This Is England Close-Up (Closing Sequence)

Narrative:

The films narrative is largely linear, however there is use of ellipsis in the montages, where time is compressed to convey information faster, and the montages themselves are expressive, shown what life is like in general through specific images, e.g., happiness in the fun with friends montage, shown through jumping in puddles and laughing with friends.

Key Elements:

Ideology:

The film never establishes what Shaun’s time in Combo’s gang did to his relationship with his other friends (Woody, Lol, etc.). By the ambiguity of whether or not Shaun’s life has been permanently stained/damaged by his time in Combo’s gang, the film shows that racism leads to harm for everyone. Milky, the victim of a hate crime, Combo, the regretful perpetuator of it, and Shaun, the helpless bystander, tied to the awful occurrence by his place in the gang. Even the other members of Combo’s gang were caught up in the chaos of the assault scene, assaulted by Combo as well, showing that racism is a poisonous whirlwind of violence that drags everyone up into it.

The film ends the same way it started, with a montage of news reel footage from the 1980s, here displaying the end of the Falklands War. The footage shows the spoils of the British victory: the raising of the Union Jack over a town hall in a small, unassuming village on a derelict island, scared and helpless POWs, dead British soldiers. This imagery displays the results of patriotism, when nationalism descends into violence, and what it costs, e.g., lost fathers, like Shaun’s. This questioning of the morality and necessity of nationalism and pride in one’s nation contrasts Combo’s own ideology. The film forces the audience to confront the question: what is the cost of nationalism? The juxtaposition of Britain’s violence and Combo’s likens the two, questioning the morality of both. What is the reward of the ideology of the people that Combo represents? The people that claim England to be a glorious land. By showing the results of that ‘glory’, the film explicitly tells the audience that this ideology only leads to pain and suffering.

Shaun throwing the St. George Cross into the ocean is an explicit symbol of a rejection of nationalism, of the hate that it can lead to. He even wears his normal skinhead clothing now, having rid himself of the hate he held while in Combo’s gang. The film here, using this imagery and the sorrowful non-diegetic compiled piano score, conveys its ideology to the audience that racism only leads to regret, violence, and loss. It influences the audience to agree with its ideology, done through Shaun breaking the fourth wall by looking directly into the camera at the end. The film is not interested in letting the audience make up their own mind, and so it is not true British social realism. This is an opinionated film with an explicit ideology that it influences the viewer to agree with, and the viewer would have to try very hard to have an oppositional or aberrant reading of the film.