I was already interested in the real life case of Bonnie And Clyde, so I was excited for this movie and it definitely lived up to my expectations. It wasn’t very historically accurate but it was engaging, and there were a lot of standout scenes. The shootouts were engaging and tense, and the film was also surprisingly funny in a few scenes. I found the character dynamics interesting to watch, and the film itself looked beautiful, portraying American country landscapes and small towns.
Standout Scene: After The Shootout/Buck Got Shot
This film really stood out to me as it was really dark compared to what came before it in the film, and it acts as a turning point in the tone in the movie. This scene comes after a tense and action filled shoot out between the police and the Barrow gang. During this shootout two very important things happen: Buck gets shot in the head, and Blanche gets shot in the eye. This scene after the shootout is the Barrow gang trying to save Buck. The lighting really takes effect in this scene: it takes place in the night, the only light source being from the car headlights. The light casts shadows over the characters, making the shots interesting to look at. The darkness compliments the tragic events the characters experience. This is the first time the Barrow Gang has suffered consequences to their actions, and it is a real tragic moment in the film. There is no underscore, the only sounds are Blanche’s screaming, Clyde and Moss helping Buck, Bonnie uncharacteristically trying to comfort Blanche (A change in character, as Blanche and Bonnie were always against each other), and Buck’s delirious talking as Clyde bandages his head wound. Its a slow, harrowing scene, and marks the movie’s descent into tragedy.
Bogart was on contract with Warner Brothers, and initially they didn’t want the role of Blaine to go to Bogart, having Ronald Reagan in mind instead. But the role was written with Bogart in mind, and the producers fought to have him in the film, and eventually succeeded in having his inclusion. Bogart made his cinematic breakthrough a year before he starred in Casablanca, in a film called High Sierra (1941), and he became even more famous as the lead in The Maltese Falcon (1941). He used to play bad guys or Private Detectives (“Tough Without A Gun”). His role in these noir detective stories probably influenced his casting as the coarse, blunt Rick Blaine, as well as his know roles as a leading man, though this performance made his future roles more heroic.
Ingrid Bergman – Ilsa Lund
Bergman was an actor of Swedish nationality. She was originally featured in Swedish and German films, typically in dramas such as 1935’s Ocean Breakers and 1939’s Only One Night, before being presented to American audiences reprising a lead role in the American remake of Swedish film Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939), the original of which she also starred in. Originally, producers were worried her name was too German, and about the fact that she couldn’t really speak English, yet she was accepted in her first American role with no changes. She was completely devoted to her work on the films she worked on. She was an activist, protesting racial segregation in America and travelling to Alaska and other parts of Europe to entertain troops after the war ended. Before Casablanca, her most well known role, she appeared in MGM films Rage In Heaven (1941) and Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde(1941). Her casting in Casablanca was influenced by her foreign background and her well-known beauty.
Paul Henreid – Victor Lazlo
Henried was Austrian-American, and also worked in Hollywood as a director and producer as well as an actor. His first credited American role was in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939). His other big hit aside from Casablanca, Now Voyager (1942), was released just a month before Casablanca. He escaped from the Nazi regime to the UK and America after being designated as an official enemy of the third Reich, and had his acting career in these countries being vouched for by The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligiri star and Casablanca‘s villain Conrad Viedt. While he was in Nazi Germany, he was not allowed to act due to his father being born Jewish.
Claude Rains – Captain Louis Renault
Rains was born in London and was most known for acting in a lot of the Warner Bros. Classic Monster movies, such as The Wolf Man (1941) and the lead role as Dr. Jack Griffin in his American debut film The Invisible Man (1933), as well as starring alongside fellow Casablanca star Paul Henried in Now Voyager (1942). He worked from 1931 all the way through to 1965, only two years before his death, and was a very prominent actor for Warner Bros., appearing as important roles in many very popular films.
Conrad Viedt – Major Heinrich Strasser
Viedt was a very popular German actor who most prominently appeared in horror films in antagonistic roles, famously in The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligiri (1920) and The Man Who Laughs (1928), as well as other villainous roles like Ivan The Terrible in Waxworks (1924) and Rasputin in Rasputin: Demon With Women (1932), though very rarely he did play the hero character such as Phileas Fogg in Around The World In 80 Days (1919). When the Nazis began censoring the film industry and Viedt was forced to state his race on a questionnaire presented to everyone in the film industry, he answered “Jew” in solidarity to his Jewish wife, even though he himself wasn’t. He then left Germany with his wife to work in England. In Casablanca, the second last film he featured in before his death in 1943 and the last film he featured in that was released in his lifetime, he sticks to his villainous roles as he plays antagonist Nazi officer Heinrich Strasser. Viedt was most likely cast in this role due to his career playing villains and his German heritage.
Sydney Greenstreet – Signor Ferrari
Greenstreet didn’t start acting on screen until he was 61 in the role of Kasper Gutman in The Maltese Falcon (1941) alongside Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre, though he did appear in a few stage productions before this. Casablanca was the fourth film Greenstreet was in, as Rick’s rival bar owner Signor Ferrari, and he continued to have a long career in film until 1949, where then switched to radio drama series The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe in the titular role from 1950-1951, until his retirement from acting, followed by his death from complications with diabetes and Bright’s disease in 1954. I believe Greenstreet was cast in this role due to his elderly, “portly businessman” appearance fitting the role of Ferrari.
Peter Lorre – Ugarte
Lorre was a Hungarian character actor, and well known for playing timid yet devious characters, and appeared in a lot of crime films such as alongside Casablanca co-stars Bogart and Greenstreet in The Maltese Falcon (1941), and others such as Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and Mad Love (1935), as well as starring as the main character in the 1935 adaptation of Crime And Punishment and as the leading Mr. Moto in the Mr. Moto film franchise (1937-1939). Originally starring in Austrian and German films, he made is debut in American film in 1934. During his American career he was often typecast as a “sinister foreigner”, playing antagonistic roles. His role as Ugarte in Casablanca is a small but important one, as Ugarte is an American in Casablanca who sells letters of transit to refugees. He provides Rick with the Letters Of Transit (which he obtained by murdering two German couriers on a train), and then is subsequently executed. This sketchy black-market dealer character aligns with the characters Lorre usually played.
S.Z Sakall – Carl
Sakall was a Jewish Hungarian character actor. He appeared in various Hungarian stage productions and films from the 1910s to the 1920s and was a star. When Hungary joined the Axis powers in WW2 he emigrated to America and became an actor there. A lot of his family were killed in Nazi concentration camps. His first American role was 1940’s It’s A Date, though his first big hit was 1941’s Ball Of Fire. He was very well known for appearing in light-hearted romance movies, like the German Two Hearts Waltz In Time (1930), Must We get Divorced? (1933), and The Devil And Miss Jones (1941). His career in supporting roles in these romances is possibly what led to his casting as the waiter Carl in Casablanca.
Madeleine Lebeau – Yvonne
Lebeau was a French actress who fled Paris with her Jewish husband Marcel Dalio when the Second World War started and found an acting career in America. Her first film role was in the French film Girls In Distress (1939) in an uncredited role as a student, before she had to flee France. On her passage to America, she was stranded in Mexico when the Chilean visas purchased by her and her husband turned out to be fakes. She learned English during a 7 week stay on a Portuguese ship looking for port. Her Hollywood debut was in 1941’s Hold back The Dawn. Originally having a bigger part in Casablanca as Blaine’s discarded fling Yvonne, each rewrite of the script made her part smaller. Her standout scene is when she is shown during the chorus singing the French national anthem to drown out the Germans, where her face is shown in a close up with tears on her face, and subsequently cries “Vive la france! Vive la liberte!”. This scene probably meant a lot to her, as he could relate to the feeling of French patriotism. She was the last surviving credited cast member of Casablanca as of 2008, until her death in Spain in 2016.
Dooley Wilson – Sam
Wilson was born in Texas as Arthur Wilson, being given the nickname “Dooley” after a popular performance of his where he did whiteface and played an irishman singing a song called “Mr Dooley”. He was a musician as well as an actor, singing the song “As Time Goes By” himself, though he was not a pianist, so the piano music was played offscreen by someone else. He obtained a contract with Paramount Pictures after a breakthrough role as Little Joe in Broadway production Cabin In The Sky. His first film role was in boxing movie Keep Punching (1939).Casablanca was his sixth film role, as bar pianist Sam, who performs music for patrons of Rick’s and has been friends with Rick since Paris. Wilson was probably cast in this role due to his past as a singing performer.
Joy Page – Annina Brandel
Page was born to Mexcan-American silent movie star Don Alvarado and a mother descended from Russian-jewish refugees. Her parents divorced when she was 8 and her mother remarried to the head of Warner Brothers, Jack Warner, when Joy was 12. Warner did not approve of Joy’s interest in acting. When Joy got the script to Casablanca, her first movie role, she thought the film was old fashioned and cliché, but still she obtained the part of married Bulgarian refugee Annina on her own, and her stepfather reluctantly agreed for her to be in the film. She was one of only three American born actors on the film, alongside Bogard and Wilson. Her stepfather banned her from signing her on any contracts with Warner Brothers, so she went on to appear in films from other studios. She married actor William T. Orr in 1945, who later went on to become an executive for Warner Bros. She was the second surviving member of Casablanca alongside Lebeau, until her death in 2008.
John Qualen – Berger
Qualen was a character actor of Norwegian heritage who often used accents, usually Scandinavian accents, in his roles. in his career he appeared in over 100 movies and also featured on television. He gained his start in acting as part of the Chautaqua circuit troupe, before forming his own theatre troupe, The Qualen Concert Company, with his wife. He gained a big break in Broadway in 1929 as a Swedish janitor in the performance Street Scene, a role he recreated in his first film role, which was a film version of the the play. He became a part of director John Ford’s stock crew after being cast in his film Arrowsmith (1931). His role in Ford’s crew lasted all the way through to the 60s. Two years before he was cast in Casablanca, he featured in hit film The Grapes Of Wrath (1940). For his role as Berger, a revolutionary pretending to be a jewellery salesman, in Casablanca, he used a slight Scandinavian accent, that being his most used accent in his acting gimmick.
Mise-En-Scene
The setting uses lots of things that gives off interesting looking shadows, like shutters, the fancy table lamps, ceiling fan etc.
The film was constructed on a studio stage and not on location (due to the war going on). This was an opportunity for the set designers to create a fantasy-like world of Casablanca, filling it with exotic trees and strange architecture that created a place where the audience could get lost in.
The characters dressed abnormally well, adding to the fantasy feel of the film, and even refugees from the law were dressed in suits and ties and beautiful dresses. The good guys were dressed in light colours (e.g Rick Blaine’s white suit) and the bad guys in dark colours (e.g Strasser’s Nazi uniform).
Editing
Casablanca uses the standard “Invisible editing” style of Hollywood at the time. This style attempted to fully immerse the audience and make cuts seem invisible, presenting the film as one smooth continuous story.
The editing in Casablanca is also good at creating engaging sequences, like the scene where Rick rigs the roulette table so Annina and her husband can buy a visa to escape Casablanca. The scene is low stakes – It’s Rick’s establishment, so he can’t get in trouble for cheating, and even if the husband loses, that couple aren’t main characters. But the quick cuts of Rick to chips to wheel to the husband winning repeated twice creates a quick, engaging scene that goes quickly and keeps the audience invested
Representation in Casablanca
The majority of the cast of Casablanca were immigrants. 34 different nationalities were displayed in the film. There were only three Americans on the cast: Bogart, Page and Wilson. The rest were European refugees, from Germany, Hungary, Austria, France etc., all countries affected by Nazi invasions.
Aesthetics in Casablanca
The film is not intended to be realistic. It looks like it’s a stage play, and the sets fit the American ideas of what Casablanca, a country exotic and far away to them, would be, even if it is boring in reality. The characters also wear impossibly good, stylish clothing, which again is not questioned by the audience as it fits the world created within the film.
The tone of Casablanca is for the majority of the film quite bleak. The Nazi’s are all over the city, people are being executed everywhere, Rick is a no-nonsense man who seems to constantly be annoyed by everything and Victor is in danger of being captured and killed. However, the film ends on a surprisingly positive note where Rick lets Ilsa go, the Nazi commander is shot and killed, Victor escapes and Rick leavesCasablanca with Louis. It almost feels like a fantasy, fairy-tale ending, which fits with the films storybook aesthetic.
Themes and Issues
Isolationism – a policy of remaining apart from the affairs or interests of other groups, especially the political affairs of other countries.
What was America’s view on World War 2? – America initially wanted to remain neutral (96% of polled American citizens believed America should stay neutral, and WW2 was referred to as “that phony war in Europe”), although they did supply military supplies as well as other assistance to the allies. They officially joined the war, however, when they themselves were attacked at Pearl Harbour. This is similar to the character of Rick, who initially claims to be neutral in all cases, despite helping resistance fighters before moving to Casablanca, but then sides with the Allies and fights against the Nazis once the war puts Ilsa in danger.
Sound
The song “As Time Goes By”, though not written for Casablanca, became synonymous with the film. Written by Herman Hupfeild for a Broadway musical, it was repurposed for the film and practically became the theme song for the film. Max Steiner, the composer, was not a fan of the song, but since they couldn’t reshoot the scene where Ilsa asks Sam to play the song due to Bergman having her hair cut for another role, he had to use it. He implemented the tune of the song into the underscore of the film and it became a leitmotif for romance in the film
Another song featured in the film is the French national anthem “Les Marseillaise”. This scene is one of the emotional high points of the movie, as the entire bar joins in singing the song, drowning out the Germans singing their own national anthem. In this instance, music is used to represent rebellion and defiance in the people, and how there is still hope in the victims of the Nazi regime
The film also has a constant orchestral underscore to the movie, composed by Max Steiner, giving it a more “epic” feel and giving the emotions of the movie more depth, while also adding to the theatrical feel of the movie.
Political and Social Context
Allies – Great Britain, U.S.A, U.S.S.R
Axis – Germany, Italy, Japan
France – Originally an Allied power, surrendered to Germany. Some generals and soldiers still decide to fight on (called the Free French – Allied). Vichy France was a territory of France that was run by the Germans. Vichy France runs Casablanca (Morocco is part of French territory)
War starts in 1939. America joined the war in 1941 due to Japan bombing Pearl Harbour.
The cinema had “movie reels” before the movies started, at this time of what was happening in the war. This was a primary way that the American population gained information on the war.
Operation Torch – Operation Torch (8-16 November 1942) was the Allied invasion of French North Africa. It allowed America to begin the fight against the Axis powers while Britain could secure victory in North Africa.
Film “captured the zeitgeist” – Casablanca was all over the news and in popular culture due to Operation Torch and the conference. The film premiered November 26 1942 instead of the anticipated release date of early 1943 in order to capitalise off of the attention the name Casablanca was getting. The film was released only 10 days after Operation Torch ended.
Casablanca Conference – The conference was a meeting between American President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Casablanca about strategizing for the next steps in the war on January 14-24, 1943.
Casablanca went into general release on January 23, 1943, just before the end of the Casablanca Conference, allowing the film to continue profiting off of the news.
Film Noir is a style of film popular in the 1940s-1950s. Noir films are shot in black and white, and have a focus on shadows in the cinematography. The Noir genre focused on plots around hard boiled private detectives, femme fatales, murders and the mafia/gangs.
Night Of The Hunter (1955, Charles Laughton)
Neo Noir
Neo Noir is a modernised version of the Noir style of the 40s with more graphic depictions of violence. It modernises the pessimism and mean nature of the classic Noir style for contemporary audiences
Casablanca is a romantic drama made during the second world war and set in the Nazi controlled Moroccan town of Casablanca, in which bar owner Rick Blaine is involved in the escape of resistance fighter Victor Lazlo, made more difficult by the involvement of his old girlfriend from Paris, Ilsa Lund. This is a generally highly rated film, and I have to agree that Casablanca is a very well made and well acted film with a very interesting story. Its a fantastic film that deserves all the praise it gets.
Memorable Scene: Ilsa leaves Casablanca with Victor
This scene serves as the end to the film as well as its emotional climax, and it is definitely the most memorable part of the film to me. Rick, deciding to help Ilsa by giving her the letters of transit, holds the police captain at gunpoint and drives her and Victor to the airport. Ilsa is under the assumption that she will be staying with Rick while Victor leaves for America, however Rick has arranged for her to leave with Victor without telling her to make sure she leaves. Rick explains that Ilsa has to leave with Victor because she motivates Victor to keep going and because Victor loves her. The reveal of Rick sending Ilsa away to America is accompanied by a swelling underscore which raises the emotional impact, as well as a dramatic zoom in to Rick and Ilsa’s faces. This scene also shows Rick’s character development, as in the beginning he was a sour, mean man who did have moments of kindness that he conctantly undermined. He insisted he was neutral in all matters, and when it came to Ilsa and Victor he was aggressive and resentful towards the two of them due to his past with Ilsa, which is a pathetic side to him as he endangers Victor’s life by not giving him the letters of transit because Ilsa left him. However by this scene he has changed, and stops being mean towards the couple and lets his petty grudge against Ilsa go, allowing her to be free and letting Victor escape the Nazis. The score, close up shots and amazing acting from Bogard and Bergman really makes this emotional scene extremely impactful . Also I cried.
Filmmakers and producers moved to Hollywood due to the useful filming locations and to escape Thomas Edison trying to monopolize the film industry.
Charlie Chaplin was both a big star and a director. Another famous film star was Harold Lloyd, and Thomas H. Ince was a silent film director. Famous pictures from the silent era includes The Cabinet Of Dr Caligiri and Nosferatu, both german, while Hollywood produced Ben-Hur and 7th Heaven
The early Hollywood studio system had one person do the writing, directing, filming and producer work on the film, until Thomas Ince changed that by splitting these aspects into different jobs. The early system also had the studio practically own the actors, which Charlie Chaplin combated.
The Jazz Singer from 1927 was the first talking picture (or Talkie)
The end of the silent era brought problems to certain directors and actors who had made careers in the silent era as now vocal performances became important and they couldn’t just use physical skills anymore. The new technology was also too complex for them to get used to quickly.
During the time of the silent era of film, America went through World War One, the Wall Street crash and The Great Depression.
Charlie Chaplin, famous silent director and actor(1889-1977)
Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ (1925)
The Golden Age Of Hollywood (1930-1947)
The five big studios were:
– MGM, which did high budget films and literary adaptations
Gone With The Wind (1939)
– Paramount, which was known as the more European studio and got German directors over to make films
Shanghai Express (1932)
– Warner Brothers, which made low budget movies like gangster movies and musicals
The Public Enemy (1931)
– 20th Century Fox, famous for making westerns, musicals and dramas
The Grapes Of Wrath (1940)
-RKO, which made a variety of films from musicals to screwball comedies to creature features and even dramas such as Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane (1941)
2. Vertical integration is the combination of two or more stages of production in a business. Block booking is a system of selling multiple films to a theatre as a unit.
3. The original studio system collapsed in 1948 at the conclusion of the United States v. Paramount court case when the 5 big studios were found of violating trust laws.
4. At this time, America went through the Great Depression. America also went through the second world war in the 1940s.
5. At the time people enjoyed movies of the westerns, musicals, screwball comedies and film noir genres. More people than ever went to visit the cinema during this time to escape the great depression, which took a large toll on the mental health of the American population.
Classical Hollywood Style
The invisible style of storytelling is when the edits are practically invisible to the audience. This style tries to conceal artistic choices in order to present a natural story to the audience.
Continuity editing is the use of editing techniques to combine shots into one smooth, continuous narrative. Classical Hollywood often used continuity editing. This creates an illusion of a sequential, chronological story and is meant to get the audience immersed in the story presented by the film.
Realism is an attempt to make the audience believe in the world the film creates
Verisimilitude – When a film conveys a sense of truthfulness and realism, sometimes requiring suspension of disbelief
Intruder (1989, Scott Spiegel)
The Hitcher (1986, Robert Harmon)
Social Realism – The movie displays a social environment and its impacts on the characters in it.
Perfect Blue (1997, Satoshi Kon) – Kon uses the film to critique the Japanese idol system and how celebrities are treated.
Magic Realism – Surreal and fantastical elements have been incorporated into an otherwise realistic setting
Carrie (1976, Brian De Palma)
Hyperreality – A film in which the reality portrayed is exaggerated, or is “too real to be real”
The Matrix Reloaded (2003,The Wachowzkis)
Visual Style
Iconography – Use of reoccurring visual symbols that convey emotion and provide symbolism
Lady Vengeance (2005, Park Chan-Wook) – the colour white is used in the movie to show purity, revenge and devotion.
Intertextual Referencing – When a film incorporates aspects of another work (another film, book, series, poetry etc)
The Crow (1994, Alex Proyas) – The graphic novel the film was based on was heavily inspired by the band Joy Division and quoted song titles in the artwork frequently, and the film itself quotes classic literature like ‘Paradise Lost’ and Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Raven‘
Visual/Sound motifs – Recurring element in a film to help the story like announcing a character, punctuating a plot point or highlighting a theme
Suspiria (1977, Dario Argento) – Suspiria uses a lot of unnatural red and blue lighting, creating a dreamlike feel and being used to announce the appearance of supernatural forces or death
Colour Grading – changing the colour of footage in post production to create a constant colour scheme or to represent a theme
Manhunter (1986, Michael Mann)
Auteur trademark – a visual technique used prominently by a particular director that an audience can use to recognise as their work
Phantom Of The Paradise (1974, Brian De Palma) – De Palma uses split screen often in his works
Tone
A films tone is how it portrays its subject matter and how the audience should feel while watching the film
Pathos – Something in a film that invokes pity and compassion in the spectator
Stand By Me (1986, Rob Reiner)– Gordie dreams that his father tells him he should have died instead of his brother
Bathos – an effect of anticlimax
Se7en (1995, David Fincher) – The main antagonist of the film turns himself in
Suspense – When the director creates anticipation and anxiousness in the audience during tense scenes
Black Christmas (1974, Bob Clark)
Comedy – aspects in a film intended to make a spectator laugh and entertain them
Scary Movie (2000, Keenen Ivory Weyans)
Dramatic Irony – When the audience knows something a character doesn’t
Woman Of The Hour (2023, Anna Kendrick) – The audience knows Rodney is a killer. Cheryl doesn’t.
Distancing Effect (V-Effekt) – When the audience is reminded that they are watching a film and are “alienated” from the world of the film
The Muppet Movie (1979, James Frawley) – Dr. Teeth reads the films script
Postmodern Humour – when a film subverts mainstream audience expectations
Return Of The Living Dead (1985, Dan O’Bannon) – The film subverts the standard horror movie format at the time by making the main cast a group of punks and low wage workers and giving them personalities and depth
Catharsis is strong emotions being released, e.g the audience feeling justified or relieved by a characters fate or actions
Reframing – to change the way a thing or a character is thought of by the spectator
Throughout Joker, cinematography is used effectively to create a sense of chaos within the film’s diegetic world.This is particularly evident in the scene towards the end of the film where Arthur is shown in a low- angle, close-up looking out of the police car window and reacting with glee at the riots taking place around him.Here, the camera is used to position the spectator as not only connecting with Arthur, but now looking up to him. This suggests to the spectator that the tables have turned and Arthur, who was earlier depicted as pathetic and sad, is now depicted as powerful and heroic. This “reframing” of the central character” has a potentially cathartic effect on the spectator who has, up until this point, been encouraged to sympathise with Arthur’s point of view as a victim of circumstance.The deliberate and stylised use of this slow-motion reaction shot, enables the spectator to get a sense of poetic justice being served: Arthur is now on his way to prison. Yellow = Point, Green = Evidence, Blue = Explanation, Purple = link
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 Pukey) 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 Pukey 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 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.
The scene at the end when Combo snaps and beats Milky into unconsciousness uses a piano score as the backdrop. Another filmmaker may have decided to include high tempo, energetic, dramatic music behind such a brutal scene, but Meadows instead uses a slow, sombre piano score. This could be to show that this is the biggest emotional low point of the film, and the biggest turning point of all the main characters present: It breaks Combo, it leaves the kind and well meaning Milky a battered unconscious body, and most importantly it disillusions Shaun to Combo’s nationalist rhetoric. The sound also uses pretty heavy sounds for Combo’s punches, making it clear to the viewer that he is really trying to do serious damage to this person who never did anything to him.
Editing
The film starts with this montage of archival footage of 80’s British culture set to ’54 To 46 That’s My Number’ by Toots and the Maytals. It sets the tone of the film well, editing various clips from children’s shows and news footage together to give the audience a feeling of the space the film is set in, showing clips of people at school, music performances, dance exercise videos, Princess Diana etc. What really stood out to me was the short beats at some points in the song being overset by footage of disasters, usually explosion. These parts stood out to me because I liked how the footage synced up to the audio and because I found it funny.
Mise En Scene
This screenshot is taken from the final sequence of the film, where the members of Combo’s gang meet at his apartment for a sort of party, to which Milky also comes. This uses Mise En Scene to show the state at which Combo lives in: a totally empty floor, a sofa and bed pressed against the wall, some pictures stuck to the wall, and a large St. George’s cross flag that Shaun stole across the wall. This tells the audience that Combo is really in a bad economic state and is fairly alone in life.
Cinematography
This shot uses a long shot to show off all the characters and the urban setting. Woody is on one side of the tunnel, the rest of his gang on the other, and Shaun is in the middle, illuminated by the sun before entering the tunnel. The shot has some really nice symmetry that makes it pleasing to look at, and also some potential symbolism, like Shaun being illuminated by sunlight while the skinheads are in shade under the tunnel, showing Shaun’s innocence compared to the harder, rougher lives of the skinheads.
