English essay This is England Nanna K. Sørensen
2.b, Aalborg Katedralskole HV 07/05-09
Page 1 of 3
THIS IS ENGLAND
‘This Is England’ is a film written and directed by the talented Shane Meadows, in the year 2006:
But this is not where the movie takes place: We’re back in 1983’s Great Britain, where Margaret
Thatcher rules the country and problems such as poverty and unemployment is affecting especially
the northern England – which is the part portrayed in ‘This Is England’, and where our main
characters live. The plot takes place during the Falkland wars, where Margaret Thatcher used all the
countries military forces to keep the small Islands in the Argentinean waters. This is where Shaun’s
father died.
Shaun is the main character of the movie. He’s a 12 year old with a lot of heavy baggage, having to
cope with his father’s death, and his family living in what we would call poverty. Because of them
having no money to buy the “newest clothes”, Shaun has to wear pants that are way out of style,
according to him, and the others at school. And therefore he is bullied. It seems like Shaun uses this
lack of money as an excuse to let out all his anger on his mom, and you can feel the tense mood,
just as you step in doors. Shaun is well into his pre teen years, and you get the feeling, that he is
much closed mouthed towards his mother, perhaps because of the fact, that he doesn’t have a father,
which is important for at boy at his age. This is why you see Shaun looking for a new father figure
in the movie, and he does find this, in two different persons, one being Woody, and the other being
Combo.
Woody and Shaun meet each other one day, where the bullying of Shaun gets too much. A boy at
school, probably a lot older than him, makes a joke about his dead father, which causes a rather
unpleasant situation, where Shaun ends up getting a blue eye, whilst defending his dad. The bully
asks: >>Shaun, how many can fit into a minivan?<<, >>5<< he answers, >>well, yes, and your
dad in the ashtray!<<. This hits hard. The bully is both referring to his dad as a fag (a cigarette
lump and at the same time a homosexual), and him being died and cremated, with nothing more left
of him, than his ashes. They get into a fight and Shaun escapes, running away with tears in his eyes.
As mentioned, this is where he meets Woody and his gang, under a bridge. The group, which could
be characterized as an urban tribe of ska-mod skinheads, takes him under its wing, as if a sort of
mascot, although Shaun quickly becomes a strong character within the group, thanks to his stand up
attitude. The group, and especially Woody, covers Shaun’s missing father role, and he gets very
English essay This is England Nanna K. Sørensen
2.b, Aalborg Katedralskole HV 07/05-09
Page 2 of 3
attached to him. The group is soon divided by the return of old gang member Combo, after being in
prison. Combo represents the pro-Nazi skinheads versus the fun loving vandalism of the Ska music
and mod style teenagers. Combo wins over parts of the group, by approaching them, telling them
about being proud of their English heritage, and persuades Shaun into believing, that the only way
he can make his dead father proud, is to become a nationalist, and a true skinhead as himself. This is
one of the main themes in the movie: How important the father role is to Shaun, and how he gets it
covered, but maybe looking the wrong places. He soon gets integrated in the world of Combo,
where racial slurs are thrown around and where violence and heavy drinking is allowed, and
practiced on a daily basis.
Sooner we realize the tension between Woody and Combo, even though Combo seems to consider
them as old pals, especially because Combo didn’t rattle out Woody, on an old case where they
probably both were involved, which is the main reason why Combo was set to jail, sparring Woody.
But the main problem seems to be the relationship between Woody and his girlfriend Lol, besides
their complete different political views, and Woody taking distance towards racism and everything
Combo stands for: Apparently Lol and combo have a history together. Before Combo went to
prison, he and some friends got drunk, Lol included, and they met and made out. Apparently it
didn’t mean anything to Lol, she maybe even regretted it, but for Combo this was the only thing
keeping him alive in prison, preventing him from breaking down. He fell in love with her, and in his
state of love, he made a small wooden box in prison, as a gift for her. The box symbolizes him
having emotions, and this is his way of showing it. But all goes wrong: When he approaches Lol
she tries to get away, because she doesn’t want to have anything to do with Combo. Combo is
devastated; when he gives Lol the wooden box, she rejects it, and rejects every feeling he has
showed her. This is the first time we see Combo showing any emotion. The emotions overwhelm
him, and he turns it into a bitter, extreme anger, which causes him to deathly injure Milky, in a
blurry moment, where all control is lost.
This is where Shaun takes his distance towards Combo. He sees Combo kicking and punching,
being as violent as he could imagine, and his friend almost being beat to death. When Combo
realizes what he has done, it’s too late. Shaun now rejects Combo as well, and runs away, which
probably was the last thing he wanted. He sees a bit of himself in Shaun, and now he has lost it.
Maybe he even realizes what a terrible person he has become.
English essay This is England Nanna K. Sørensen
2.b, Aalborg Katedralskole HV 07/05-09
Page 3 of 3
Towards the ending you see Shaun throwing the flag from Combo into the ocean, which was a very
meaningful thing to him, but has become something he discards. It both symbolizes him discarding
the nationalism, the symbol of the flag, but at the same time it symbolizes Shaun letting go of his
father. He shows that he does not need a father figure anymore, and that he can make it on his own
now. This is visible, when we see Shaun returning home to his mother, where we see him open up
towards her, and tells her, that everything is not okay. This is the complete opposite of the
beginning, where he rejects any type of contact with her, and he locks himself in his room. We see
Shaun getting more mature, and considerate of his mothers feelings, instead of focusing on his dead
father, and what isn’t there.
The title ‘This is England’ is at first glance just to show the audience, that this is a picture of
England in the 80’s, coping with poverty, unemployment and Margaret Thatcher, with every
conflict she started. But when you dig into the movie, you may also get the feeling that the title is
about the nationalism Combo stand for. When he talks about being a true English man, with
England in his heart, and people from the outside not being welcome, because they destroy the
country, he talks about his England. The nationalist’s England, which should be pure and clean,
unaffected by anyone from the outside. So even though it almost seems like Combo sympathizes
with Milky, at some point of the movie, he finally shows us, what he feels about immigrants, even
though they feel English, by almost killing him. He defines who is English and who isn’t.
>>Some people say we're racists. We're not racists. We're realists. Some people call us Nazis.
We're not Nazis. No, what we are, we are nationalists and there's a reason people try to pigeonhole
us like this. And that is because of one word, gentlemen: Fear.<< - Lenny from the Nazi club.