This Is England is the very successful British drama released 27th April 2007. It’s rated 18 as it contains extremely strong language, violence & racism. This Is England runs for approximately 101 minutes. It had a budget of £1,500,000 & grossed an estimated $8,069,240 at the box office. The film was extremely well received by the critics, infact around 93% of them gave the film a good review. The 18 rating became controversial as this film is mainly aimed at teenagers, however despite the controversy the film remained an 18 rating instead of being overturned to a 15. This Is England won the award for Best British Film at the 2007 British Academy Film Awards & Best Film Category at the 2006 British Independent Film Awards.
This Is England is directed by Shane Meadows who’s considered to be a rising stars & one to look out for on the British film scene. This Is England is his biggest film to date however he’s worked on a quite a few others such as the lesser known: A Room For Romeo Brass & Dead Man’s Shoes.
The main stars of the film are played by Thomas Turgoose who plays 12 year old Shaun & Stephen Graham who plays racist bigot Combo. Thomas Turgoose, who’s now 16 has appeared in British horror film Eden Lake & another Shane Meadow’s film Somers Town. Stephen Graham who throughout the film I was scratching my head trying to recall where I’d seen him before is actually the guy in the Artic Monkey’s video for ‘When The Sun Goes Down’ apart from that he’s appeared in several films including: Snatch, Gangs Of New York & Goal.
The film is set in 1983 & basically revolves around 12 year old Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) who, after being involved in a fight at school is walking
home & is approached by some older boys, namely Woody who can see the boy is upset & offers him a seat with him & his ‘crew’ despite appearances Woody is nice to Shaun & from then on he takes him under his wing to join his gang of skin heads. To fit in with the gang Shaun convinces his Mother to buy him new clothes under false pretences & Woody & the lads convince Shaun that if he’s to be in the gang he needs a shaved head.
Everything’s going great & Shaun is loving being involved with a gang, that is until Combo turns up. Combo’s in his early 30’s & has just completed a 3 year stretch in prison in which he covered for Woody, Woody informs everyone that Combo deserves respect for what he did for him & everyone agrees. Soon after his arrival Combo starts to reveal part of the reason why he’s returned, he’s extremely racist & thinks that anybody who isn’t white shouldn’t be allowed to live in England. The next day he, at first comes across as remorseful for his actions the previous night especially as they were in front of Woody’s friend Milky who happens to be black. The remorse doesn’t last however & soon Combo is back to his racist ranting, he tells everybody that if they feel the same way that he does then they need to join him in a war against all people of a different ethnic origin. Woody refuses but Shaun, being only 12 & very influential decides that joining Combo is the right thing to do as Shaun’s Dad died in the Falklands. Woody tries to convince him otherwise but Shaun is adamant that he’s going to join Combo, with near fatal consequences….
This, to be honest isn’t my type of film, I only ended up watching it as I was supposed to be going out with my boyfriend but the weather was bad so we decided to stay in & watch a film instead, I don’t know how he convinced me to watch this but he managed to & I have to say that I was quite impressed.
This Is England, isn’t the type of film that I would ever watch again I doubt & it’s not something that everyone will love, after watching the first 15 minutes of this I had partly given up on it as it seemed to be going nowhere, on the face of it this film could be seen as just an excuse for extreme, language, violence & racism however if you take the time to watch this & think about the meaning you’ll clearly see that it’s much more than that.
This film has a very strong subject matter & I suggest that if you’re easily offended then this probably isn’t the film for you, however I think this does deserve praise & it appeals to a wide audience, not just teenagers & Shane Meadow’s did a very good job in directing this. Shane Meadow’s also happened to write the film, it’s in a semi-biographical way & depicts working class England in a somewhat real but clichéd way.
If you manage to sit through this film to the end without being completely disgusted then I think you’ll come away with something that wont just go in one ear & out the other, this film really makes you think about it afterwards & one that I can imagine myself remembering for quite a while.
Although it does have some very strong content, it isn’t depicting it as the right thing to do & if you see the ending you’ll realise this, this is in no way glorifying racism.
Before watching this I was very sceptical as I thought I was just going to be bored to tears for it’s entirety & although this isn’t the fastest moving film in the world it does become extremely compelling around 30 minutes in & you will feel the need to watch right through to the end.
The acting is brilliant, Thomas Turgoose is fantastic at playing Shaun & I can see him having a very bright future ahead of him. He does a fantastic job at playing such a tough role at only 14 years of age & I think he deserves a lot of credit for him. I’m sure that his role stirred up a lot of controversy in that a 14 year old boy is playing such a character but he really manages to pull him off & if it was an older boy playing the part of Shaun it just wouldn’t have worked. Credit should also go to Stephen Graham for playing psychopathic Combo, he’s so convincing in his role & he really gets into the character. I can imagine that it’s not the easiest part to play but he does it brilliantly.
I know that This Is England definitely wont be everyone’s cup of tea but if you’re even slightly curious I would highly recommend that you give this a watch, I would suggest it’s probably better to rent it as it’s not something you would want to watch again but it’s without doubt worth watching.
If you do want to buy This Is England then it’s available from play.com for £5 for the single disc & £7.99 for the two disc edition. There don’t seem to be any special features on the single disc however the two disc includes: Commentary with director Shane Meadows, producer Mark Herbert and lead actor Thomas Turgoose Behind the scenes Deleted scenes Interview with Shane Meadows Interview with Mark Herbert Production Departments: Hair, Make-up and Costumes Crew interviews and Rehearsals Production Design Essays on Skinheads and The Falklands War Cast Biographies Theatrical Trailer
The soundtrack is also available from play.com & will cost you £11.99. The soundtrack features: 54-46 Was My Number - Toots & The Maytals Come On Eileen - Dexys Midnight Runners Tainted Love - Soft Cell Underpass/Flares - Movie Dialogue Nicole Gravenhurst - Instrumental Cynth / Dad - Movie Dialogue Morning Sun - Al Barry & The Cimarons Shoe Shop - Movie Dialogue Louie Louie - Toots & The Maytals Pressure Drop - Toots & The Maytals Hair In Cafe - Movie Dialogue Do The Dog - The Specials Ritornare - Ludovico Einaudi This Is England - Movie Dialogue Return Of DJango - The Upsetters Warhead - UK Subs Fuori Dal Mondo - Ludovico Einaudi Since Yesterday - Strawberry Switchblade Tits - Movie Dialogue The Dark End Of The Street - Percy Sledge Oltremare - Ludovico Einaudi Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want - Clayhill Dietro Casa - Ludovico Einaudi Never Seen The Sea - Gavin Clark
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Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
This Is England tells the story of Shaun (Thomas Turgoose), an 11 year old kid growing up ... more
in the North of England. Set during the summer holidays of 1983, it follows his journey from a shaggy haired ruffian grieving the loss of his father into a shaven...
THIS IS ENGLAND tells the story of Shaun (Thomas Turgoose), an 11 year old kid growing up ... more
in the North of England. Set during the summer holidays of 1983, it followshis journey from a shaggy haired ruffian grieving the loss of his father into a shaven ...
Advantages: Poignant, powerful, great performances, great setting Disadvantages: Not for you if you like beautiful film stars or if you don't like swearing
sonic0209 07.10.2007 (07.10.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of This Is England (DVD)
Advantages: Good portryal of the subculture, well written, characters appear real, good setting Disadvantages: What is the actual message, poor casting the 'Shaun', unsatifactory ending
Davidhutt 11.05.2007 (12.05.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of This Is England (DVD)
Mar 4th, 2009
very helpful by (100%):
