This Is England

[Chris]

Anybody off to see this? The South Bank Show features Shane Meadows last night and it looked quite good.

[Al Hine]

It's about Skinheads & Oi Music I believe- right up my street ! ( well the punk aspect anyway..!)

[Mad Scientist Productions]

It's a really good film, right up my street and how I remember times back then definitely.

On a side note, after the south bank show last night was mentioned. For background information's sake, the guy played by Bob Hoskins in TwentyFourSeven was/is my girlfriend's Uncle. Maybe I should contact Mr. Meadows re: a sequel as a lot's happened since it was made. Uncle Alan is now the town (Uttoxeter) looney, going round in all weather's in a brazil football shirt and bermuda shorts and shouting at people. he was in court the other week for harrassing a women in a car park (a council official (I think) who he had beef with (and I'm not talking about sharing a roast dinner!)) and last weekend was sectioned very sad. A lot of this (depression/bitterness etc) has come through jealousy of how well his brother (g/f's dad) has done for himself.

Anyway...sorry to digress, go and see This Is England from Nottingham's premier movie director (or so he said last night to our Melvyn)

[aethelfleda]

It does sound interesting - apparently it's very "orfentic" as the director was a skin himself as a teenager during the whole period of transformation from skinheads-who-listen-to-ska to skinheads-who-are-intrinsically-racist/fascist .

[richard l]

I loved it - really like all his stuff. Possibly because I grew up in the area! Grown men calling each other "Duck" etc makes me very nostalgic for my childhood.

I think if he made exactly the same films but was from eastern Europe rather than Nottingham he'd be much more popular in the UK.

Annoyed I hadn't spotted the South Bank Show about him - anyone know if it gets repeated?

[clever lupton]

Saw this last night. Well worth a look.
I still go to a Northern Soul/ska/mod night that they hold in Cardiff so have known/ hung around the nicer sort of skin/suedeheads since my late teens.

As a mod in my teens, I spent lots of Saturday afternoon in Cardiff town centre trying to avoid the nastier Oi! type skins. Not always with success!

Definitely an authentic flavour to this film.

[Gully Foyle]

Oi Oi Oi! Thread moved to its proper home

I'm interested that Richard, Lupton, and Spark (and Ross elsewhere) vouch for its authenticity as, based on comparing descriptions of it in the publicity to my own recollections of the time, it seemed a bit of a composite of Sixties and late Seventies/early Eighties skinheads done to make a point.

I ramble on about it towards the bottom of this thread.

My memory of that time is quite vivid but it would appear that what I recall was quite peculiar to my area/school.

Funnily enough, 1983 will be re-lived tonight when I go to see Wishbone Ash in Bexhill.

Hopefully just the musical bit

[clever lupton]

Oi Oi Oi! Thread moved to its proper home

I'm interested that Richard, Lupton, and Spark (and Ross elsewhere) vouch for its authenticity

I certainly found the party scenes authentic! Took me back to the sort of nights where everyone snaffled some illicit booze and went over someone's house when their parents were away. We were never rude to the Indian/ pakistani corner shop keepers as they very kindly served us flagons of cider when were 15.
Also the clothes that Sean had to endure before he got his skin uniform certainly rang true with me. I was wearing flared jeans hand-me-downs and got laughed at by all the schoolkids in Harrington jackets and tight jeans when I went to a non uniform day circa 1982. Like reliving a nightmare.

[Andrew F]

Some Picturehouse cinemas seem to be accompanying this with a Shane Meadows interview thing, if anyone's interested. Could be worth checking out.

[zanygang]

I saw the Soth Bank Show documentary on Shane Meadows.

I'm going to be seeing This Is England, but the only other Shane Meadows film I've seen so far is 24:7. But I'd like to catch some of his earlier works like A Room For Romeo Brass and Dead Man's Shoes.

[Ross Gowland]

Some Picturehouse cinemas seem to be accompanying this with a Shane Meadows interview thing, if anyone's interested. Could be worth checking out.

Not at Brighton. They had this incredibly long ad for Shell oil, about a Dutch engineer and his spotty herbert son.

Getting back to what Gully was saying.... It was weird, because at the time ('83) the skinheads on TV were usually the scary, immigrant-hating ones, but the local ones that I saw around didn't seem to be like that at all. The one played by Tim Roth in the superb Made In Britain was certainly of the deranged variety.

Speaking of which, I'd put This Is England alongside Made In Britain, as well as Kes and Scum as a fantastic uncompromising British film about troubled youth. The last five minutes could've been stronger IMO, but so far it's my film of the year.

I give it four and a half friendly, winking skinheads out of five. 1/2

[Andrew F]

Some Picturehouse cinemas seem to be accompanying this with a Shane Meadows interview thing, if anyone's interested. Could be worth checking out.

Not at Brighton. They had this incredibly long ad for Shell oil, about a Dutch engineer and his spotty herbert son.

It's only at certain showings, I think. And certain cinemas, obviously.

[SamtheMan]

Very good.

Plays like a prequel to the vastly superior "Made in Britain"

Australia's "Romper Stomper" is still the ultimate skinhead movie tho.

I like Shane Meadows but there is too much cheesy stuff in his movies, way partisan politics, and ADD-like wtf mood swings ....

But still, this is full of magic moments (dig that opening credit montage!)

[zanygang]

Some Picturehouse cinemas seem to be accompanying this with a Shane Meadows interview thing, if anyone's interested. Could be worth checking out.

Not at Brighton. They had this incredibly long ad for Shell oil, about a Dutch engineer and his spotty herbert son.

Was it a really old advert?

[Ross Gowland]

Nope. Brand new. They showed it digitally, too. Lasted about ten minutes. The engineer was in Africa, showing a female Asian reporter around. His spotty son rang from a nighclub in Amsterdam saying he missed him. The engineer went home and played football with the boy, then took him for a milkshake. The boy sucked away the last of the froth with a bendy straw and the engineer got the idea of making a bendy drill. The engineer got rich, the boy got to be a pro footballer and everyone lived happily ever after.

Except for the Africans Shell have killed, of course. But the film never mentioned them.

It must've cost a few million to make. It was well-made, but didn't really advertiose anything, except that Shell have a bendy drill. Big deal. I just wanted the film to start.