Young People

Young people in This Is England are presented in various ways. The main character Shaun is presented as a lonely child who is picked on by crueller children, who make up a lot of the films other representations of young people (like the fedora wearing one who makes fun of Shaun for his dead dad). The skinhead gang is also presenting young people, as Woody and others are only in their early-mid twenties, which implies Woody had a similar experience to Shaun as evidenced by his friendship with Combo. This representation of younger people are kinder than the school children we are shown first (aside from Kes) and are also presented as being relatively content with their lives as they are right now.

Older People

In a lot of the movie, older people are presented quite negatively. There aren’t a lot of much older people in most of the movie until the introduction of Combo and Banjo, who are “first generation” skinheads, and the other older people in the movie are introduced because of them. The older people are the nationalists in the film, giving speeches about how Britain should be for the British, etc. and overall serve as an antagonistic force, targeting younger people like Shaun and Kes to persuade them over to their prejudiced way of thinking.

But not all older people are presented this way. Shaun’s mother is presented as a kind and caring character in the movie, always trying her best to look after Shaun even if Shaun doesn’t appreciate her efforts. Even when Shaun gets his head shaved and gets new clothes, she isn’t incredibly angry. She does become quite upset but she meets with the skinheads and thanks them for making Shaun feel happy, showing she does have his best interests at heart.

Class

The majority of the films characters come from the lower class, suggesting reasoning as to why they decided to become skinheads. The skinheads hang around in run down buildings and find fun in wrecking them, and they don’t normally complain about their life situations. The only one who does is Combo, who blames immigrants for his poverty. The highest class member of the group we are shown is Smell, who’s family is shown to own a relatively nice house with nice furnishing and such. Higher classes are only really shown in the nationalist speaker Combo takes Shaun to go see, who rants on about topics similar to Combo, despite it being implied that the speaker is in a comfortable position in life. The lower classes are usually presented as people looking to make the best out of what they have, while the upper classes are shown complaining about things that don’t even affect them in the slightest.

English People

The English people make up a lot of the main cast of This Is England, but unlike Trainspotting their English identity forms the basis of the plot of this film. Characters like Woody and Lol aren’t really impacted by their English identity, and characters like those are normally presented as the most comfortable. However, the idea of an English identity is used by Combo (and the nationalist speaker) to convince people to join their gang. Combo twists the idea of patriotism to convince Shaun to join his gang, and very nearly persuades Milky to join by telling him his English identity is more important than his Jamaican identity.

Asian/Black people

There isn’t a lot of representation of Asian people, but it is very important regardless. The most apparent presentation is the shopkeeper, who is seen at the beginning and near the end of the film. He is presented as a man who is just trying to make a living, but is given trouble by Shaun in the beginning due to him being am annoying child, and later by Combo, Shaun and the rest of the gang, when his store is hit by them for a racially motivated reason and slurs are hurled at him during the robbery. This scene is quite hard to watch, as it shows this shopkeeper who didn’t do anything wrong being threatened by a machete while his store is robbed. The gang also steals a ball off of a group of Indian children, during which they also make racist remarks. These characters are shown as receiving a lot of trouble for doing basically nothing, and the audience should feel pity for them

Most of the black representation comes from Milky, the only black member of the skinhead gang. Milky is English with Jamaican heritage, and is treated the same as any other English character until Combo is introduced. Combo uses the fact that Milky is black to fuel a lot of his argument in the scene where he attempts to break up the gang, by using the fact that no one stood up for him when Combo made a very racist joke at the party to say that English people don’t stick up for each other anymore. This argument falls apart at the end when Combo is just very racist towards Milky and beats him, showing that he doesn’t care about any of that and really is racist. Milky is initially presented as a normal Englishman before Combo weaponizes his race to back his nationalist beliefs.

Men

The men in This Is England make up a lot of the cast. Their presentations vary, from Shaun’s wannabe masculinity where he idolises men he views as strong (Initially Woody then Combo, though this idealisation of older men in his life probably stems from how highly he views his father), to Woody wanting to enjoy life and protectiveness of his friends, and Combo’s ideas of masculinity tying in with his nationalist ideas. A lot of male characterisation features strength in some way, but they often display extreme emotions as well.

Women

Like Trainspotting, women are usually wives or girlfriends. The most prominent female character, Lol, is Woody’s girlfriend, but is given a lot of her own character and story. Smell as well is only in the story to act as Shaun’s girlfriend and serves no other purpose in the story, so why she is included I have no idea. Shaun’s mother is given strength in her widowed status, having to look after Shaun by herself, giving the audience some kind of respect for her. The women in This Is England, while still designated to set roles, are given their own aspects of strength and character.

Place

The films English setting is, in my opinion, the films biggest strength. The film presents a familiar, small town English setting, and shows the audience the mundane nature of the town streets, the brick buildings and flat grassy areas. The film shows how boring and stagnant life for a young person would be in this town, and so gives reasoning as to why Shaun joins the skinhead gang, and why the skinheads find fun in wrecking abandoned houses and have house parties: because the audience can tell from the town that it is set in that there is nothing better to do. The setting of This Is England is presented as common and familiar to an English audience, and as dull and boring to the characters, though through the films cinematography it can form some shots that are very nice to look at.