only driven force for him was his position in the Mod group. His loyalties to the Mod movement were questioned when a friend, who returned to his hometown from the army, turned into a Rocker. The climax of the film was set on a Bank Holiday trip of the London Mods to Brighton. They stole pills from the chemist to carry on their activities over the weekend, got new haircuts and bought new suits. Jimmy was haughty by the extremely cool, he was standing by the stage where the Ace Face was performing and playing the songs by Sting. The weekend ended in an expected brawl among the Police, the Rockers and the Mods and as a result, Ace and Jimmy were arrested. When Jimmy finally returned to London, his mind became a real mess maybe because of the large amounts of the pills he had. He gave up his job and hence, a downward spiral begun. He abandoned the Mods' mania with fashion. The last straw of his was of finding the Ace Face, which was the fashion idol and when he was a bellboy at the Grand Hotel in Brighton. The movie, Quadrophenia, is now itself known as a classic period piece. It was made in 1979, which was the famous time period of a rival of Mod styles; capturing the teenage mood of early 60's and the late 70's. As the film is set in 1964, it mostly shows the fashion and styles of the earlier 60's era and the movie realistically demonstrates the on-going clashes of cultures between the Mods and Rockers. It also highlighted the clashes between the two generations. There was an actual attempt made to make the street scenes authentic. You can see many modern pedestrian crossings and people wearing the clothes of 70's in the background. Even the fighting scenes, which were shot in Brighton, looked all too real! Although, Kidulthood aim is to represent the true picture of teenaged life, it does not essentially signify that it has to be shot in a 'practical' style. The props, location and sets which were used were actually close to the everyday life experience. To set up the film in a contemporary, metropolitan environment allowed us to identify with every characters and action that took place in the movie. In Quadrophenia, as the mods created a subculture within the England in the Sixties, it mainly focused on London. They followed the latest fashions with a persistent love for parties and the sounds of American R&B, the music from Motown, could be heard. The protagonist, Jimmy Cooper belonged to West London and lives in the Shepherd's Bush, and it was hardly a mile away from the Goldhawk Social Club. Language of streets has been used extensively in the Kidulthood; you can observe that by looking at the words and their meanings: Shank means knife, Strap means gun, Whip means car, Butters means Ugly, Jacked means Robbed, Blood means brother / friend, Endz means area, Kotch means hang out, 4-1-9 means Fraud, Neeky means Geeky, Chattin' fraff means talking rubbish, Bare means a lot / many, Merk means Kill/ Beat, G'd up means grassed up (betrayed), Yard means house, Shook means scared, Greezy means good, 5-O and Feds means Police and Sick means cool. The narrative was just about sex, violence and drugs and showed a lot of stereotypes as teenager boys and girls. Mod terms were used in the movie Quadrophenia, like the one who started a trend was called Faces and were top Mods seen as taste-makers in the Mod movement. Younger Mods were known as Numbers; their t-shirts had numbers on them. Tickets were used for those who didn't have any fashion sense. Mockers, a word copied from both Mods and Rockers. People who tried to be Mods were known as States; Jimmy used this term for Rockers in the movie. Both the movies have shown different angles and I saw a major change in the perspective of the parents. While, in one movie the mod culture was the result of post-war parsimony which was actually an empty and superficial culture. If young people can earn money on their own, they will be rebellious against the "save, save, save" culture of their parents. In the movie Quadrophenia, the protagonist Jimmy used to have quarrels with his parents for coming in late and spending too much money on clothes and partying. Whereas in Kidulthood, one thing was a common stereotype, like when the girl who sat in the car after getting bullied, her father acted ignorant towards her which later resulted in the suicidal lost life of his child. The other unexpected reaction of a mother was devastatingly disturbing, when Sam went to meet her girlfriend; her mother, after hearing some noises came by the door and said, "Don't forget to take safety measures" to her daughter. These things should not be shown even if it's happening in our society. Attire, in both the movies, were according to their era; in the movie Quadraphenia, Jimmy did nothing else than take care of his fashion, and like others he would take day jobs just to fuel his outrageous numbers of clothes alterations and purchases. If described in the language of Quadraphenia, I will say, 'Mods were divided between "faces" - the leaders who start any trend - and "tickets" - who try to follow in order to keep themselves up according to the latest trends. They were the ones who hoped to eventually become faces themselves.' It can be said that a major role was played by Quadrophenia in the fashion industry; it also influenced the new romantic heroes of the 1980's. The fashion in the film, featured the custom-made slim, fitted suits and a tie topped over with an jumbo anorak, got very popular and highly emulated in fashion and music industry and cinema in the next decades. In the movie Kidulthood, trends were exactly like the today's style of central London; as the actors were not professionals so they used their own style of dressing to give a pragmatic touch to the movie. Like baggy pants, caps, long shirts, uppers and some jewelry (like neckbands and bands in hands) were worn. The lifestyle of the kids in the movie was believable and therefore an effective work of art can be seen, as the many individuals involved on both sides of the camera, were only too familiar with the lifestyle which was being presented. Showing that young people in films can be problematic and you can't even begin to imagine that they are used to hear things like, 'go up in your room' from their parents. They were open and had no restrictions. They do stuff which is different without thinking about the consequences; like when Trife carved a C on the face of the man, he felt like vomiting and disturbed with his act. In an attempt to avoid misrepresentation, the characters in Kidulthood were played by young teenager who weren't professional actors, they were confident to improvise, mostly with regard to the language, as the film moved. While in Quadrophenia, the main actor was following the rule of an independent life; earning at the age of seventeen, left his education, had a naked woman poster in his room and he had no ambition in his life. That's why he later also left his job, just because he was a famous Mod. As for the transport, the movie Quadrophenia, showed scooters which were a part of Mod culture in 60's and Jimmy also spent a lot of money in getting himself a motorcycle. It had five spotlights, four mirrors, front and back racks, was trimmed with fur, and also had chrome side-panels. After the release, there were some brands of the scooters which gained popularity among the youth trying to become Mods. While in Kidulthood, they were mainly walking on the street and there, no such style of transportation was shown. But there were few scenes, like when the black kid trying to stop a cab but nobody stopped, later he with his friends mischievously sat in the cab and when they got off, that kid who had a previous incident said, "I won't pay because you stopped because a white girl stopped you and you wouldn't if I was stopping you!" Violence, sex and crime were shown as the part of youth culture in both the movies. In Quadrophenia, when the Mods and Rocker had turned up at the beach-front of Brighton, they exploded into a pitched-battle; there were many excited teenagers who were looking for an excuse to have a clash which quickly becomes a riot. Though, while the action was shown on the screen getting dissolved into chaos, the violence was coordinated technically. Therefore, when the riot became nasty and quite scary, the film didn't lose the sight of the principal figures (Jimmy and Steph at this point). In the movie Kidulthood, there were many scenes in which violence and crime were shown. Like when a girl got bullied in school and later, when Sam and his gang took away the game boy of a kid. Small fights were shown exaggeratedly and small incidences where people got scared of 15 years old kids only because they were black is a typical stereotype. Also, when a black kid was giving hand to the taxi, but none stopped and when the other kid went in to buy beer and the shopkeeper said that you are too young to buy it, she just used his word to scare him off. Kidulthood is a movie which can be known as raw, rough and a disturbingly honest film. Kidulthood has some of the glamorization of gun culture and also promoted 'happy slapping.' Though, the film did carry a strong moral. Whenever we see any episodes of violence; whether bullying, fighting or torture, we experience the full visual horror of the situation. The violence you see in these movies is not seen in other Hollywood movies: like the way Trife carved a C on the man's face or how the girl got beaten up. In the end, when Trife died just after he promises to change; his eyes says it all that street violence is not cool and it can have tragic consequences. The typical stereotypes associated with youth such as drugs, parties, under age sex and teenage pregnancy were all shown in the movie. In one scene, a girl at a party, desperately asks a boy whether he wants to F*** her or not. When we talk about music, in Quadrophenia, it played some extremely popular songs from the album The Who which represented the youth at that time and helped in giving a realistic vision of that era in the film. The movie is a representation of the mod culture of 60's in London, so it's a great achievement for a loved band (The Who) that it can produce a classic movie which helped in adding the relevant music. In the scene in Brighton, the Mods were causing their usual trouble or rather expected trouble with The Rockers; the music added a great atmosphere in the scene. While the songs in Kidulthood are also very popular among the youth which includes just as we no longer have to force ourselves to attempt to relate to Scarface and Reservoir Dogs on the film front and listening to Bashy's lyrics than mainstream US artists, makes it more related to the today's youth. The soundtrack which was played at the credits actually had a positive message. They used diegetic and non-diegetic sounds in both the movies, whereas the parallel sound was used as a stereotype. In my opinion; it is because whenever there is a teenage black boy in the film, we associate them with rapping and as a gangster. Both the films also had the frequent use of loud and fast non-diegetic parallel music during the fight scenes; at that time to speed the progression up and add to the excitement which also built up tension along the way. Music in both the movies was a combination of parallel - diegetic and non diegetic depending on the scene. The headline 'Mods and Rockers jailed after seaside riots' was printed in 1964 in London newspaper. The groups of youth had clashes over the weekend, some got arrested, and some got admitted to hospitals, while many got fined. More than 1,000 teenagers were involved in the fights on the beach. The actual Brighton incident of clashes between the Mods and Rockers at the seaside had a history in teaching three bank holidays. One was on the Easter of 1964, one at Clacton where 100 got arrested and 56 charged, or bailed pending enquiries. While, later in Whitsuntide (16-18 May 1964) in Brighton, had the involvement of 1000, 7.5 arrested, 48 variously dealt with in court. At Margate, 400 involved, 65 arrested, 47 punished by the court. At Bournemouth, 54 dealt with in court. on weekend from Saturday to Monday 70 got arrested, and at Great Yarmouth, 31. The obscenities involved in throwing the deckchairs around, breaking them up for born fire, shouting vulgar words at each other and also at passers-by; pushing around people on holidays also terrified the elderly residents. It all started with throwing stones at each other. The whole scene is famously dramatized in the movie Quadrophenia. A moral panic iswhen the media exposes a group of any sub-culture or any group of people as a threat to society. Often, the media portrayal is much exaggerated and unjust. Examples of moral panic are present in both the movies, whether it's Quadrophenia which showed the Mods and Rockers in the 60's in 70s or it's the Kidulthood showing blacks teenagers of the present 21st century. REFERENCES - Blackman. S. 2004. Chilling Out the Cultural Politics of Substance Consumption, Youth and Drug Policy. Published by McGraw-Hill International, 2004 - Cohen. S. 2008. Folk Devils and Moral Panics: Thirtieth Anniversary Edition. Published by routledge, Tailor and Francis group. - Kidulthood (2006). Retreived on 16th October 2008. http://www.kidulthood.co.uk/ - Quadrophenia(1979).retrieved on 15th October 2008. http://www.quadrophenia.net/ - 1964: Mods and Rockers jailed after seaside riots. 2008. BBC NEWS online. Section: On this day -18th may. Retrieved on 16th October 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/18/newsid_ 251 1000/2511245.stm Read More