This Is England (2006) on Netflix
England, 1983. Twelve-year-old Shaun is a loner, bullied at school, his father killed in the Falklands War. A gang of skinheads led by Woody takes him in.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.7/10136,153 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes93%
Trailer
Plot summary
It is July 1983. Shaun Fields, twelve, lives with his widowed mother Cynthia in a town in the Midlands. Other children torment him, and on the final day of the school term a boy taunts him about his flared trousers and jokes about his father, a soldier killed in the Falklands. On his walk home Shaun meets a group of young skinheads. Their leader, Woody, feels sorry for him and brings him into the group, which includes Milky, Pukey, Kes and Gadget. Woody and his girlfriend Lol shave Shaun's head and hand him clothes suited to the gang. He also starts a romance with Smell, an older girl. Cynthia hesitates over the company he keeps until she meets Woody. Combo, a first-wave skinhead who has finished a prison term, then turns up with racist and nationalist opinions.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about This Is England (2006)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film was dedicated to the lead actor's mother, who died of cancer during production and never got to see the finished movie, only a short preview, with the cast later attending her funeral.
- Turgoose, who was 13 at the time of filming, had never acted before, had been banned from his school play for bad behavior, and demanded £5 just to turn up for the film's auditions.
- Bristol City Council called the BBFC's verdict idiotic and gave the film a 15 locally, a rare case of a council overruling a classification that inspired other English councils to follow.
- Meadows condemned the strict 18 certificate the BBFC gave the film, writing that it "means that the film is now unavailable to the audience it will benefit the most", and that someone of 15 could cope with it.
