Why I Saw It: My daughter received it for her birthday.
Many years ago, I was employed, by one of our local mental health centers, as a substance abuse and violence prevention specialist. "Prevention" was a bit of a misnomer, since the students referred to us by the local school system were already painfully damaged and had been in all sorts of trouble.
I went into my meetings with violent kids proudly armed with strategies for alternative ways of handling potentially volatile situations. There was only one small problem with this approach. These kids had no interest in my dumb strategies. After all, in any conceivable situation, why wouldn't they want to kick someone's ass?
It's 1983, and unsupervised, beleaguered Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) is missing his soldier dad, who died in the Falklands war an unspecified amount of time ago. So when an older boy at school makes a crack about his father, Shaun takes it upon himself to fight the kid, getting both of them into trouble and inciting the events that make up This Is England, Shane Meadows' semi-autobiographical account of the nuances and temptations of skinhead culture.
Shaun is twelve, high-spirited and foul-mouthed, traits that exasperate his single mother Cynthia (Jo Hartley). He is damaged and distrustful when he meets Woody (Joseph Gilgun), a tattooed teenager who runs his own little gang in their coastal town. Contrary to what you might infer, Woody is not the antagonist of the story.
He is a member of a unique subculture of skinheads, who are neither violent nor inherently racist. Leave the violence and racism to Combo (virtual unknown Stephen Graham, giving a performance that rivals Edward Norton's in American History X), an old colleague of the weak-willed Woody who leaves prison as volatile as ever.
Shaun sees a father figure in Combo, who manipulates Shaun's future allegiance. When the group breaks up, Shaun and Woody go their separate ways, and Shaun is drawn into a fanatical group of fascists who allegedly want to prevent England's rape at the hands of foreigners. But when Combo goes too far, Shaun his unsure where his best interests lie.
Shane Meadows, who found cult success with the fantastic Brit revenge thriller Dead Man's Shoes, infuses elements of his own life into this drama, which avoids making the situation black and white or relying on sentimentality.
Stephen Graham gives a standout performance as the skinhead Combo, whose very being seethes with rage and desperation. First-time actor Thomas Turgoose also turns in a good performance as the vulnerable and wayward Shaun. The movie has its violent and icky moments (Perry Benson crouched with his bare a*s on the floor of an ethnic store trying to take a dump, anybody?) but the film never becomes as exploitative or sadistic as Geoffrey Wright's Australian skinhead drama Romper Stomper.
Shane Meadows is one of Britain's most intriguing directorial names today, but I would say you need to watch Dead Man's Shoes first and foremost, for a chance to see the filmmaker at the height of his powers. Regardless, This is England is intelligent, unflinching, and savvy, and gives a fresh look into a well-known sub genre.
Can people change? The general consensus, if that person is Derek Vinyard, is no. Derek (Edward Norton) was a crazy-mean white supremacist who committed a brutal crime and wound up in prison.
After a traumatic term, he comes out a changed man. This change is derived from his experiences in prison, including an eye-opening relationship between him and a black prisoner. He comes back to see that although his home has changed, his old gang remains very much the same.
The middle-aged leader and writer of neo-nazi literature (about as artistic as Mein Kamf), Cameron Alexander (Stacy Keach) is still rounding up unhappy young men and refusing to do any of the dirty work himself.
Derek's girlfriend Stacy (Fairuza Balk), who was there when the crime was committed, is still a shrill, screeching harpy.
But worst of all, Derek's younger brother Danny (Edward Furlong) is getting into "the life," heavily influenced by Cameron and his goons.
Unsure of the ideals he once held in high esteem, Derek attempts to divert Danny, only to rouse the attention of Cameron's gang. American History X, director Tony Kaye's first film, is violent and depressing, yet at times strangely optimistic in its message of progression and change.
Derek behaves so brutally that his only hope for the future seems to be as a Nazi poster child. An interesting (if not original) method is used in that the past scenes are filmed in black and white. This eliminates the need for the overused "___ ago" technique.
Edward Furlong (the guy from The Terminator 2- Judgement Day who isn't former governor of California) and Edward Norton (the guy from Fight Club who isn't Brad Pitt) give good performances. This is the movie that made me like Edward Norton (no thanks to The Incredible Hulk,) and further evidence he's willing to take on daring roles and not rom-com type blockbusters.
One of the problems with the film is the overblown portions of the soundtrack, which leave no emotions to the imagination. On the up side, the characters have an interesting ambiguity and are pretty well-developed.
Despite the fact the movie is about race, the black characters are not sentimentalized or made into "cute" objects of pity as a plea for tolerance (To Kill A Mockingbird, anyone?)
American History X is an important movie. It is important as a morality tale about race for grown-ups, and as a showcase for superior acting. In a world full of nihilistic revenge movies and one-dimensional melodramas, there is a lot of strength in showing that people can change, even if it's hard to believe.
Made in Britain (1982)
