Argie wrote:Prizewinner film "This is England" directed by Shane Meadows shows a few racist scenes perpetrated by skinheads against "Pakis" without remorse. I own probably the only copy of this film in Argentina because I asked a friend of mine to bring it for me from England, and I wondered why the local distributors never had it on their lists.
Hi Salvador
Great to see you back here on Sensitize. You're right when you say that the film has racist content, but the director/writer - Shane Meadows was addressing the sad history of racism in England/UK and the era in which he grew up (early 80's). There was a terrible amount of racist crime going on at that time. To be honest, racism is on the rise again now with attacks on Asians/Muslims due to the recent conflicts with Afghanistan and Iraq. I accept that there are extemists within the Islamic community who do need to be dealt with, but random attacks on ethnic citizens will only fan the flames of hatred and draw more and more young people into conflict. That's what Shane Meadows is saying with This Is England. He too sees hatred, ignorance and racism raising its ugly head once more.
Argie wrote:Watch the film and you'll guess why. One other possibility is that it is a "too English" film, whose purpose is not really understandable by outsiders (like me?).
That's debatable though. Margaret Thatcher's government committed troops to an illegal and ridiculous 'war' with Argentina over the Falkland Islands and in doing so, exported mindless butchery, hatred and savagery abroad, to the shores of your land.
The central character (Shaun) in This Is England lost his father in that 'war'. On his journey of discovery in this film he firstly turns to hate crimes as a reaction to the grief he felt because he believed his father died at the hands of people of a different culture/race. However, as the film moves on, he comes around to the realisation that hatred is wrong and England (back then) was corrupt. He sees that his father died for nothing.
The scene where he throws the British/English flag into the sea while the cover version of; Please, Please, Please. Let Me Get What I Want (originally by The Smiths) is playing on the filmscore, summed up his transition away from hatred and towards a hopeful future in my opinion.
Argie wrote:I only hope this is NOT England nowadays; it shows a derelict middle class that wouldn't care for the education of their young people who slowly turn into useless, junky, filthy, violent and corrupted vagrant squats that have nothing to do but to drink plenty of alcohol, smoke reefers, attack foreigners, destroy houses, wreck motorcars, scribble on walls and other "white power" entertainments, if we don't mention the murder of Whitey.
Like I said earlier, This Is England is a depiction of England back in the early 80's under Thatcher's reign of terror. There still are, and probably always will be, pockets of hate in society. Addressing and confronting it is the most effective way of controlling it though.
Argie wrote:Or at least that is the message that I read between lines. I only watched it once on the past week-end; perhaps a second or third time might help to lessen a bit the bad impression I've got of this really shocking film which I regard well classified as 18+. The intersped Malvinas-Falklands 1982 conflict images alluding Shaun's father, a dead hero there, are perhaps too many and not too within the film's scope.
Yeah. This Is England is worth watching a few time Sal. You say you think the 18+ certificate is justified, but couldn't it be viewed that a film that tackles hatred and racism, should be made available to the very people (young people) who can, if not monitored, fall in with bad crowds and become racist criminals?