DVD reviews: This Is England – 69

When I was a young lad, a historic film was commonly a World War II setting or the stiff upper lip and tethered emotions of Victorian costume drama. Perhaps I’m showing my age to admit an odd reaction to the years of my own youth now being made into historic drama. I’m not complaining or suggesting that the Thatcher years and skinheads don’t make for compelling subject matter, just that it seems like it happened only yesterday.

Of course we just had piggy Muldoon to add support to Thatcher’s conservative regime, but our troops weren’t shipped off to fight a pointless war in the Falkland Islands, even though our top music group was banned just for having a song called ‘Six Months In A Leaky Boat’. Strange times.

One critic called This Is England the best film since Trainspotting; a dangerous comparison, because this film entirely lacks the blistering pace and riotous sense of humour, but makes up for it with a surprisingly subtle human drama. Surprising, because you wouldn’t expect that from a film depicting a brutal era and the equally brutal scum at the bottom of the social and economic ladder featured here.

Shaun (played brilliantly by non-actor Thomas Turgoose) is a troubled 12-year-old smarting from his Dad’s recent death in the Falklands War. Taken under the wing of a group of older skinheads, we see just how vulnerable he is when the scarily racist elements in the gang start asserting themselves.

The film’s writer/director, Shane Meadows, has a point to make here that deserves an airing: that while there were racist, even Nazi elements within skinhead culture, there were also ‘coloured’ members and many who were huge fans of Jamaican music, a contrast that’s illustrated here with considerable insight, and which leads to one of the film’s greatest assets: a soundtrack that’s full of warm reggae tunes.

Also heart-warming is the odd relationship that develops between the 12-year-old and an eccentric older girl (played by Rosamund Hanson) who is obsessed with Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Concise, uniformly well-acted and scripted, and plenty of food for thought. What else could you want for?

A second disc contains plenty of unexpurgated footage and fly-on-the-wall ‘making ofs’ that will probably only appeal to those infatuated with the movie.

GARY STEEL