This Is England

In 1983, twelve-year-old Shaun has lost his father in the Falklands and falls in with a group of skinheads. They are warm at first and listen to ska; when Combo comes out of prison the same group drifts toward National Front politics. Showing the distance between the subculture's origins and what the far right did with it is the film's main job. Shane Meadows wrote it out of his own childhood. Thomas Turgoose was thirteen at his audition and had never acted. Stephen Graham plays Combo. The budget was 1.5 million pounds and it grossed 5 million. The censorship fight was its most concrete battle. The BBFC gave it an 18 for realistic violence and racist language, and Meadows objected publicly, saying it closed the film off to the audience it would benefit most. Bristol City Council overturned the rating locally with a 15, and other councils followed. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 93 percent and Metacritic at 86. It won the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film at the 2007 BAFTAs and Best British Independent Film. Its success produced three series: This Is England '86 in 2010, '88 in 2011 and '90 in 2015. Who it is for: viewers interested in British social realism and how radicalisation starts. Who it is not for: anyone who cannot sit with racist language. The film uses it unsoftened, which is what the BBFC argument was about.