This Is England

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

130K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer2:26

A young boy becomes friends with a gang of skinheads. Friends soon become like family, and relationships will be pushed to the very limit.A young boy becomes friends with a gang of skinheads. Friends soon become like family, and relationships will be pushed to the very limit.A young boy becomes friends with a gang of skinheads. Friends soon become like family, and relationships will be pushed to the very limit.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

130K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

3,735

464

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 1 BAFTA Award
- 14 wins & 16 nominations total

Trivia
Thomas Turgoose had never acted before, had been banned from his school play for behaving badly and even demanded £5 to turn up for the film's auditions.

Goofs
In one long shot of some houses small black Sky TV satellite dishes are visible. Sky TV did not begin broadcasting until the late 1980s, and this style of satellite dish was not rolled out until the launch of Sky Digital in the late 1990s.

Quotes
Combo: But I've got one question to ask you. Do you consider yourself English, or Jamaican?
[There's a long uneasy silence, as Milky looks around nervously to the rest of his friends...]
Milky: [eventually] English.
Combo: Lovely, lovely, love you for that, that's fucking great. A proud man, learn from him; that's a proud man. That's what we need, man. That's what this nation has been built on, proud men. Proud fucking warriors! Two thousand years this little tiny fucking island has been raped and pillaged, by people who have come here and wanted a piece of it - two fucking world wars! Men have laid down their lives for this. For this... and for what? So people can stick their fucking flag in the ground and say, "Yeah! This is England. And this is England, and this is England."

Connections
Featured in The Making of 'This Is England' (2007)

Soundtracks
Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
Written by Morrissey (as S. Morrissey) and Johnny Marr (as J. Marr)
Performed by Clayhill
Published by Universal Music Publishing Ltd / Warner Chappell Music Ltd
Taken from the mini album 'Clayhill' out now on Eat Sleep Records www.clayhillmusic.com

User reviews240

Review

Featured review

9/10

Bitter sweet rites of passage story set to skinheads

'This is England' is a must see for the type of persons who enjoy a good old 'innocence of youth' narrative (including a very comedic, almost cringe inducing, 'first kiss' scene) layered with powerful retrospective British realism reflecting early 1980's societal issues of the type that you wont see on any saccharin dipped 'i remember 1982' clip show.

Based largely around the 'skinhead' activities of the early eighties its interesting to note that the story really draws distinctions between the types of skinheads - the nazi/racist and the two-tone/soul loving skinheads.

Much like Mr Meadows other outings which tend to include a lot of relatively unknown and TV only actors/actresses, they all throw in sterling performances, particularly Stephen 'snatch' Graham as 'Combo'(sp.?) and the unknown Thomas Turgoose as young 'Sean'(sp?).

The soundtrack is as usual strategically lined up to help convey with the overall look and feel, with musical styles ranging from reggae (toots and the maytals), punk and two tone. It does however include new music presumably for a soundtrack album sales point of view, what with the most underrated Clayhill covering The Smiths(?).

overall: its as retrospective sharp as it is thought provoking, so if you lived anywhere near this time then see it: you may just like it. I you didn't then learn from this time in history when skin heads were either very open minded or very closed minded.