'This is England' filmanalyse

The movie begins by showcasing different problems and aspects of the 1983´s England. The Falklands War had just ended, the poverty has become worse, the number of immigrants is rising, 3.5 million Brits are unemployed and the youth culture evolves. Especially the skinhead subculture, where the youth – midst of the chaos, are trying to find love and entertainment...

The main character in the movie is called Shaun. He is a 12 year-old-boy that lives with his single mother, in a dilapidated apartment. He has lost his father during the Falklands War, and it bothers him a lot when people talk about his father, or about the war as well. Shaun is bullied in school and doesn’t have any friends, until his chance meeting with the skinhead Woody and his gang. Woody takes him under his wings, and even thought there is some complications between Gadget (one of the skin members) and Shaun in the beginning – he becomes one of them. He meets his first love, which is an older girl called Smell, and he has a lot of fun, and very soon Shaun seems to be much happier. But just when it all seems so perfect, an old friend of Woody shows up, and Shaun’s major crossroad arrives. The man´s name is Combo. He has been in jail for three years, and become an overtly dangerous racist skinhead. He creates a tense and gloomy atmosphere between the friends, specially because he talks ill about black men from the jail, while one of the black skins, Milky, is sitting there, and just after a couple of days, he splits them by his racist views. He tells them that the war has been worthless, unless they fight for ´ethnic cleansing´ to save the honour of the Englishmen. And that is exactly what makes Shaun staying with Combo, instead of staying with Woody. He wants fight for his father, even though Shaun then is drawn into much more uncomfortable territory. Also Puke and Gadget from Woody´s group stay with Combo. And He takes them with him to the racist right-winged National Front where they call them self realists not racist, and say that they are fighting for an England with power, freedom and Englishmen. During this meeting Shaun and Puke feel sorry for letting Woody down. Puke isn’t able to hide his feelings and question the whole talk, so Combo banishes him. However Combo also has feelings for Lol, Woody´s girlfriend, but she doesn’t feels the same way, which breaks his heart. But then he meets Milky and asks him to obtain some drugs, and Milky submits to that. In some how, Combo asks Milky about his family and suddenly he gets jealous and mentally deranged. And almost beats Milky to death, while young Shaun observes. It all gets too much for Shaun and in the end he takes the flag of St. George’s cross, and throws it into the sea which completes the film and puts it all in perspective.