This Is England, sometimes referred to as This Is England '83 to differentiate it from the subsequent multi-part TV series using similar names, is a 2006 British drama film written and directed by Shane Meadows. The story centres on young skinheads in England in 1983. The film illustrates how their subculture, which has its roots in 1960s West Indies culture, especially ska, soul, and reggae music, became adopted by the far-right, especially white nationalists and white supremacists, which led to divisions within the skinhead scene. The film's title is a direct reference to a scene where the character Combo explains his nationalist views using the phrase "this is England" during his speech.
This Is England | |
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Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Shane Meadows |
Produced by | Mark Herbert |
Written by | Shane Meadows |
Starring | Thomas Turgoose Stephen Graham Andrew Shim Vicky McClure Joseph Gilgun Rosamund Hanson |
Music by | Ludovico Einaudi |
Cinematography | Danny Cohen |
Edited by | Chris Wyatt |
Production company | Warp Films FilmFour Productions |
Distributed by | Optimum Releasing |
Release date |
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Running time | 102 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £1.5 million |
Box office | £5 million |
Screenplay
In 1983, on the last day of the school year, 12-year-old Shaun gets into a fight at school with a boy named Harvey after the latter makes an offensive joke about his father, who was killed in the Falklands War. On his way home, Shaun comes across a gang of young skinheads led by Woody, who feels sympathy for Shaun and invites him to join the group. They accept Shaun as a member, and he finds a big brother in Woody, while developing a romance with Michelle, also known as Smell, an older girl who dresses in a new wave style.
Combo, an older skinhead, returns to the group after a prison sentence, accompanied by a knife-wielding moustachioed man called Banjo. A charismatic but unstable man with sociopathic tendencies, Combo expresses English nationalist and racist views, and attempts to enforce his leadership over the other skinheads. This leads the group to split, with young Shaun, the belligerent Pukey, and Gadget, who feels bullied by Woody for his weight, choosing Combo over Woody's apolitical gang.
Shaun finds a mentor figure in Combo, who in turn is impressed by and identifies with Shaun. Shaun goes with Combo's group to a National Front meeting. After Pukey expresses doubt over their racist and nationalistic politics, Combo throws him out of his group and sends him back to Woody. The gang then engages in bigoted antagonism of, among others, shopkeeper Mr Sandhu, a Pakistani shopkeeper who had previously banned Shaun from his shop.
Combo becomes depressed after Lol, Woody's girlfriend, rejects him when he admits that he has loved her since they had sex years before. To console himself, Combo buys cannabis from Milky, the only black skinhead in Woody's gang. During a party, Combo and Milky bond while intoxicated, but Combo becomes increasingly bitter and envious when Milky shares details of his many relatives, comfortable family life and happy upbringing, everything that Combo lacked. Enraged, Combo enters a frenzied state and brutally beats Milky unconscious, while Banjo holds down Shaun, and Meggy watches on in horror. An angry Combo throws Shaun out of his flat after Shaun verbally defends Milky, then slams the door hard. When Banjo attempts to hit Milky as well, Combo violently beats him and evicts him and Meggy from the flat. Horrified at the realisation of what he has done, a remorseful Combo weeps over Milky. Shaun and Combo later take Milky to a nearby hospital.
The film cuts forward to Shaun, who is in his bedroom looking at a picture of his dad who died in the Falklands conflict. He is contemplating the incident and brooding about what happened, with his mother Cynthia assuring him that Milky will be all right. Shaun is then shown walking near the beach and throwing his St George's Flag, a gift from Combo, into the sea.
- Thomas Turgoose as Shaun Fields
- Stephen Graham as Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne
- Jo Hartley as Cynthia Fields
- Joseph Gilgun as Woody
- Vicky McClure as Lol Jenkins
- Andrew Shim as Michael "Milky"
- Rosamund Hanson as Michelle "Smell"
- Andrew Ellis as Gadget
- Perry Benson as Meggy
- George Newton as Banjo
- Jack O'Connell as "Pukey" Nicholls
- Kieran Hardcastle as Kes
- Chanel Cresswell as Kelly Jenkins
- Danielle Watson as Trev
- Sophie Ellerby as Pob
- Kriss Dosanjh as Mr. Sandhu
- Michael Socha as Harvey
- Frank Harper as Lenny
- Charlie Smith as Mickey
This Is England Soundtrack | ||||
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Soundtrack album by various artists | ||||
Released | 23 April 2007 | |||
Genre | Rock, ska, Britpop, reggae, jazz rock | |||
Label | Commercial Marketing | |||
Shane Meadows film soundtracks chronology | ||||
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- Additional music from the film includes
Much of the film was shot in residential areas of Nottingham, including St Ann's, Lenton, and The Meadows, with one section featuring abandoned houses at RAF Newton, a former airbase close to Bingham, Nottinghamshire. The opening fight was filmed at Wilsthorpe Business and Enterprise College, a secondary school in Long Eaton, Derbyshire, close to the Nottinghamshre/Derbyshire boundary. Additional scenes such as "the docks" were filmed in Turgoose's home town of Grimsby, which is also the opening scene for This is England '86, episode one.
Turgoose was 13 at the time of filming. He had never acted before, was banned from his school play for bad behaviour, and demanded £5 to turn up for the film's auditions. The film was dedicated to Turgoose's mother, Sharon, who died of cancer on 29 December 2005; while she never saw the film, she saw a short preview. The cast attended her funeral.
Setting
The film is set in an unidentified town in the Midlands. Although much of the film was shot on location in Nottingham, a number of scenes portray the town's docks, which precludes this inland city being the setting for the action. Similarly, the dialects of the main characters are drawn from a wide geographical area.
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 93% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 89 reviews. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 86/100, based on 23 reviews — indicating "universal acclaim". This made it the tenth best reviewed film of the year.
The film appeared on several US critics' top ten lists of 2007; it was third on the list by Newsweek's David Ansen, seventh on the list by The Oregonian's Marc Mohan, and ninth on the list by Los Angeles Times' Kevin Crust.
In Britain, director Gillies Mackinnon rated the film the best of the year and David M. Thompson, critic and film-maker, rated it third. The film was ranked fourteenth in The Guardian's list of 2007's Best Films and fifteenth in Empire's Movies of the Year.
Accolades
The film won the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film at the 2007 British Academy Film Awards. It also won the Best Film category at the 2006 British Independent Film Awards, Turgoose winning the Most Promising Newcomer award.
In 2010, a spin-off series set three years after the film, This Is England '86, was shown on Channel 4. A sequel to the series set two and a half years later, This Is England '88, was broadcast in December 2011. A third installment, This Is England '90, was shown in September 2015.