Gary Dretzka
Noah Forrest
Leonard Klady
David Poland
Douglas Pratt
Ray Pride

The history of the 20th Century is replete with examples of popular movements gone horribly bad. The evolution of England’s skinhead movement, for instance, while more of a footnote than a chapter in that history, demonstrated how easily long-term unemployment, fiery rhetoric and an overabundance of testosterone could turn decent young men into bullies, fear-mongers and bigots.

Set in 1983, in a drab coastal hamlet, This Is England chronicles just such a transition. In it, a relatively benign group of skinheads comes to that point in life when the consequences of dumb decisions become irrevocable and it takes more than a Band-Aid and an apology to stem the bleeding.

With maturity should come wisdom, and adults are supposed to know the difference between right and wrong. Children on the cusp of puberty, however precocious, typically require parental guidance, or a reasonable facsimile thereof.

In Shane Meadows’ largely autobiographical This Is England, feisty 12-year-old Shaun Fields must make just such a choice, absent his father but in the company of a pair older youths perfectly willing to act as surrogates. One offers a quick fix for his troubles, while the other holds out the possibility of an escape to something better. Neither one of the skinhead leaders could take the place of his father, who was killed in Margaret Thatcher’s excellent adventure in the Falkland Islands, but no one else is likely to come riding to his rescue.

"Ultimately, my goal at 11 was going to prison," Meadows allowed. "I thought the be-all and end-all of life was that kind of hard masculinity in men. … No one expected you to be able to escape from a town like this and become a filmmaker."

Plucky first-time actor Thomas "Tommo" Turgoose, who plays Shaun, was discovered in a program for disadvantaged youths. Small for his age, he had been diagnosed with ADD, and wasn’t much of a student. As if to prove he was tough enough to play Shaun, he refused to audition unless Meadows coughed up five pounds per session.

Once he passed the test, Turgoose almost immediately became one of the boys.

When we meet the character at the beginning of This Is England, Shaun is moping his way home from a particularly difficult last day of classes. The school bullies tormented him as much for having lost his father in a war everyone wanted to forget, as for the unfashionable clothes he’s forced to wear because his mother can’t afford anything better.

After some mild horseplay, a group of local skinheads listen to the pint-sized boy’s tale of woe and are amused by his willingness to scrap with them. The group’s amiable leader, Woody, agrees to take him on as a junior member of the gang.

At first, Shaun’s mother is concerned for his well being and the potential for trouble. She comes around after meeting the lads and ladies, however, realizing she wouldn’t mind spend her days getting bombed, listening to music and putting on crazy makeup.

Typical of the period, these skinheads had yet to embrace nationalism and racism, and instigate random beat-downs. They shared a love of Afro-Caribbean music, oxblood-red Dr. Martens boots and disturbing the peace. Being black, or of a mixed-race heritage, didn’t necessarily preclude one from membership, either.

Skinhead girls were a bit less fussy when it came brand-name labels, favoring fish-net stockings, short skirts, heavy boots, dyed hair and an over-abundance of black eye makeup. Indeed, one of the girls in This Is England is a dead ringer for Boy George.

"My sister was a skinhead, and she was always up for a fight," Meadows recalled. "I was 11, she was 15 and the boys were a bit older than her. I began wearing Ben Sherman shirts, straight-leg jeans with rolled cuffs, skinny braces (suspenders), Doc Martens and I had close-cropped hair."

Skinhead culture evolved from the same raucous Mods-and-Rockers scene dramatized in the film Quadrophenia. By the end of the ’60s, the Vespas and parkas favored by the Mods would give way to a more working-class look. Ska and reggae provided the soundtrack to the skinhead experience.

The characters in This Is England considered themselves to be "second-wave" skinheads, their world being fundamentally different than the one re-visited by the Who in Quadrophenia. Homegrown ska bands, such as the Specials and Madness, had come into prominence, and would compete for skinhead ears with the street-level punk off-shoot, Oi!, and hate-metal groups.

The movement’s geographical center shifted from London to cities in the North and Midlands, where the ramifications of Tory economic policies were most devastating. Overnight, it seemed, jobs and property passed down from generation to generation were gone forever, and what opportunities there were went to Pakistani and Indian immigrants.

Shaun might not have been tall enough to do much damage on his own, but, with Woody and the other blokes at his back, he was perfectly capable causing trouble. To avenge a perceived slight by a "Paki" grocer, he returned to the store and practically turned it upside down.

"When you’re 12, and no one in your town can get a job, and someone comes up to you and says, ‘These people are to blame,’ it’s easy to believe," says Meadows about the racism he personally experienced.

By 1983, the lines were being drawn that would separate the less-violent social and left-wing skinheads from the nationalists who rejected any mixing of the races or tolerance of immigrants. American skinhead culture, a by-product of the prison-spawned Aryan Nation, would be less interested in nationalism than fighting turf battles, spreading racist beliefs and making money from trafficking in crystal meth and weapons.

Halfway through This Is England, a popular former leader of the gang returns from prison accompanied by a hulking thug right out of American History X. Combo once was as tolerant and easy-going as the rest of his friends, but, as portrayed by Stephen Graham, he has been transformed into a dynamo of nationalistic fervor. Even though he’s distressed by the continued presence of the mixed-race skinhead, Milky, he can’t bring himself to demand his ouster.

Instead, Combo sees in Shaun an empty canvas, one unafraid to confront the older skinhead and defend Milky. He understands the child’s rage, and borrows the rhetoric of the National Front to convince Shaun who really was to blame for his father’s death: Thatcher’s misplaced priorities.

Caught between father figures, Shaun chooses to follow the one who gave him an instant remedy for his emotional trauma. It isn’t until the boy comes face to face with the consequences of his new gang’s beliefs that he realizes what’s really at stake.

In Meadows’ case, enlightenment came after being invited to witness the ritualized beating of a person who had insulted him. He was stunned by the sheer brutality and suddenness of the assault -- which, as was typical, involved lots of kicking and stomping -- but what really freaked him out was his friends’ ability to shrug off the attack.

"Their incredible rage was immediately followed by joking and bittersweet comedy," Meadows said. "Two weeks later, I began pulling away from what I had seen. That night was the beginning of what I would become.

"This film allowed me to evict all that guilt in myself, by putting it on the screen."

Graham’s portrayal of Combo has drawn raves from critics. Ironically, the Liverpool native is of mixed race himself, and his performance was informed by personal experience.

"There were times growing up when I felt abandoned and lost," said Graham, who has yet to work in the U.S., but was called to Italy to participate in Martin Scorsese’s Gang of New York. "I was proud of my black roots. I was confused, though, by my white cousins, who would call me nigger, and the black ones who said I was too white to be black."

Although he doesn’t remember there being many skinheads in Liverpool, Graham can easily recall his parents listening to records by the 2 Tones, Specials and regional "northern soul" music. Meadows encouraged Graham to improvise, using his own experiences to inform his portrayal of Combo.

Even though young Turgoose’s only other acting experience was being rejected as an extra in a school play, he made an immediate impression on the cast and crew. Like Meadows, Graham was effusive in his praise for his co-star.

"We were looking at Robert De Niro," he enthused. "He’s completely in the moment."

For Meadows, it was more personal.

"It had become this beautiful full-circle thing," he allowed. "You go out there to make a movie about yourself, and you end up finding yourself (in the actor)."

After the film became a big hit in England, it didn’t take long for others to appreciate Turgoose’s acting ability.

"Thomas never acted before, and he’s already got an agent and is working on two other films," Meadows said, with a laugh.

July 31, 2007

- Gary Dretzka

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