This is England as a British Social Realism Film - Research Paper Example

? The Number 22 November ‘This is England’ as British Social Realism Film Whether one considers “This is England” a political drama, or “an autobiographical modern classic”, or just a great movie, the very concept of this masterpiece by Shane Meadows should be referred to the domain of British Social Realism, a unique and super popular genre of the modern British film. With a number of themes typical for a social realist movie, e.g. heroes coming from working class, the life struggle, etc, “This is England” has accumulated invaluable personal and professional experience of its famous director Shane Meadows. My goal in this paper is to explore the social realism issues and themes in “This is England”, and discuss how they are represented in the film. Social Realism in British Films First of all, let us find out what realism in general is. Realism has been defined by Armes: “In its broadest sense, realism is an attitude of mind, a desire to adhere strictly to the truth, recognition that man is a social animal, and a conviction that he is inseparable from his position in a society” (Armes 17). Artistically, Social Realism is a term that can be applied to the arts in general. Namely, as an artistic movement that found its expression in various arts, social realism focuses portraying issues related to social injustice or racial intolerance, with emphasis on protest against the depicted unjustness often conveyed with the help of satire. It is worth mentioning that social realism in visual and some other arts focuses on the issues related to the life and activity of the working class. In films, social realism is perceived as a style that evolved from the 20th century movement of Italian neorealism. Lay observes that one of the key features of this style is its providing an intricate link between the character and the place to enable exploring a certain aspect of modern life in a way that is very similar to naturalism (Lay 9). According to Williams, the pivotal characteristics of the films/texts representing British Social Realism are: 1) its secular character. In other words, social realist texts are devoid of mysticism and appeal wholly to logic and ability to reason. Consequently, such texts/films come to focus on depicting human truths rather than divine truths 2) the grounding of social issues, characters, and films’ settings in the context of contemporary reality. 3) the social extension aspect. To specify, “realist texts tend to expand the range of characters to include marginal or previously under-represented groups and issues in society” (Williams 61-74) 4) the intent of the artist that is often politically colored. To illustrate, the filmmaker’s intent in British Social Realism may have reformist, socially purposive, as well as educative underpinnings (Lay 13). As for the contents of the films representing the discussed genre, the latter usually revolve around certain issues and themes. To distinguish between issues and themes within the film referred to as a social realist one, one needs to bear in mind the major difference between them: the issues are of explicit nature – they are easily recognized and visible fears and concerns currently troubling the society; while themes are usually implied and “hide” within a given text. As Lay rightfully observes, “Themes work on a much deeper level and represent less obvious threats to social cohesion and stability” (Lay 14). In addition, in terms of its contents, the social realist film will most likely deal with the issues of drugs, poverty, prostitution, sex, alcoholism, as well as crime. All in all, if one were to name the important features of a film representing British social realism, he/she would probably come up with the following list: realistic portrayal of the society the Britishmen live in Life’s struggles Realistic events, contexts, situations, and realistic settings Filming techniques that may be classified as believable Unknown actors Heroes representing the working class Hard luck Struggle to survive what is known as daily grind Real Britons’ experiences Economic Hardship Urban locations The style that may be classified as gritty (i.e. hard-hitting and unsentimental) (Collins Thesaurus of the English language) Last but not least, in Great Britain, social realism as a film genre has come to be recognized as the primary form of film style (Hallam & Marshment, 2000). “This is England”: Plot This is the last school day in July 1983. Shaun who is 12 happens to get involved into school fight as a result of someone’s insulting joke about Shaun’s recently deceased father. John’s Dad, a serviceman, had died in a conflict known as Falklands War. While on his way back home, Shaun encounters a gang of young skinheads with their leader Woody. The latter feels sympathetic towards the victim of bullying and invites Shaun to be a member of their gang. Just as the boy accepts the invitation, he reveals he has found a real elder brother in the personality of Woody. At the same time, Shaun engages into a romance with an older girl from the same group called Smell. Incidentally, Smell is a representative of a punky style known as “New Wave”, which can be easily inferred from the way she dresses. The storyline gets a new direction when Combo, a twenty-year old skinhead who has already been in prison for 3 years, returns home and to the group. Combo’s views are rigorously nationalist (or to be more precise, English nationalist) and racist. Therefore such ultra right orientation of Combo is the reason many gang members do not wish to follow him as a leader. Hence, the gang splits up. While Woody and some other skinheads with apolitical views stay with Woody, Shaun chooses to stay with Combo who has become his mentor and a father figure for him. Following Combo and his group, Shaun attends the meeting organized for the National Front members. When the gang’s member Pukey shares his views on the racist and nationalistic character of the group’s activity, Combo resorts to threatening and abandoning him. Afterwards, the group find themselves engaged in a racially colored conflict with Mr Sandhu, a local shop owner of Pakistani origin, who has previously forbade Shaun to visit he shop. A new twist in the story is linked to Combo’s depression over being rejected by Lol, Woody’s girlfriend, who had once been involved in drunken sex with him. While Combo feels he is deeply in love with Lol, she refuses to date him. To somehow get consolation, Combo purchases cannabis from a member of the group led by Woody, Milky, a skinhead with half black roots. Intoxicated, Milky and Combo start to intensively communicate while at the party. Milky, whose granddad appears to be of Jamaican descend, mentions his race, which makes Combo furious. So Combo, who has just been invited by Milky to dinner with his friendly family, beats him unconscious and violently attacks some other gang members of nationalistic direction. When Combo eventually realizes what he has done, he starts to regret beating Milky, and addresses Shaun to deliver his black mate to hospital. Viewers then get to know that Milky is likely to recover soon, as mentioned by Shaun’s mother. Yet, Shaun’s reaction was to toss a large Union Jack, Combo’s gift to him, into the sea. “This is England”: Issues and Themes Analyzing the film from the perspective of its genre specifics, let us focus on its distinguishing features. First of all, among the issues raised by the author: negative consequences of Thatcherism, such as social problems and warfare. The teenage youth that come from some Midlands-located town has to face unemployment, bigotry, as well as unentitlement. Shaun, whose role is played by a 12 year-old teenager Thomas Turgoose, faces the death of his father killed in the Falkland’s War. Having only a mother to earn for the living, Shaun also faces poverty and bullying on the basis of his unfashionable clothes. Some other issues raised are broken families, racism, violence, gangs memberships, sex, and drugs. As for the themes, these are the changing role of the people belonging to the working class, national identity, nationalism, masculinity, skinhead culture, style, as well as fashion, theme of intolerance and hate in a society, relationships within a family, etc. One of the themes in “This is England” is the teenagers’ yearning to belong (Wilding 353). Being driven by this emotional state, aimless teenagers happen to get in a variety of life situations and statuses. They either resort to becoming gang members, or affiliate themselves with the self-righteous organization of National Front. In any case, what drives them to seek their identity is a strong yearning to belong. The theme of emotional contact between parents and children can be seen in Shaun’s relation to his supportive mother. When the teenager feels disappointed in Combo, a father figure in his life, he feels supported by his mother. Eventually, sharing his memories of the soldier father with her, he starts his emotional healing. She seems too. Political issues are strikingly realistic in “This is England”. First of all, Meadows managed to convey the mood and atmosphere of Thatcherism in 1983. Having won with a slight landslide, Thatcher’s government is depicted as unable to adequately respond to the issues of unemployment, class structure destruction, etc in the society. To make the matters worse, the war is held at the Falkland Islands, which takes lives of laymen. As Meadows later admitted to in his interview, the Falklands war impressed him greatly. He says, “Well, it still carries on today. As an adult, I look back at who led the country up to that point. But when you started going through this footage from the 1980s, Thatcher was the first to be media savvy. Turning up on working class estates, going into a classroom of kids and playing on a computer, I don't seem to remember anyone before doing that. This thing of the Falklands -- and when you look at the footage, and see the campaign as the unemployment figures hit 3 million -- it does make you incredibly suspicious as to what paratroopers were doing fighting 16-year-old kids from Argentina. The shame I carry as a British resident, was that it was a war handled in the media as if it were a World Cup summer.” (Cardy B10) In “This is England”, the issue of racism comes as one of the focal points through depiction of skinhead culture. Yet, it seems Meadows aims to show that not all skinheads were racists. That is why he places Milky, a half-Jamaican teenager, in Woody’s skinhead group. This approach to interpretation of relationship between racism and skinhead culture has been obviously based on Meadows personal observations. To illustrate, the director admits to being a member of a skinhead gang himself when he was young. All in all, his approach to interpreting skinhead movement is purely aesthetical and has nothing in common with neo-Natzi associations with skinheads. The issue of racial injustice is revealed through Combo’s activity. Recruited by the National Front, an explicitly racist organization, a former prisoner puts every effort to confront the representatives of other nationalities: Indians, Pakistani, blacks, etc. However, his rage and nationalistic motif appear to be restricted by his human self. Having beaten Milky, a black member of Woody’s gang, violent Combo feels pains of remorse, and hurries to correct his horrible mistake. Hopefully, Milky is delivered to hospital, but Combo’s authority has been forever lost in the eyes of his younger mate Shaun. The issue of violence has been expertly depicted in “This is England”. Whether this is school violence, or violence related to gang activities, Shane Meadows seems to point out at violence as the omnipresent problem of young people’s existence. The representatives of poor classes, such as Shaun, are shown as sentenced to face violence everywhere. And escaping from one kind of violence, they get trapped even in worse one. Even Shaun’s mother feels happy he has found people who will protect them from his classmates. The issue of drug and alcohol abuse has been addressed in the film. Intoxication that results from smoking pot leads Combo to beat his mate so that the latter is hardly alive. Another aspect of the problem is the drug availability. A teen of the same background, it appears, can easily get cannabis. To add, alcohol seems no problem for gang members too. It drives people’s sexual desires and makes them feel the way they do. To conclude, the film “This is England” offers a successful interpretation of social, political, cultural, and economic issues that were characteristic of the epoch of Thatcherism in Great Britain. It provides a deep insight into the problems of national identity, skinhead culture, youth violence, unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, etc., which helps to reconstruct the British reality of 1983. Read More