Google's definition of 'masculinity': possession of the qualities traditionally associated with men.
My view of how masculinity is defined in the film 'This Is England' is that not only do the males take on masculine qualities but also the females because of the appearance and attitude of both genders. For example, the skinheads in this film have their hair shaved till they're nearly bald as this is what a skinhead does with their hair. A character that goes by the name Lol (actress Vicky McClure) followed the tradition by shaving her head too, but left a forehead fringe. Traditionally, men are known for shaving their heads but Lol took on this stereotypical male quality by shaving most of their hair too. This infers that masculinity wasn't just among the male characters but also the females.
Also, we see that a character named Shaun (actor Thomas Turgoose) was beginning to try act like a man at the age of 12 as the film went on. Within the film, you see Shaun's transition from behaving like a little boy by fighting in his school playground to him flirting and getting intimate with older girls and threatening those that are older than him. This tells me that masculinity was defined in the film by showing how Shaun grew up and developed so quickly within the film. As the film's duration increased, Shaun began to change the way he spoke, acted, appeared and even walked! The film showed Shaun's transition from a little boy to a young man.
Another observation I made is that there seems to be some sort of hierarchy between the skinheads. Characters Combo at the top, Woody second, Shaun third then the rest of the skinheads trail onwards. However, this hierarchy system soon changes as Shaun gains more of a status within the film than Woody. This shows to me that masculinity was defined in the film by having connotations of a hierarchy system. It showed that it was the men that were usually on top and in charge of things, not women,
Overall, I believe that the film used Shaun's change from being a little, cowardly boy with no friends to what seemed to be a young man going out with men that are twice or maybe three times his age to help define masculinity. Also, that masculinity doesn't always have to be defined with boys but with girls too. The film also included connotations of a hierarchy system between the characters.
Discuss the theme of loss-of-innocence/coming-of-age in the film
Google's definition of 'coming of age': the age or occasion when one formally becomes an adult.
The theme of the loss-of-innocence/coming-of-age within this film is particularly shown with Shaun because of how he changes in the film. At the beginning of the film, you see him waking up half naked to go to school and staring at a picture of his father that died with compassion and love. When he arrives at school, he has a squabble with another pupil in the school's playground as young boys tend to do. However, you see him morph into a young man by changing his appearance (cutting his hair nearly bald and a change in his dress sense). As soon as he met the group of skinheads, Shaun began to feel more confident in himself and acted as if he was a lot older than he already was. From the beginning of the film, you could tell that Shaun was quite a boisterous character as he used a lot of foul language and had a cheeky sense of humour. As the film goes on, he starts to use more foul language and his cheeky sense of humour gets bigger by the second.
Shaun grows into young man who is quite cocky but at least develops self confidence. He does transform into an older person in the way he acts but the actions he does is negative: a rapid increase in his swearing, violence and racism. Combo (the main skinhead in the film) brainwashed Shaun into making him believe any other race in England shouldn't belong there and that they should fight against them. In result to this, Shaun morphed into an angry, racist young boy who wanted to seize revenge. One thing that Combo told him was that he should fight for his father; that his father would be proud of him. This clearly gave Shaun the motivation to think what he's doing is correct; he was oblivious to the fault in it.
Overall, the theme of loss-of-innocence/coming-of-age in the film is negative as Shaun grows up to have a negative mindset and attitude based on the influences he has around him.
In my opinion, I believe that 'This Is England' is a very interesting film that has mature and adult themes that causes you to think in depth about society and the country you live in. The use of racist themes, skinhead cultures and the theme of coming of age collectively works together to create such a tense yet outstanding plot to catch the viewer's attentions. I would recommend this film to anyone who wants to know information about different types of skinheads as I believe it covers everything you need to know about them. However, I would only recommend it to someone who is mature enough to watch it prior to the mature themes it contains.
To conclude, I think the film is absolutely outstanding and I would definitely watch it again.
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