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Shaun wakes up. Bedroom: peeling walls, framed photo of a man
in uniform, chair as bedside table.
The idea of working class Britain is immediately introduced through the mise en scene of Shaun’s bedroom here as a class who lived in poverty during this era.
The framed photograph signifies someone important in Shaun’s life – we later discover that his dad has died in the Falklands and this photograph then serves to signify that Shaun is grieving over his father and still feeling his loss deeply.
Representations of youth / sub culture:
It’s interesting that the very first shots of this central character signify to the audience two things about him. Firstly, his class, as signified by the mise en scene of his surroundings and secondly, the fact that his family is a broken unit due to his dad’s death.
This immediately signifies the ideology of the film maker as he is dealing with two aspects of British history: How the working classes were affected by policies during the Thatcher government of the 1980’s (poverty and unemployment) and how the Falklands war affected the country as a whole.
It is worth noting here that the working classes are perhaps the most affected by war time as a great number of troops come from the working class.
Clearly, the film maker wanted to explore how the government of the 1980’s affected British youth of the time. • Violence / aggression• Family / sense of community (area live in)• Working class• Skinhead sub culture
• England in the 80’s
• The ideologies of Shane
Meadows
In the next scene , Shaun is bullied at school
because of his flared trousers and a comment is
made about his dad. He jumps on the bully and
hits him.
The idea of working class Britain is furthered here as Shaun uses violence to sort his problems out. This could be due to the fact he is grieving the loss of his father and simply loses his temper, but violence and aggression as a way of solving problems is also a stereotypical feature of the working classes.
These shots have further connotations of Shaun’s isolation from any group. We have yet to see him in a friendship group.
Representations of youth / sub culture:
In these shots youth is depicted as cruel (to each other) and bullying is highlighted as an issue.
Shaun is bullied because his clothes are out of fashion which signifies the importance of fashion to youth sub cultures.
• Violence / aggression• Family / sense of community (area live in)• Working class• Skinhead sub culture
• England in the 80’s
• The ideologies of Shane
Meadows
After Shaun is punished at school, he walks home through an underpass and meets the skinhead group for the first time. They ask him what’s wrong and try to make him feel better.
The stereotype of British working class is of ‘grafters’ or hard workers, but the youth in this film are just hanging around. This could be due to unemployment during this era, but most likely, the youth within this film are avoiding the responsibility that comes with unemployment.
In these shots, the audience’s first impressions of the group are formed. Woody in particular, is the first friendly character in the film.
Representations of youth / sub culture:
I found it interesting that when viewing this scene, I immediately felt apprehensive for Shaun as approaching a group of youths in such a confined space is intimidating and I’m so accustomed to the stereotype of youths hanging around, waiting to ‘start on’ innocent passers by. The representations of this group are immediately favourable then as instead of mocking or trying to hurt Shaun, the group try to make him feel better and even befriend him.
• Violence / aggression• Family / sense of community (area live in)• Working class• Skinhead sub culture
• England in the 80’s
• The ideologies of Shane
Meadows
Representations of youth/sub culture:
• Violence/aggression
• Family/sense of community (Area live in)• Working class• Skinhead sub culture• England in the 80’s• The ideologies of Shane Meadows
Gadget comes and gets Shaun from his house and makes friends with him/bringing him into group. The group then goes into the building and starts smashing up the place. All shoot gadget… Gadget hits Shaun
Signifying that that Skinhead sub cultures in this time were all unemployed and within their spare time they just go round smashing stuff up. This may because or pure boredom but due to them all having fake guns it could be them acting out the Falklands war.
