Draft For Blog

The topic I am leading with when beginning my blog will be how British cinema reflects Britain’s society and our young people. I will be exploring a number or British films that I have already taken the liberty of showing on my blog. These films can reflect a unique spin on the typically US coming of age films that we see, by showing a harsher side to growing up. Though most are set before the turn of the century, the validity of their representation of us as a society still is worth exploring.

My focus film is This Is England by Shane Meadows, 2006 which explores a young boys transformation into a popular subculture in the 1960-1980’s, skinheads. My secondary films I will look into is NEDs directed by Peter Mullan, 2010, which similarly shows an adolescent boy stray from his path of book worm to boot boy and Trainspotting directed by Danny Boyle, 1996.

The first scene I am looking into from my focus film This Is England, is where the skinheads initially induct Shaun, the films protagonist, into their group.

• ·        The upbeat reggae music that overcasts this scene reflects both the roots of the Skinheads as well as giving the spectator a feeling of belong in regard to Shaun

• ·     The slow motion used when the characters are seen walking the streets reflects the idea that perhaps for the protagonist, he does not want this day to end. In addition this could be Meadow’s own personal perspective regarding this era of Britain and the values we had at the time, suggesting he believed it was a better time for us all

• ·         The use of natural settings which are general of British towns/cities (flats, underpasses riddled with graffiti, a swimming pool) connotes Meadows intentions of making this film relatable to most audiences, even if they didn’t live in that period of time themselves. Similarly it could be to show the way he wished to portray Britain to the non-British audience

Another scene I will look at is the part of the film where Shaun and the racist skinheads mug Mr Sandhu. 

• The harsh unnatural lighting used reflects the bitterness of the situation that Shaun has found himself a part of and also the blindness that he is experiencing as to what is going on. Meadows intentions could be to suggest the blindness people generally feel toward skinheads themselves and also could connote the “harsh” end to the once proud era he grew up in (as previously stated in the bullet points above.
•   The seemingly hectic camera work at some points reflect the disorientation of Mr Sandhu in this scene

This Is England’s almost biopic account of working class British society in the 1980’s shows both sides of our society. The happy youth growing into vicious adolescent thugs is clear in this film and similarly in NEDs, suggesting a reluctance to grow up.