THIS IS ENGLAND (2006, United Kingdom, 98 min.), directed by Shane Meadows; screenplay by Shane Meadows; cinematography by Danny Cohen; edited by Chris Wyatt; music by Ludovico Einaudi; with Thomas Turgoose (Shaun), Stephen Graham (Combo), Jo Hartley (Cynth, Shaun’s Mother), Andrew Shim (Milky), Vicky McClure (Lol), and Joe Gilgun (Woody), Rosamund Hanson (Smell), Andrew Ellis (Gadget), Perry Benson (Meggy), George Newton (Banjo). 

 

Please jot down answers to the following questions and answer three in detail.  One of the three longer answers should be to the final question.

 

1.         Discuss the film’s title.  What are some of the ways in which it works?

 

 

 

 

2.         The film opens with a montage of documentary shots attempting to capture a particular time and place.  What comes across?

 

 

 

 

3.         The film is set in the East Midlands region of England.  How would you describe this place—visually, socially?  Is it what you usually think of as England? 

 

 

 

 

4.         What is young Shaun like at the beginning of the film?  How does he look?  How does he act?  Why does he seem like such a loner?

 

 

 

 

5.         This is very much a “coming of age” film (aka a “rite of passage” film).  What does Shaun come to learn over the course of the film, and how does he develop through these encounters?

 

 

 

 

6.         How would you characterize Woody’s gang as a group?  Do they come across as real people?  What are they after? 

 

 

 

 

7.         Now focus on a couple of them as individuals.  Discuss them.

 

 

 

8.         Discuss Shaun’s relationship with his mother, Cynth. 

 

 

 

9.         Discuss his relationship with Smell.

 

 

 

 

10.       The status quo of the first part of the film is shattered when Combo comes back to town.  Discuss him.  In what ways is he a complex character?  What does he want?  Why is he so drawn to Shaun?  Why is Shaun so drawn to him?

 

 

 

 

11.       Discuss the theme of family in the film.

 

 

 

 

12.       There is a fair amount of suspense in the film.  How is it created?

 

 

 

 

13.       The film’s music track helps position us in its historical moment—the early 80s.  What kind of mood does it create?  What are some scenes in which it is particularly effective?

 

 

 

 

14.       How about the use of costumes and hairstyles?  Discuss the skinhead look.

 

 

 

 

15.       Discuss the film’s handling of anti-immigrant chauvinism and neo-Nazism.  What is the motivation there?  What is the film saying?

 

 

 

 

15.       Looming over everything is the specter of the recent Falklands War.  How is it used?

 

 

 

 

16.       The film is set in the early 80s and is to some extent a recreation of the director’s own life.  But like any really good historical picture, it also speaks to us today.  How does it do so?

 

 

 

 

17.    Compare/Contrast the five reviews on the website.  What is the main argument of each?  Which do you prefer, and why?