No, this is England
Contains Idiotic Censorship Decisions From The Start
This Is England, the award-winning latest from Shane Meadows, passed through my local multiplex, which is pleasing to me, as his films are never as widely seen as they deserve to be. Advance hype seems to have garnered this one a wider release, albeit the cinema was virtually empty when we saw it. Anyway, that's not the point I'm here to make. Set in 1983, as you've probably read, it's a skinhead rite of passage based on Meadows' own experience as a junior provincial boot boy, and centres on the redemptive transformation of Sean, played by the astonishing 12-year-old Thomas Thurgoose, from flare-wearing dork to booted-up skinhead, and the havoc played on his new-found gang acceptance when the 32-year-old Compo (played with shark-like menace by Stephen Graham, aka the Scummy Man from the Arctic Monkeys video) comes out of prison to reclaim his crown, with some uncompromising new views on immigration to impart. Like all of Meadows' terrific little films it's naturalistically played suburban ennui laced with sudden violence. He captures housing estates on summer evenings as well as Bill Forsyth did in Gregory's Girl. It isn't actually his best film - that surely remains a tie between TwentyFourSeven and A Room For Romeo Brass - but it's very good indeed. No less than we've come to expect.
Now, this film has been granted an 18 certificate. It's about teenagers grappling with the timeless issues of peer pressure, surrogate parents, sexual awakening, role models and race politics, and has important things to say. You'd think the BBFC might allow the fact that it features occasional scenes of violence to pass, so that people of, say, 15 could legally view it. It's a film about kids, as have been all of Meadows' best films. (It's probably why Once Upon A Time In The Midlands remains the black sheep of the family: not without charm, but too full of adults!) It should be available to kids.
The insidious thing is that the nature of the violence seems to be the sticking point. It is, in context of the story, racial violence. The film's about the National Front, and about the friction within the skinhead movement between its Jamaican musical roots and the vile racism that infected certain factions in the late 70s and early 80s. You can see the flare-up coming a mile off. And it is shocking. But not graphic. And certainly no more shocking than the violence in all these slasher horror movies that get away with a commercially-vital 15 certificate. Is the message being sent out by the censor that violence is OK for 15 year-olds, but not racially motivated violence? I could understand this if it glorified racism, but quite the opposite. It's like saying The Deer Hunter is pro-war because it shows war.
Interestingly, Westminster Council in London have opted out and placed a 15 certificate on the film, as have Bristol City Council, I think. This is encouraging. But why must you be 18 to see This Is England everywhere else in England, and Scotland, and Wales? Own goal. If racism and racist violence is a hot-potato issue, and it is, then let's get it out into the open. Shane Meadows must be gutted. (And it reduces his available audience - something a filmmaker on the edge of mainstream success can ill afford.) There are probably loads of examples of violent films that get away with a 15 these days, which I always took as a result of market forces. I'm all for a system of certification for films, but consistency is paramount, surely?
posted by Andrew Collins @ 3:54 PM
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10 Comments:
I agree, but I reckon it's also true to say that the classification system is so out of date (because of downloading and the low price of DVDs) that it's pretty much irrelevant these days...
On a personal note, I'm not sure any movie in which violence or sex are acted rather than explicit should be classified as unviewable for any age group.
Still not seen This Is England... Romeo Brass is his best I feel, closely followed by Dead Man's Shoes.
And that is my Friday afternoon two-pennyworth.
I thought the premise of twentyfourseven was good, if the ending seemed redundant.
shall look out for romeo brass.
In my day job I deal with the BBFC on a regular basis.
It's painful. Very very painful.
My email discussions are like an outtake from a Yes Minister script.
I loved This is England and I agree it could easily have been a 15 certificate. The two truly violent scenes you see very little actual gore.
Crucially in comparison with all these awful 'torture porn' films that are about these days you actually see the motivation for the violence and the consequence of it.
Furthermore what a revelation Stephen Graham was in this film. Not an actor who had ever hinted he had a performance like that in him.
Saw 'This Is England' last week and I have to say it's a stunning movie. Parts of it were all too vivid for somebody who grew up on a gritty council estate in the 80's.
I'm baffled that it can be granted a 15 certificate in certain areas and 18 everywhere else. I'm still trying to work out what a 12A entails! I took my six year-old son to see Spiderman 3 (he enjoyed it, despite been petrified during one or two scenes) and I asked a member of staff at the cinema. She basically said that 12A restricts kids under 12 without an adult. Is the film less violent or scary if an adult is sat next to the child viewing the film? I'm not so sure.
Also, the cinema were clearly violating the 12A ruling, as literally hundreds of under 12s keenly handed over their pocket money with no adult in sight...
Just to confirm that Bristol Council did indeed over rule the BBFC 18 rating, to their eternal credit.
Coming from the area where the film is set, I would have expected to see it listed at my local multiplex, but to no avail.
Will have to wait for the DVD.
Shane Meadows for PM.
I'm just dropping by to say that I too saw This Is England this week, and I think it's a super film, in all the right ways, and that the 18 certificate is nonsense. I'll agree with the comments so far and add that the character of "Smell" (does it rhyme with Michelle?) played by Rosamund Hanson was brilliantly done, genuinely funny and touching at the same time.
So can a local council completely over-rule any BBFC rating ?
if BBFC award a console game a 15 rating does that mean that, in theory, Bristol could decide it warrants an 18 ? or a 12 ?
Talking of nonsense, if you ever go to see a U film, most of the trailers will be 12 and above scaring the pigtails off the little kiddies. The regulators need their whatsits seen to.
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