Made in Britain

Trevor is sixteen, his head is shaved and he has a tattoo on his forehead. He is sent to an assessment centre. Social workers, teachers and officials talk to him in turn; each offers him a way out and he refuses all of them. No reason for his anger is given and the film produces no explanation. Alan Clarke directs. Tim Roth plays Trevor. The screenplay is by David Leland. It was made for British television. It is Tim Roth's first work and the part drew large attention at the time; the character is played as anger with no defence at all. Clarke's known method is here: long tracking shots. The camera walks behind the character and moves without cutting through corridors and streets, a method that influenced many directors afterwards. Its most cited scene is at a blackboard in a school room; officials draw Trevor a diagram of how his life will go and he kicks the wall in reply. The subject is that the system does not work. The institutions mean well and are entirely inadequate; the film clears nobody and proposes no solution. It takes on the Britain of the early eighties directly: unemployment, racist movements and the relation of young people to institutions. Who it is for: viewers who follow British television drama and the work of Alan Clarke. Who it is not for: the character is entirely unlikeable, the language is very harsh, and the film gives no hope at any point.