This Is England

This Is England was released in 2006 and written and directed by well known British Film maker Shane Meadows. The Film is set in the early 1980’s based on Britain’s struggle through the Falklands War, and the Skinheads that rebelled against the current Prime Minister of the time Margaret Thatcher.
Margaret Thatcher served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 as well as being leader of the conservative party from 1975 to 1990, she is and was the first female to achieve either of these things. Due to a recession and high unemployment, Thatcher's popularity became less and less, though economic recovery and the 1982 Falklands War brought a lot of support and she was re-elected in 1983.
Shane Meadows, who also directed the British Film Somers Town, focused very much on the image and music of that era, including reggae, ska and soul groups such as Toots and the Maytals. The image of all of the characters was very important to get spot on as Skinheads took pride in the way they looked; this included the Dr.Martens boots and the Ben Sherman shirts.
After 12 year old Shaun lost his dad due to the Falklands War, he was adopted by a non racist group of friendly Skinheads who showed him a good time, as well as the image. Shaun is then approached by Combo (Stephen Graham) and persuaded in believing that his dad was cheated into his death and Margaret Thatcher was to blame, and from then on he became racist and rebellious towards everyone that got in his way.
Shane Meadows is trying to address and in a way evaluate that time in England, the country was not in a good way and was hit hard by the Falklands War that began on the 2nd April 1982 and finished a short 74 days later on the 14 June 1982. The war was between Great Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The short War resulted in the deaths of 255 British and 649 Argentine soldiers, sailors, and airmen, and three civilian Falklanders.
Skinheads were given a bad name in Britain, and were just known as thugs, racists and neo Nazi’s. I think Shane Meadows wanted to change people’s stereotypical point of view of Skin heads. These people where fed up with society and the actions of a Prime Minister who would admit made mistakes, which is why people were aggravated and turned to different beliefs and different parties such as the BNP. This Is England shows two sides to Skinheads, the friendly side that is not interested in the political matters and just follows because of the image. Then it shows the other side to Skinheads that are interested in the politics, and follow groups such as the BNP because they strongly believed that the party that was currently in power was not doing the right things, especially not things that benefited the people of Great Britain and lost all faith in the Government that were running our Country. Skinheads always had a reason for their behavior, wherever it was they didn’t like the man who run the corner shop, or the current party that were in power, they were aggressive because they didn’t see things been done that should have been.
Looking at the film This Is England, England is not represented as a nice welcoming place, but Shane Meadows purposely created this image because that was what the Streets of England looked like in the early 80’s. The country was struggling and that showed the whole way from the Streets, to the people and the Government.