This Is England (2007)

A film of raw, unrelenting and passionate power, This is England remains underrated director Shane Meadows greatest singular achievement and one of Britain's all-time great feature length films.Spawning a collection of worthy mini-series follow ups in the years that followed its critically praised initial release, This is England not only deals with a politically charged time in the United Kingdom's Maggie Thatcher lead period of the 80's but examines the deep undercurrent of racism often present in otherwise civilised western countries all the while being a touching coming of age story of Thomas Turgoose's 12 year old Shaun.Meadows, who has also displayed a power as a filmmaker to make uncompromising films of almost documentary style realism, evidenced in other standout efforts like A Room for Romeo Brass and Dead Man's Shoes, directs This is England with both an unflinching eye and a compassionate hand as his believable and lovable characters experience life changing events all the while surrounded by a country that has reached a boiling point of tension and rage.Led by Turgoose's incredible well-constructed debut turn as the vulnerable Shaun who finds himself a part of a ragtag group of skinheads and rascals, This is England's cast that includes such recognisable faces as Joseph Gilgun as the lovable larrikin Woody, Vicky McClure as the deep thinking Lol, Andrew Shim as the Jamaican/British Milky and a young Jack O'Connell as feisty teenager Pukey, is one of the Britain's best ever assembled casts, the case of the perfect performers coming together as a whole that proved it was no lighting in a bottle occurrence when the large portion of the cast returned again for Meadow's award winning TV follow-ups.As good as both Meadows and his cast are in This is England, this film is owned completely by one of the modern eras most commanding and attention grabbing performances by Stephan Graham as the racist, tormented and charismatic Combo.A performer who has proved time and time again that his one of the best working in the business, yet a performer who has yet to receive his just rewards, Graham's Combo is a creation that's hard to describe, a fully inhabited incarnation that can only be achieved by actors at the very top of their game.When Combo makes his entrance into This is England's characters somewhat carefree lives at the 30 minute mark of the film, Meadows film marks its change in direction and tone and enters into an hour or so of cinematic brilliance as we're driven along by Graham's tour de force turn and a story that may seem on the surface to be simplistic, but ends up flooring us with a knockout punch that will linger days after initial viewing.Encapsulating the time and place of this period incredibly well, a landscape full of checkered shirts, suspenders, shaved heads, Doc Martins and a killer soundtrack, Meadows team-up with his performers, that is steered on its powerful course by Graham, create the world that makes This is England such a special and in many ways important film experience.Final Say – Far from an easy watch, This is England may not be everyone's cup of tea but Shane Meadow's gut-punch of a film remains to this day one of the most deceptively powerful and memorably casted films of the 21st century that includes an outstanding debut performance from Thomas Turgoose and a career best turn from Stephen Graham.5 Ben Sherman shirts out of 5

This is England is a slice of life nostalgia for the skinhead brigade. Set in the summer of 1983, it is a coming of age tale of Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) a 12 year old lad in a working class estate whose father died fighting in the Falkland's war.In one day he gets picked on several times and later gets befriended by a local gang of assorted street kids, some of whom are skinheads. They are into ska, reggae and new wave music and spend their time committing vandalism. Shaun endears himself to their leader Woody and gets accepted by them. For the first time in a long while he is having fun being part of that gang.When Woody's friend Combo (Steven Graham) returns after a spell in prison things quickly change. Combo experienced racism in jail, he joined up with white extremists and upon release he advocates racist and nationalist views even going to National Front meetings. Woody who is more apolitical and has a black friend wants nothing to do with him.Shaun and a few others ally with Combo but he is a ticking time bomb. Pretty soon they are threatening the local Asian kids and robbing the Asian shopkeeper armed with a machete (who somehow never called the police.) You figure that pretty soon, Combo will do serious harm to someone.Director Shane Meadows does a good job in recreating the early 1980s scene in his film from art direction to costume design. It is obvious he recalls this era well. However there is nothing in the story I found intriguing or even surprising.I am at a loss why so many critics became so orgasmic over this film unless they got some kind of perverted arousal to see scenes of young Asian lads playing football being threatened by a grown up white bully with a knife. Maybe secretly they sided with Combo and wanted their country back!Being a teenager myself in that era I met these kind of nationalist skinheads, always complaining why they were doing poorly and others doing better than them. They were always threatening people who were younger than them or making sure they outnumbered them first before beating them up. Even now over 30 years later they are still moaning and laying blame to whatever immigrant groups they can point to for their own failures.Meadows elicits good performances from a young cast but I was left nonplussed with the script and thinking about it we had many similar shows on television in the 1980s such as Going Out which starred Perry Benson who also features in this movie.

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.

THIS IS ENGLAND is a superb film - straight from the heart and unflinching in its depiction of urban racism in 1980s Thatcherite England. Shane Meadows certainly cemented himself as one of our country's most engaging talents with the double whammy of this and DEAD MAN'S SHOES, two excellent films which require and reward repeat viewing.Somewhat autobiographical in its intentions, THIS IS ENGLAND makes for a nostalgic viewing experience for us children of the 1980s. The cast of oddball characters are thoroughly engaging and the reactions between them are completely true to life. Of the cast, the experienced likes of Joseph Gilgun are as good as you'd expect, but the real triumph comes from the heartfelt and poignant performance of Thomas Turgoose, the lovable lead.The film starts off as a funny slice-of-life drama but gradually things take a darker turn with the introduction of a skinhead gang. Stephen Graham's turn as a psychotic skinhead gang leader is absolutely electrifying and one of the most gripping I've seen in a long while. His final scene is particularly dramatic and, indeed, one of the most powerful I've seen depicted on film. Altogether this is a great movie and good enough for me to consider tracking down the TV series follow-ups.