Active and passive
Two schools of thought:
Hypodermic syringe (Theodore Adorno 1930s) - Media has a negative
impact cause audience will believe everything they see/hear
Copycat - video nasty's which children got hands on and people
getting hands on technology and the media caused a fear which is a 'moral
panic'
Copycat - someone copying what they have seen in a film and then
going into real life and doing it
Mass print came out and radio was very popular
Media is powerful and audience believes everything that it sees
and media has a big impact on us
There are a lot of issues about violence in This is England like
in the scene where Milky is beaten to death by Combo which we can see
clearly as the audience is because he’s a different colour and Combo is racist.
This scene would have a very strong impact on a lot of the audience because
they will see that what he did was wrong, as we can almost see the look of
regret and sadness from Combos face and especially sadness from the other
characters that watched and witness it happen.
Combo in two other scenes is shown threatening children with knifes
because they have different beliefs and are a different colour and he also
threatens a shop keeper with a weapon and robs his shop taking whatever he
wanted which a lot of the audience will realise is wrong. For some of the
audience they could follow the hypodermic syringe and may even be provoked and
encouraged to do things like this because they’re racist like Combo.
There isn’t any sexual content shown in This is England but there
are references to it between Shaun and Smell where she asks him to do more than
kiss her. This scene would impact the audience in two different ways, for an
older audience watching the film they would see that there is a big age gap
between them and she is almost taking advantage of Shaun. A younger audience
would see this as some sort of achievement that someone at his age and got
himself a girlfriend who is a lot older than him.
In the film This is England the character Woody is a positive role
model in the film because he tries to guide Shaun and keep him away from the
wrong people like Combo who was a very violent and racist character who
committed many crimes and Woody didn't want him hanging around with him.
b. Representation
All representations are mediated (Hall,1980)
Is there use of stereotypes/countertypes (Perkins, 1979) not all
stereotypes are negative.
Representation of women - are they objectified (Mulvey, 1975).
Representation of men (Earp and Katz, 1999) - 'Equation of
masculinity with pathological control and violence'.
Representation of gay people (Butler, 1993) - are they
stereotypical
Alvarado (1987) - Ethnicity 'exotic, dangerous, humorous, pitied'
Shaun is represented in This is England as a child with all
these problems which he faces and trying to fit in and have friends. He is
represented as being a figure which people around his age should take notice of
and realise that hanging out with the wrong people can be a bad choice and we
learn that we should stick with the good crowd and not the bad which will lead
us into trouble.
The gang which followed combo were represented as being
these big tough guys who agreed with everything that Combo said and did. In the
end we start to learn that the bang were shocked with his actions against Milky
and they’re in fact anti-racist with a lot of them not being violent as they
didn’t retaliate to Combo and not racist at all.
c. Legal and Ethical
In this film industry there are many worries with illegal
downloading with a lot of sites offering to show the film this is England for
free with no download needed at all. This may be because of the fact that the
only place you can buy it is from iTunes or off another person whereas it would
be a lot easier to watch it online for free.
The only offensive material shown in this is England is the
violence towards the end of the film where Combo kills Milky with his bare
hands. The film doesn’t show some hits which are thrown at Milky but there is
blood appearing everywhere and it is clear to us as the audience that he has
killed him which was been done in a very violent way.
Regulatory bodies
BBFC is the British Board of film classification who decides
what age is suitable to see the film which is shown. They have a number of
ratings for different films such as U (suitable for all) , PG (parental
guidance) , 12A (cinema release suitable for 12 years and older) , 12 (video
release suitable for 12 years and older) , 15 (suitable for 15 years and older)
18 (suitable only for adults) R18 (adult works for licensed premises only).
This is England was given an 18 rating by the BBFC because of the violence
which was shown in it but many people argued against this and said it should be
for 15 year olds with some places actually showing the film to 15 year olds
which is because people didn’t believe the violence in it was too bad and that
a lot of teenagers could learn something from this film about the right and
wrong ways.
CAP is the Committee of advertising practise which lay down
rules for advertises agencies and media owners to follow. They have set a
number of rules and regulations which everyone must follow like misleading
advertising, harm and offence and political matters. These codes decide what
can be displayed on posters which this is England stuck to by just displaying
the characters on their posters.
