Shane Meadows' This Is England is one of the most scary, compelling and brilliant films I've seen in years. Set in 1980s working class Yorkshire This Is England charts how an amiable weed-smoking, beer-drinking skinhead crew (who love the look and music of the youth movement) is decimated by the introduction of NF politics and racist violence. In particular it follows the path of a young boy (Thomas Thurgoose who's simply fantastic: cocky, cheeky, vulnerable) searching for a sense of identity, belonging and a father figure.
Loosely it's about the NF and racism, but for me it reveals how radical politics such as the NF can take over when a group or section of society is systematically put upon and marginalised.
Working class Britain was the victim/punchbag of Thatcher's success, with no jobs, prospects, hope or future: as a result men are emasculated with little sense of self worth or direction. And when a charismatic, forceful older man turns up and spews NF propaganda about immigrants taking jobs and Britannia under threat/attack from outsiders, it's all too easy to be seduced by this ideology.
Let's be honest here. The NF and racist skinheads may now be reviled but the Tories of the 1980s were the NF in suits. Their ideology was built around NF beliefs: pride and primacy of Queen and Country - they were officially called the Conservatives and Unionist party (Unionist for never relinquishing Northern Ireland), strong on anti-immigration (Powell's Rivers Of Blood speech, Tebbit's 'Cricket test') and strong foreign/nationalist policy (Falklands saved Thatcher's bacon, Cold War).
For Meadows to be able to elicit sympathy and empathy from me as a British Asian - who was labelled a paki by his neighbours in suburban south London - towards racists is a measure of how good a film maker he is. I should hate Combo and his vile doctrines, but instead I felt sorry for him and having no futre worth living. And the nihilism that it breeds.
This isn't easy viewing, it's gritty British cinema realism that would make Ken Loach proud. And it's all the better for its contemporary relevance: for disaffected working class 1980s Britain, you can read working class Britain in 2007, inner city youth on the rampage with knives and guns and young Muslim men who feel marginalised and under attack. What nasty, hate-filled, violent politics or philosopy will fill their void??
