This Is England ’86 (Shane Meadows, 2010)

In this post I will be looking at how the director, Shane Meadows, is trying to make the audience feel when watching This Is England ’86, and how he achieves it.
This Is England ’86 is the continuation of the original film, This Is England. It was shown as a series containing four hour-long episodes, rather than as a film. This allowed for more time for the character’s personalities and stories to grow and progress, creating more empathy between the audience and the characters.

Like the film, the television series of This Is England follows the lives of Shaun, Lol, Woody, Milky, and the rest of the gang. Some of the more minor characters from the film now take a bigger role though, particularly Trev, who was barely even named in the film. The series focuses more on Trev because of a shocking rape scene; Lol’s father, Mike, who also wasn’t in the original This Is England film, rapes Trev, shortly after the viewer finds out that he used to abuse Lol when she was younger. Combo also comes back in this series; although the film made it seem as though we had seen the last of him, he returns by crashing into Shaun’s house, drunk, before passing out. Despite this entrance, events later in the series show that he seems to have left most of his old ways behind him.

 Shaun takes a relatively small role in This Is England ’86, considering the film was based completely around him, with only a small insight to the lives of the rest of the gang. This time around, Lol seems to be the main focus, as every situation links back to her; the failed wedding, the return of Combo, the introduction of her father, the fact she cheats on Woody with Milky, his own best friend… Yet, despite these unacceptable acts, by the end of episode four when she kills her own father, we are practically cheering her on. This can only be credited to the superb writing and acting.
Lol has a tough time during This Is England ’86, and the way Meadows shows this makes the audience feel sympathetic towards her. Meadows shows her at her lowest moments, in an attempt to justify her later actions towards her father.

 We watched This is England ’86 in class, and despite the fact it was not the ideal circumstances to watch something so emotional and shocking, I think everyone still got completely absorbed into it. When the lights were turned back on, particularly after the rape scene, everyone was silent. Throughout the scene, I felt angry and shocked, and immediately felt sympathy for Trev, even though she was barely seen in the series before this. Her vulnerability and fear is so intense, and shown incredibly well through the acting and the way the scene is shot. Although the clever editing means that actually very little graphic content is shown, the idea is there, and our brains fill in the blanks for us. It felt as though we had just witnessed something terrible, in full detail. However, on watching it back, I realised that Meadows just planted the idea in our heads, and simply created the illusion of a very graphic scene.

Meadows used the same technique when showing Lol attacking her father. She swings the hammer towards him, but the camera always moves before she makes contact with him. However, the idea of such violence is planted in our heads.

When Combo returns to This Is England by collapsing into Shaun’s house, my immediate reaction was a negative one; I assumed he was there to cause trouble, especially considering he was so drunk and covered in blood, a clear sign of violence. However, when Shaun covered him in a blanket, and there was a close up shot of Combo sleeping and looking vulnerable, I began to wonder why else he could be there.
In the end, Combo turns out to be a ‘good guy’; after another shocking scene where Lol kills her father, Combo turns up at the house and sees her crying, with Mike’s dead body sprawled across the floor. Combo immediately works out what has happened, as it is revealed earlier in the series that only Combo and Milky know about Lol’s traumatic past with her father. He goes straight over to Lol, and holds her as she cries. This shows a totally different side to the violent skinhead he portrays in the film. Combo is in love with Lol, which is revealed in the film and then reinforced in this scene. He takes the blame for Mike’s murder, planting his fingerprints on the hammer Lol used to attack Mike after he attempted to rape her.
When Combo does such a selfless thing for Lol, we can’t help but feel affection towards him. We can tell that the death of his mother, and seeing the love of his life in such a disturbing situation, has changed him for the better.

Every episode of This Is England ’86 is full of emotions. Meadows is renowned for an almost painfully honest approach to filmmaking, and seems to specialise in creating sympathy and evoking empathy within an audience. Right from the very beginning of the series, the mise en scene shows the deprived situation they live in, making the audience feel sorry for them. The gang seems to be connected by the bad things in their life; however, this does not come across as a negative thing. It seems almost happy, as they have managed to turn awful situations into a positive thing: friendship. Meadows cleverly contrasts humour and light-heartedness with all the negative emotions the characters feel; fear, anger and sadness are all juxtaposed against the cheerful bond the gang has, creating a wide range of emotions within the audience, sending them on an incredibly intense emotional rollercoaster.

A montage from This Is England ’86 (Shane Meadows, 2010)

Our exam at the end of this year will be on textual analysis, so we have been looking at This Is England ’86 from a textual analysis point of view, to get some practice in. The scene we are looking at is a montage from episode four, beginning at 14:18 and ending at 18:00. The clip is from just before the climax of the film.
(It’s not technically a montage; a montage is a series of clips set to music, whereas this is has occasional dialogue. However, I’m going to stick with montage for want of a better word).

Episode four was directed by Shane Meadows, who also directed the original film, This Is England. Meadows often uses montages within his episodes, to establish the feeling of the place and time, and to show emotions while creating empathy. In this scene, Trev tells Lol that she was raped by Mick, Lol’s father. Milky and Woody set out to plan a last minute wedding, rounding up the rest of their gang. Combo prepares to see his mother, and Shaun gives him some of his father’s clothes, bringing back emotions from the original film, where Shaun is the main focus. This time around, Shaun takes a more backseat role, while other characters, such as Trev and Combo, take a bigger role, allowing us to see into their lives. This creates empathy with them, as we see their true emotions, rather than the tough outer shell the members of the gang try to create around themselves. The scene is bittersweet; feelings and emotions are contrasted between Trev’s sadness and Woody’s excitement.

Sound Design:
This particular montage uses a composed score, created specifically to evoke and manipulate feelings within the audience. This is non diegetic music, sound added in post-production to have an effect on the audience. It starts right at the beginning of the scene, when Trev looks up at Lol, and continues right to the end of the montage. Meadows uses sound bridges to link scenes together within the montage to ensure continuity. Cutting from Lol and Trev crying to Milky and Woody setting off on their mopeds highlights the contrast of the happiness and the tougher times in their lives.
The music gets lower whenever something bad is shown; for example, when Mike is on screen, the music suddenly becomes very low, evoking darker feelings.
The music fades whenever a character speaks, to allow for their words to be the main focus, along with other diegetic sounds, such as the engines of their mopeds. The music does not stop, however, to ensure the scene flows. No dialogue can be heard when Trev is talking to Lol, because it is not necessary. The audience know Trev’s story, and Meadows wants the audience to focus on Lol’s reaction instead, in an attempt to justify Lol’s later actions, when she kills her father.

Editing:
The montage cross cuts between all the scenes at the same time, to show that they are all happening simultaneously. Trev’s scene is shown as a slow motion close up, to allow for the audience to see every detail. When Lol and Trev are on the screen, it seems to be a snapshot in time with a sad feeling around it, whereas Woody and Milky are happy and hopeful, and the scene is shown as ongoing. However, showing Lol and Woody at the same time shows that Woody’s plan won’t work. As usual in This Is England, even the happiest situation is tragic.
The screen time for each character is roughly equal, and the montage contains clips of most characters. The main characters, whose stories we’re following, get equal screen time to show that each of them is equally important.

Camerawork:
Different types of camerawork are used for different characters; Woody and Milky’s story is shown as progressing, with the camera panning on Woody’s shots to show that it is ongoing. Lol and Trev, however, are filmed with a close up, and everything is in slow motion. These techniques allow for the audience to really notice every detail, such as the bruising on Trev’s neck. The camera focuses on their faces, to show their feelings, and particularly Lol’s reaction to the news.
When Milky goes to ask Trudy if she ever completed her ‘marriage… license… thing…’, the camera is slightly above him, the way Trudy would see him. Similarly, when Trudy looks down at Milky, the camera is looking up at her, as though it is from Milky’s point of view.
Woody and Milky are often shown together in a wide shot or a mid shot, to show that they are both equal.
The rule of thirds and the 180 degree rule are both used within the montage. The human eye perceives things as nicer when they are not in the centre. For example, when Shaun is in his room, he is not directly in the middle of the shot, he is slightly off to the left. Half of his face is in darkness and he is alone, to show how isolated and lonely he feels, especially now he is thinking about his father, who died in the war.
Shaun is also the main focus in the car scene; although Smell is also shown, it is filmed from Shaun’s point of view, as though we were looking at her through his eyes. Then the camera focuses on Shaun, from the back seat looking forward, to show how he is feeling. Combo is also shown in the car, looking upset, powerless and vulnerable. He is sat in the back seat, to highlight his lack of control.
Combo is always portrayed as looking sad and vulnerable. The camera often looks down on him, to mirror the fact he feels insignificant. His tattoos no longer seem intimidating; they look sad, and the tear from his eye no longer seems ironic.

Mise en scene:
The mise en scene within the clip focuses mainly on the fact it’s set back in the eighties, and the fact they have hard lives; for example, the houses and the garages remind the audience that they live in a deprived situation, to create further sympathy for them all.
Both Milky and Woody have scooters, which define the gang culture of young adults at that time. It captures their identities.
When he is in the bathroom, Combo looks incredibly vulnerable. He looks rough and hungover, but not threatening in the slightest. His hair has grown since his last appearance in This Is England. This could show that is no longer a skin head; he has left this behind him and has more important things on his mind, such as his mother.
Friendship is shown in different ways in the montage; Trev and Lol are shown hugging, with Lol gently stroking Trev’s hair to comfort and reassure her. This shows a close bond, made stronger by the fact they both share a sadness. Lol also appears dominant in this situation by looking after Trev, whereas she seems fragile and vulnerable. When Woody goes to tell his friends about the wedding, they are all sleeping on the sofa, half naked and hungover. Their literal closeness in this situation shows how close they are as friends. Another type of friendship is displayed through Woody and Milky. At one point, they are both riding along on their scooters, and they lean over and high-five one another, which is a sweet gesture.

Shaun is shown in his room, looking upset and isolated, highlighted by the darkness of his room and the fact he is sniffing his dad’s shirt as a last moment of comfort before he gives it to Combo. Shaun clearly cares for Combo, despite their differences, and is giving up something which means a lot to him in order to help him out.
Kelly’s room, like Shaun’s, reveals quite a lot to the audience. Where Shaun’s room shows reflects his lonely emotions and thoughts, Kelly’s room highlights her vulnerability. Despite the gang’s attempts to be seen as adults, they’re really still children. Kel’s room is plastered with mementoes and typical 80s posters, making her room seem more like a teenager’s room, so when Mick sits on her bed, she appears much more young and vulnerable, leaving the audience questioning his motives.
When Milky and Woody are on the mopeds, they are by the garages which were on the DVD cover for This Is England. On the cover, the gang is together looking mismatched, as usual, but happy. Woody and Milky are treating the wedding as a way of starting over, and this scene makes me think of the picture on the DVD cover, as though everything is being taken back to the start, with everyone reuniting through Lol and Woody’s ‘wedding’.

This Is England (Shane Meadows, 2007)

This Is England (Shane Meadows, 2007) shows England from a scarily realistic point of view. As the tagline suggests, this film is going to ‘stand out from the crowd’. It does not disappoint.

This is a very controversial film – it deals with issues such as racism and violence, along with smoking, drinking, drugs and foul language. It is centred mainly around Shaun, a young boy of twelve, who gets in with a gang of twenty-year-old skinheads.

Shaun gets into a fight at school after a boy makes a cruel comment about his father, who died in the Falkland’s war. On his way home, he walks through an alleyway, where Woody and his friends are sat drinking and smoking. Seemingly without any apprehension, Shaun tells them about his rough day, and Woody takes pity on him. The next day, Gadget, another boy from the gang, turns up at his house and invites him to go hunting. Shaun declares his day spent with the gang as ‘the best day of [his] life’, and the audience can sense a strong friendship formed between them all. However, this harmony is quickly unbalanced with the arrival of Combo, an old friend of Woody’s who has just got out of prison. He makes a negative comment about Milky, a member of the gang who has Jamaican origins, and this introduces the main themes of the film: racism, xenophobia, and discrimination.

Combo convinces Shaun to ‘join the fight’, and tells him that the Falkland war was pointless. He tells him that unless he makes a stand against immigration, his father would have died for nothing. The film then follows Shaun as he is forced to grow up quickly; lots of the gangs bad habits rub off on him quickly, such as smoking, drinking, excessive swearing… but the violence is something no child of thirteen should ever have to see.

The film is shot to seem like a documentary, with lots of long camera shots encompassing a whole conversation. Most shots are filmed at eye level, and are hand held to make the shots seem more realistic. There are several montages during the film, which are used to establish the setting and to contextualise. The film begins with a montage of iconic news clips from the time, set to a song from the 1980s. This establishes the time period and the theme of the film; for example, the lack of jobs and the time of Margaret Thatcher as prime minister. The youth of the 1980s is a recurring theme throughout the film, and most adults clearly remember and can relate to that time. The editing was also cleverly done to add an 80s feel, with slightly grainy camerawork, to recreate the retrospective camera techniques typical of the 1980s. The mise-en-scene, such as music, costumes, hair and dialogue, were also all done a certain way to help the audience connect with the 80s theme – this included a lot of bad perms and blue jeans!

Despite the low budget Shane Meadows had to create it, this is a very successful and well-made film. The serious themes of the film are cleverly put across, contrasting the skinheads’ friendliness towards Shaun with their violence towards Milky, to both shock the audience and to make them think.