This Is England

This Is England is a movie about skinheads. The skinhead movement started in the United Kingdom as a blue collar cultural identity based around music, fashion, and working class solidarity regardless of race. Early punk and ska bands considered themselves part of skinhead culture while simultaneously decrying racism in their music, such as The Specials and their single “Racist Friend.” However, as fears among working class Brits grew over the impact a large migrant population was having on their employment prospects in the early 1980s, elements within the skinhead movement began to adopt more and more nationalistic and/or racist rhetoric. It is within this context that the film is set. This story, of the fracturing of the UK punk and ska scenes between racist and non-racist camps, is the story of This Is England.

What I find great about This Is England is that it takes these large ideas, and major cultural shifts, and shows how they play out on an intimate and human level. Shaun, the main character, is taken in by a racially diverse group of local skinheads and feels a camaraderie with them because they stick up for him when he gets bullied. Things get complicated when prison-hardened Combo, a senior figure in the group before his incarceration, comes home from the penitentiary with a newly developed ethno-nationalist point of view. In the turmoil this causes, Shaun isn’t seduced by Combo’s ideas because he is evil but because his dad died in the Falklands and he desperately craves both a father figure and a way to express his frustration and grief. I don’t want to dive into the specifics, as it would give too much of the film away, but where the film takes the story from there is handled with a laudable amount of nuance and grounded storytelling. Often, characters’ actions are not driven by some cartoonish concept of racism but by relatable fears, frustrations, and feelings of inadequacy that play out in racist ways.

That being said, there are some aspects of This Is England that are so tied to specifics of the British experience that, as an outsider, I was sometimes unsure if I was watching bad film making or just missing some important subtext. For example, late in the movie there is a montage of footage from the Falklands, such as boats on the move and news reports, which felt totally random and out of place. On the other hand, based on how and where it was placed in the flow of the narrative, it also felt like it was supposed to be meaningful, though whatever meaning they were aiming for was lost on me.

Also worth noting is the tone of the movie: bleak. There is hatred and there is violence. While its subject matter, gritty shooting style, and focus on working class subcultures all remind me of American History X, This Is England is more like a mirror image than a cross-the-pond brother. American History X is a redemption story that starts violent and ends peaceful, but whose final moments make you question if the main character will be able to stick with his newly forged worldview. This Is England is about the seductive nature of belonging and purpose that starts peaceful and ends violent, but whose final moments make you believe there is a chance one can break free of dangerous ideas and become a better person. If you like films where the protagonist unambiguously changes for the better, or carry a hopeful message even in the face of shocking tragedy, this isn’t the film for you.

In the end, This Is England succeeds best at exploring the ways that people’s simple fears and desires can lead them down dangerous paths and, by extension, how those many small choices change the world in their aggregate. All movements are made up of people, after all. Beyond that, while the film shows some potential for being great, it ultimately ends up just being pretty good. It is by no means a great treatise on the topics of racism or nationalism, in the vein of In The Heat Of The Night or Do The Right Thing. Nor is it a superlative fictionalized recounting of a cultural movement through its life cycle, in the vein of 24-Hour Party People. It is, however, an entertaining, and at times heartbreaking, intimate slice of life story about how such things effect the people living through them within one group of friends, in one part of England, at one moment in time.

Would Recommend: If you enjoy challenging slice of life stories.

Would Not Recommend: If you don’t enjoy somber stories about racism.