This is England

This is England

This is a British movie released in 2006. It is under the social realism genre and as you would expect is dark in places. The story is about a troubled boy called Shaun, growing up in the 1980s. He suffered a lot of bullying in school for the clothes he wore and led a difficult life with his father dead from fighting in the Falklands War.

Shaun went on to meet a group of skinheads - a traditionally neo-nazi group opposed to Margaret Thatcher and her policies. They blamed a lot of it on immigration. Most of the group were friendly though but one group member - Combo, took it a little too far and went around being extremely violent to Asians and ended up beating up Milky, a black member of the gang.

I find this a really powerful film that touches on some really powerful issues of racism, poverty, communities left to rot under Thatcher, yet still maintaining some elements of humour.

What do others think?

Never heard of this film.sounds interesting.Is it a new movie out now? I am very much interested in seeing this movie and would like to see it soon is why I ask.thanks for the information.Btw if you enjoyed Titanic,you should watch this other movie version made of it thats a lot less well known.I posted a link to it on the Titanic thread.

Amazing film...Also has two follow up mini series...This is England 86 and This is England 88 and later this year there will be This is England 90.

It's very culturally specific to Britain though...It might be difficult for non British to appreciate it....It is perhaps the best mix of humour and hard hitting, tear jerking drama I've ever seen. There are very few films or TV shows with the impact that TiE has.

It was released in 2006, so it has been out for a while.I agree that it is very specific to Britain with the falklands and all the social problems under Thatcher. The film doesn't really make any attempt to appeal to a wider audience though with typical stereotypes you would expect because it's social realism and not that mainstream, but it has made quite an impact in this country.

Amazing film. Historically and emotionally. Really captures working class Britishness in the 80s.