This Is England released on DVD
Shane Meadows' This Is England, set in early 80s northern England among skinheads and National Front members, was released on DVD on Monday 3rd September.
It won the UK FIlm Talent Award at the 2006 London Film Festival, as well as the British Independent Film Award for Best Independent Film.
The film's pitch-perfect rendition of an 80s northern town, along with its candid look at the politics and attitudes of the time, make it a riveting watch.
More autobiographical than his earlier works, such as A Room for Romeo Brass (1999) and Dead Man's Shoes (2004), Meadows' 11-year-old lead character in This Is England is called 'Shaun Fields' and the director's memories of 1983 certainly influence the movie.
Like Shaun in the film, Meadows has said that he hung out with skinheads during the 80s andthat he worked a lot of personal details into the film - such as being given his first Ben Sherman shirt by an older skinhead named Woody, having a small cros tattoo inked onto his finger and knowing real-life people called Smell and Gadget, who are supporting characters in the film.
This Is England follows Shaun, (Thomas Turgoose, in an outstanding performance) a young boy whose father has died in the Falklands War, and who lives alone with his mum now. The central importance of his dad's absence to Shaun'slater actions is highlighted by the opening shot of the film lingering on a uniformed photo of Fields senior, looking half-shadowed and inscrutable under his army officer's hat.
Picked on for wearing unfashionable clothes and, apparently, looking like Keith Chegwin's son, Shaun finds a new gang of mates in Woody's rather sweet-natured skinhead crew. However, the return of Woody's old acquaintance Combo (the excellent Stephen Graham of Snatch and Gangs of New York fame), who has been in jail for unspecified offences for the last three years, throws Shaun and the group into turmoil. His openly racist invective divides the group, and his violent unhappiness makes him dangerous to be around.
Young Shaun is impressionable and looking for a father figure; finding it in Combo leads him into a world of National Front meetings and racial violence.
There is much criticism of Margaret Thatcher in the film, through the denigration of the Falklands as a "phoney war" (Combo's words), and Meadows himself has called it "an incredibly suspicious war, in the same way America and the UK got involved in Iraq." He has also highlighted a correlation between the small-town intolerance of Combo and his cronies with the 'bullying' attitude of Britain towards the Falklands 25 years ago.
This Is England is not just a period piece for those who enjoyed Roland Rat and Rubik's cubes the first time around (although the opening credits have all that, plus some vintage Maggie Thatcher in a hard hat). As well as delving into the local and national crises of the time, the film's exploration of war, immigration and all the surrounding issues, also shines a light on our times.
The DVD: Includes plenty of extras. The old faithful Director's Commentary, Trailers, Deleted Scenes, plus Casting & Rehearsals, the BFI Interview with Shane Meadows and audition footage.
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