This is England - Social Realism

This is England - Social Realism

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 What is social realism

Social realism, also known as socio-realism , is an artistic movement , expresseed in the visual and other realist arts, depicting social and racial injustice,economic hardship, through unvarnished pictures of life's struggles;often depicting working class activities as heroic.

Said genre is considered Britian's main form of cinematic cinema. Better than any other genre, social realism has shown us to ourselves, pushing the boundaries in the effort to put the experiences of real Britons on the screen, and shaping our ideas of what British cinema can be.

These texts tend to focus on the type of characters not generally found in mainstream films. Social realist texts follow characters who are found more on the social margins of society in terms of status and power.

Usually a Social realist film deals with issues such as drugs, sex, poverty, class and religious or political issues.

This is england conforms to the social realist genre by dealing with real life issues such as coming off age as well as touching on issues such as the effects of the Falkland wars on British youth and the British family. At the film, our protagonist Shaun has lost his Dad to the Falkland war and we see him disassociated from his classmates and arguably marginalised from society evident earlier on in the film as we see him get banned from the local cornershop. One could argue the effects of his fathers death at such an early age has affected not only Sean's school life which will be discussed later but also causing him to loose a male role model or opinion leader to follow, leaving him lost and causing him to act out as evident in this clip.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAEpJX0Bwt0

Speaking from personal experience what really attracted me to This is England is how the problem Sean goes through earlier on in the film is quite relatable, we see a boy growing up, going through secondary school and is somewhat lacking a role model or opinion leader and at this point doesnt really fit in or relate to his class mates. This is clearly illustrated in the clip above even in the way the mis en scene chosen/organised- everyone is wearing very extravagant clothing such as new wave fashion styles common to that era whereas Sean is wearing something quite normal except for the flaires excluding him from his peers. Sean's lack of fashionable clothing could be evident also of his families issues with finance since he may only be allowed to afford clothing for the purpose of function not whether it looks good thus illustrating a common people many young people face when growing up. Its quite a funny scene as it shows how timeless the idea of "in fashion" and how having the right clothing means your part of a group.


As the scene first opens we see a high angle shot of Sean making him seem quite small in contrast to his surroundings and establishing how intimidating school must seem for him.
 During the clip we also get to understand the emotional affects of Sean's loss on his School life as Havery's comment on Sean's loss clearly aggravate him to act out violently instead of considering what some may call a more sensible option and walk away or possibly call a teacher. We see that such an event taking place in Sean's life is causing school life to become much more of a challenge in terms of fitting in as well as feeling enthusiastic about his school environment. In addition, Sean's troubles as a result would also affect his home life since his mother would want him to do well at School but his behavior at School would serve as some sort of conflict to this ideal.

 However as the film progresses Sean is introduced to a group of Skinheads who take him in and serve as his opinion leaders giving the character confidence and a sense of belonging.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS5g3xLCrGo

In the beginning of the scene we see Sean miserable even when initially introduced to Woody the diagetic sounds of Sean's mumbling clearly show that he isn't a very confident or happy child. As the sequence progresses we see a two shot of Sean's and Woody in which we clearly see Sean's unconformable demeanor illustrated by how he holds himself closed off from the others as well as looking down in contrast to Woody's more energetic and relaxed mood. Such a composition of a shot mainly focusing on the two could perhaps significant how already Woody serves as the "Sean" who Sean wants to be by placing Woody in front of Sean  and have him sit in a similar way  like some sort of "future version of the protagonist.

The scene features various close up shots of Sean's face to convey the change in his attitude and emotion as a result of Woody and we even cut back to the two shot of Woody and Sean, this time with Sean looking towards Woody signifying how he is becoming this role model to the character.  Additionally, when the character Gadget is introduced and he ask Sean to move, Sean intitally turns to Wood asking "shall I move?" which one could argue evidences how Woody has become this now opinion leader to Sean as the character confidently seeks and trusts the advice of Woody even though someone else has asked to to do something else.

This is England however touches on political issues that surronded the 1980's as seen in the early opening credits of the film which features a montage of scenes from significant events from the decade such as the Miners Strike, the Greenham Common Protests against the siting of American Cruise Missiles as well as the Falklands war.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBpJ4ZuFP8E

The opening sequence represents the social and historical context of the film by featuirng trival clips of 80's culture such as roland rat, knight rider, the hair and fashion styles of the decade to serious social events of the decade such as the miners strike and news clips of the  horrors of the Falkland wars. All this with a late 70's SKA soundtrack which reflects the skinhead culture who adopted this type of music. In addition to this the opening features Stencil based type referring to the army and the war. It is believed that Director Shane Meadows many references to the war also served as a way for him to comment on the patriotic yet xenophopic celebration of the Falkland victory which Meadows saw as hiding the fact that British forces overwhelming untrained and unprepared Argentinian troops. One could argue by featuring clips of civil unrest of the British public Meadows is illustrating how strange it was at the time to be celebrating the greatness of Britain at the time and attacking foreigners and migrants when the country was in such a bad state suffering from high unemployment and disruption in  home life as a result of the Thatcherite government clearly shown here by the former prime ministers presence throughout the opening.

What does it mean to be British?

Britishness is the state or quality of being British, or of embodying British characteristics for instance a stiff upper lip, the love for a good cup of tea, sarcasm or most commonly fish and chips.

Although these things are quintessentially British tropes and stereotypes I think being British is about being part of a multicultural society in which ideally no culture's voice is looked down upon in comparison to others.