Review of “This is England”, directed and written by Shane Meadows
“This is England”, centers on the young skinheads in England, in the year 1983.
Summary:
It is a story about the 12-year-old boy Shaun who is getting bullied in school. He does not have any friends and his father is dead, so it is only his mother and himself. Walking home from school one day, he meets a group of young people under the bridge. They are all skinheads, wearing Doctor Marten boots, shaving their heads and with their Ben Sherman shirts. Woody, who is the leader of the group, sees how sad Shaun is and invites him to join the group, among them Milky is the obly black skinhead in the group. Everyone accepts Shaun as a member, except Tubb who feels that Shaun is taking his place. But soon after the problem is solved between them and Shaun feels better than ever between his new friends, also the older girl Smell he feels attracted to.
Then the older skinhead named Combo, with racist views, returns to the group after a prison sentence, together with two friends. He tries to take the leadership of the group from Woody, which leads to a rift. Woody stays leader of the apolitical group, whilst Combo becomes leader of the new political group. Combo likes Shaun and identifies with him, who in turn sees Combo as a role model. They go to a White Nationalist meeting and on their way back, a member gets thrown out because of his doubt over the group’s racist and national politics.
After being rejected by the girl he is in love with, Combo buys drugs from Milky to comfort himself and haves a party, together with Shaun, Milky and his two friends. He asks Milky about his family, but keeps getting more and more jealous, when Milky tells about his big lovely “black” family. When he invites him to a family dinner it becomes too much for Combo, who beats Milky until he is unconscious, whilst one of the others holds Shaun, who can only scream and watch in horror. When Combo realizes what he has done to Milky he is ashamed and devastated, and drags everyone else out of the room. Shaun then returns and we see Combo and him crying and panicking whilst they take Milky to the hospital.
Afterwards Shaun is sitting in his room, thinking about what happened, while his mother tries to assure him that Milky will be alright. Then we see Shaun walking at the beach and throwing the English flag, given to him by Combo as a symbol of the White Nationalists, in the water.

In this community, that is not very rich, the kids are left a lot to themselves, to find their own identity. In the school we see that teachers do not do anything about the bullying and after school the kids can almost do as they please. In the group the values are very “soft”. Instead of just fighting when they have a problem, they talk about them. This changes when Combo returns and they start getting very violent towards others, especially people that are not from England.
Characterization of Shaun:
Shaun is 12 years old and lives alone with his mom, after his father died in the Falkland wars. They are living in poverty and because of this, Shaun can not have the newest clothes and have to wear clothes, which are way out of style. This is one of the reasons why Shaun is bullied in school and does not have any friends. But suddenly he becomes a part of Woodys group. He gets friends and feels like a part of something. Then Combo returns and starts talking about the war Shauns father died in, convincing him to join his group to fight back for his father. Shaun has no father and sees the older Combo as a mentor, so he joins the group to get this father-figure he is missing. He thinks it is cool being with the big boys. But in the end where Combo beats Milky, Shaun realizes that this is not just for fun. Shaun throwing the flag in the water, at the end of the film, is a symbol. It means that he wants to start over again, without all the prejudices against the people that are not from England, Combos group represented.
Shaun starts out being this boy who is very sad and alone, but still independent and ready to stand up for himself, even against the big boys. When he joins the group, he suddenly becomes more insecure of himself, because he has to change to be a part of the group. He teases others so they will think he is cool, but does not think about that not long ago he was the one being teased. His insecurity is also the reason why he joins Combos group. In the end he
I think the film gives a good picture of how the youth was affected by the things that went on in England at that time. It is a strong film, different from other racist-films where they just kills black people, because they are different. Here we hear about the reasons behind, which makes it hard for us to blame them for being racist, though it does not justify it.
The message of the film is that you should not have prejudices against people from other countries than yours; they are people just like you.