This is England

This is England is a film telling the story of England during the eighties, an era with miner strikes, the Falklands war, skinheads, National Front, the working class and of course Margaret Thatcher.

The setting is England in 1983. Shaun is a lost boy with no friends. His father was killed in the Falklands War, which of course has had a large impact on his life. Shaun and his mother live in a grey town of England, a place with high unemployment- due to the shut down of coal mines and Thatcher's policy of free market. One day he meets a group of skinheads, a group of people who will change his life completely. Their friendship develops to something more, they become like a family. One day the leader of the gang returns from prison. This changes everything. He is more aggressive than the others and he is in need to express his opinions. . He, as well of the rest of the middle class struggles. The Thatcher administration has caused problems for them. Fighting a war and spending money on it, instead of trying to fix the unemployment, and letting immigrants into the country, creates the hatred Combo and his friends have. Combo himself believes that what he is doing is for the best to his country- he is a nationalist. At the end, Shaun ends his friendship with Combo. They are way too different. All Shaun wanted, I think, was to make a statement, to show he was angry because of the loss of his father. He didn’t want to kill people because of their nationality, but to get his father back.

The first thought that stroked me while watching the film was it couldn’t be that good, it couldn’t possibly tell the story as well as a documentary, but I was wrong. This is England is such a mind-gripping, real, powerful and honest film. The actors are credible and captivate me with their honesty. It depictures how England was and how it developed, how the war affected people and politics. This is England is the perfect film to watch if you want to see how the nationality rose in the white working class community during the eighties. An absolutely remarkable film!