grantss England, 1983. 12-year old Shaun is aimless and bored. Into this void steps a bunch of young people who make Shaun feel like he belongs. They happen to be skinheads and are possibly not the best influence on Shaun...Great movie. Powerful examination on neo-Nazi, bigoted, skinhead culture in the UK in the early 1980s. The story is a metaphor for disaffected youth everywhere, and the evils of racism disguised as patriotism.Solid performances all round. Stephen Graham is great as the skinhead leader. Thomas Turgoose puts in a particularly good performance for a 13/14-year old.

bonzojade-51764 I watched this film in Film Studies not long ago and it is only my second Shane Meadows film, however as soon as the teacher said who's film it was, I was excited. I'd seen 'Dead Man's Shoes' and loved every second of it.Now, I expected a similar film, it is in some ways. For one, the gritty, realistic and sometimes uncomfortable subject matter and portrayals are all very similar. However, This is England also manages to capture the fun that teens/young people manage to find in the 80s through the most random of ways (smashing up houses and shooting each other with air guns). Almost every character is likable and most are well-fleshed out (with the exception of Pukey, Kes and Meggy who are given less screen time).The leader of the apolitical skinheads is Woody played by Joe Gilgun and he plays the role spectacularly. He is a kind-hearted guy, trying to help Shaun (the protagonist) after an emotionally tiring day. He seems to be an authority in the group, followed by Milky (Andrew Shim). Milky always seems to back up Woody's decisions and is equally warm-hearted.The accuracy (from what I've researched into skinhead and mod culture in Britain) is brilliant, obviously due to Meadow's experience as a boy.It is at first light-hearted despite some bullying of Thomas Turgoose's Shaun. However, at a party the mood changes when an old acquaintance of Woody's and Lol's shows up after being released from prison. However, it is told that he did time for Woody. Therefore you expect him to be just part of the gang, albeit a bit older, unfortunately you would be wrong. Combo is not a pleasant guy to stomach during this film, almost immediately he asserts racist views in front of the whole group. This is not only despicable in and of itself but when he spots Milky (a black man) he apologizes but still uses slurs. The music eventually overshadows this as it is clear the party has gone sour now.The whole film focuses on Thatcher's reign and the Falklands War, with many references, diegetic radio announcements and clips at the beginning of the film and towards the end after (MAJOR SPOILER!!!) Combo has beaten Milky, almost to death.Overall, if you like quirky, warm films with serious undertones and cultural references, you will love this. The whole cast delivered stunning performances and it worth a watch, honestly.

MisterWhiplash This is England is a hard-hitting look at an outsider's youth, and what comfort comes when there are others around - however it may be a brutal sort of 'others' as here. I liked Meadows' unflinching camera, his use of close-ups on faces, the ska music (unexpected that, I thought it'd be skin-head punk rock but only UK Subs shows up), and the performance by newcomer Thomas Turgoose, and Stephen Graham, who seems to be in every British film right now.I wondered why the film just ended the way it did, where it seemed like there was more story to tell, or at least a resolution to go after (and subsequently I learned Meadows did TV spin-off since the film's release with many of the same characters - which is fine, though as a film in and of itself it feels incomplete somehow, even with a predictable ending of a flag thrown in a river).All the same, it's riveting, raw, personal cinema that can resonate with any youngster that's ever felt they didn't 'fit in' - or that they found a place to fit in, whatever the circumstances.

tomgillespie2002 Shane Meadows' This is England, like the title suggests, is a bare- knuckled, fearlessly honest depiction of England. This isn't any old England, but Thatcher's angry, graffiti-ridden, skinheaded England, a time of needless war, poverty, and, key to the film, racial intolerance. Meadows' loosely autobiographical film lays it's anger out for all to see from the off, as the camera lingers on a council-estate wall scrawled with 'Maggie is a t**t'. But there's humour here also, and heart.We witness the majority of the film through the eyes of Shaun Fields (Thomas Turgoose - his character's name a thinly-disguised spin on that of the director's), a ragged, bullied loner, who lives alone with his mother after his father is killed in the Falklands. Walking home one evening from school, he is pitied by Woody (Joseph Gilgun), a Dr. Martens-wearing skinhead who, along with his friends, enjoys some harmless vandalism taken out on derelict properties. Woody takes him under his wing, even buying him a Ben Sherman and braces, and shaving his head. His mum doesn't approve, but at least he's being looked after. All is rosy until Woody's old friend Combo (Stephen Graham) is released from prison.His time in prison taught Combo that England is no longer what it once was, and is now overrun by immigrants taking away jobs from honest folk like himself and his bare-chested, meat-head friend Banjo (George Newton). He draws a line for Woody's gang - those who want to join him on his crusade to help restore England to it's glory days, and those who don't. Woody quickly points out that Combo is out of line, especially in the presence of his Jamaican friend Milky (Andrew Shim). But when Woody leaves, Shaun stays, and is sucked in by Combo's charisma, attending right-wing rallies in countryside pubs and smashing up the local shop owned by a Pakistani man.Like Elem Klimov's Come and See (1985), the child protagonist does the remarkable thing of ageing throughout. Not a physical transformation like Florya, but in presence. He evolves effortlessly from a boy whining at his mum in a shoe shop for not buying him a pair of Dr. Martens, to a foul-mouthed, brainless thug gobbling up everything that is fed to him by those around him. Meadows makes it clear that there are two types of skin-heads - those who embrace the style and image influenced by black music such as ska, and those bigoted, entitled types, channelling anger simply because it's there. Combo is obviously the second kind, but he has own dimensions too.Stephen Graham's performance is spectacular and genuinely terrifying. Anyone who has grown up in England will know the type; the type thankfully I've only ever come across when they get on a train and quickly draw attention to themselves. His words fly like scouse venom, his every line punctured by a swear word. But his protection of Shaun and his occasional child-like vulnerability means that there's sympathy to be given somewhere. Like all great child performances, Turgoose remains a child throughout, avoiding precociousness even in his most emotional scenes. And it's 12 year-old Shaun that remains the film's anchor, our wide-eyed window into innocence manipulated.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com