Method 4 - This is England : Case Study

This movie has a certificate of 18 in the UK, although the Camden, Westminster and Bristol council’s decided to go against the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification), enabling more teenagers to see it. The certificate was decided as 18 by the BBFC because the movie contains quite extreme violence, use of drugs, some sex references and prejudices such as racism.
“This is England” was filmed in 3 different locations. The beginning editing credits was set in Cleethorpes which is in North Lincolnshire. Most of the rest of the film was filmed in Nottingham in Nottinghamshire; however the abandoned houses scene was filmed in RAF Newton in Nottinghamshire.
The was funded by a few companies, consisting of Big Arty Productions, EM Media, Film 4, Optimum Releasing, Screen Yorkshire, UK Film Council and Warp Films, putting them into the credits, and helping the process of the film.
The film had main distributors in 6 different countries: IFC Films, IFC First Take, NetFlix and Red Envelope Entertainment (USA); Optimum Releasing (UK); Iae, King Record Co. (Japan); Madman Entertainment (Australia); NonStop Entertainment (Sweden); and Sandrew Metronome Distribution (Finland). These companies supported and helped advertise the film in their countries.
An External USA Reviewer from the New York Sun said that “Shane Meadows’ coming-of-age film, set in Thatcher’s England, reveals the British subculture’s far more innocent and rich history” however, another (again from the New York Sun) said that the film is “sometimes exhilarating, sometimes wrenching and, at its best, profoundly moving, and also manages to find room to ponder questions of friendship, fatherhood, group loyalty, masculinity and national identity. That’s not bad for 98 minutes”. I think that these two quotes show an overall balance of how America found the film – Some of them might have not thought it as good as others, but the ones who enjoyed it found it “moving” and “wrenching”. An External British Reviewer from the BBC said that the film is “hard to describe, without making it appear a great deal less interesting than it actually is” and “the film is fizzing with energy and humour, powered by brilliantly engaging performances”. Although another British Reviewer, from the Daily Mirror, said “it’s a small, intimate movie that doesn’t really go anywhere, but shows off Meadow’ unique vision of England”. This shows the wide spread also across the UK, on how people interpret the film, as some find it slow or without direction, but others see it as energy filled and useful.
http://www.imdb.com/ is a website that allows user’s to post comments about the film’s, about what they did or didn’t like. On the first page of comments (displaying 14) there was only one negative point about the film, but the positive points included such headings as “You must go see this film”, “This is…the best British film for a long time”, “the very best British cinema has to offer” and “Best film of the Berlin Film Festival 2007”. This shows the movie is highly popular, and many people like it.
The website also shows user ratings, showing us what sort of people liked the film, such as male/female/over 18/under 18/or any other age description. The graph below shows that out of the male/female category, more females gave it a higher rating than males, although they weren’t that far behind. It also shows that the demographic that voted the most times with a higher score than the other classifications, was female’s under 18, showing that the film affected under 18 female’s more than older females/males or younger males.
This Is England is classified as an English film. The film was set in Britain, the locations in which the film was shot were all in Britain, the majority of the cast and crew were British, the music was from British bands and the dialogue was typically British with words such as “twat”.
The director, Shane Meadows, created/directed a fair few more films. Some of which had similar concepts as This Is England, for example A room for Romeo Brass is a film, directed by Shane Meadows, and also tackles tests of friendships, and the main boy character is the same age as Shaun in This Is England. It also contains romance, which Shaun experiences with Smell. Another film that has similar aspects as This Is England, is White Man’s Burden, as it follows a story of a white man and a black man, when one of them oversteps the barrier that separates race and class (as in This Is England, a lot of racism is displayed, and hate towards the upper class of politicians) that becomes a drastic incident. Each film concentrates on different aspects, although This Is England manages to include most of them.
This Is England was a very popular and successful film. It won 8 awards: BAFTA Film Award for Best British Film, British Independent Film Award for Best British Independent Film (and most promising Newcomer On Screen – which went to Thomas Turgoose), Young Audience Award, UK Film Talent Award, Best European Film, Young European Jury Award, and the Best Director Award. Most of these were received by Shane Meadows, although the BAFTA and UK Film Talent were received by Mark Herbert. The film was also nominated for another 7 awards, these included: BAFTA Film Award for Best Screenplay (Original), Golden Kinnaree Award for Best Film, British Independent Film Award (for Best Director/Screenplay/Supporting Actor-ress/Technical Achievement), The Empire Award (for Best British Film and Newcomer), The Grand Prix Award, The Golden Trailer (for Best Independent Poster – quad) and The ALFS Award (for British Breakthrough (acting – Thomas Turgoose), Director of the Year, Film of the Year).
The director, Shane Meadows, also wrote and directed 8 other films, which were: The Stairwell (2005), Northern Soul (2004), Dead Man’s Shoes (2004), Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2002), A Room for Romeo Brass (1999), 24 7 : Twenty Four Seven (1997), Small Time (1996) and Where’s the Money, Ronnie? (1996). He appeared in 5 of these movies mainly as a small character, although in Where’s the Money, Ronnie?, he played Ronnie.