Made in Britain: The problem with the depictions of youth culture in British Film, with emphasis on Skinheads.
However, by 1982 when this film aired this was the image of the Skinhead that was well known. The use of “Oi! ” music is also very telling that this perception of the British Skinhead was one of the evolution in the 80s not of the traditional image and Oi! Music was a product of punk and skin rather than the combination of Jamaican and English working-class culture that Symond Lawes and Spike Pitt both hold on to .
When looking at the portrayed images, Made in Britain begins with a close-up of the main character Trevor, he is a stereotypical image of a 1980s revival Skinhead . He has cropped almost bald hair, which is slightly shorter than a Traditional Skin but also, he has a Swastika on his forehead which appears more like a prison tattoo. The use of facial tattoos, according to “Beneath the Skin ,” were a symbol of the revival “Skinhead” over the traditional as this would hinder, Brakes traditional work-ethic, and Made in Britain strictly portrays that skinhead is the ruination of a young life. After punk rock and the influence of the far-right politics many Skins did move to have the shocking insignia or “Made in Britain” tattooed on their faces as a further symbol of their “racial pride” .
British cinema, when depicting subcultures, struggle to reflect their entirety, as the media plays a huge role in how many of the subcultures are seen . The impact of the newspapers and the perception of society tends to mar the images that are portrayed. With emphasis on the Skinhead subculture you can see the epitome of the influence of perception on a subculture, with films that range up to extremes internationally like Romper Stomper and American History X the accuracy of the skinhead image has been manipulated and used . Many of the British depictions of this subculture are closer to the truth of the British subculture through the guise of social commentary each evolution of the skinhead has been vilified still .
Using two British films Made in Britain (1982) and This is England (2006) the portrayal of the skinhead tradition is more accurate than many of the depictions, but each film has its own agenda . Made in Britain, Leland suggests, was a warning of the school system and the aimlessness of youth using skinheads as the main offender and This is England although appearing to want to set the record straight and show the destruction of subcultures with the introduction of politics , rose-tints the traditional skinhead, playing down an important part of the culture, the violence. Despite each having its faults they are both more accurate representations of the British Subculture than their counterparts .
However, each film lacks depth, tending towards a small snapshot of a far more diverse subculture meaning each image cannot be a true reflection of the subculture. Made in Britain and This is England both show an appearance of the skinhead expecting the audience to have an idea of what a skinhead head is . Whether it be they wish to further the image of fear, Made in Britain, and certainly with its international counter parts, or break down the image as with This is England .
Skinhead
Brake offers a wide reflection on the character of the skinhead, using this general framework it is possible to analyse the accuracy of images portrayed in film . He suggests that Skinhead was a subculture of working-class delinquency, Marshall affirms this when he writes that skinhead was born from being unable to afford the Mod clothes . Gildart also argues that the Skinhead fashion was a reassertion of the working-class fashion, the use of work boots and denims during the day and a suit at night reflected the same attitude as their fathers . Cohn and Ziechner, also surrounded the Skinhead subculture with an aggressive masculinity based around the working-class values and inability to fulfil them .
Although, as Brake contends, the skinhead was not the first working-class subculture to emerge, nor the most delinquent initially . However, he argues and Cohn affirms that this image of working-class subculture was the most severe as they were always described as “Hard Mods ” and that, according to Cohn, may have been the attraction for many working-class youth to it as they could assert their masculinity in a society where there were few other ways for the working man.
Brake, as Leland, both blame a failing school system for the need for community and alienation of working-class youth. The skinhead culture was able to fill this gap and initially was a unity of working-class youth rather than white working-class youth. Spike Pitt, a skinhead, and his contemporaries like Symond Lawes and Gavin Watson, along with many documentaries about skinheads including World of Skinhead and Don Letts The History of skinhead concentrate on the joining of white and Jamaican working-class youth in order to create the Skinhead sound and fashion. Knight’s book Skinhead mentions that the fashion of the Skinhead culture began as an evolution of the “Rude Boy” fashion which Jamaican immigrants had introduced to Britain. Lawes argues that to be a skinhead should be the antithesis of racism, many ex-skins mention the diversity of their groups and Marmysz, in The Lure of the Mob, mentions that there were and are many different ethnicities in the Skinhead movement and Marshall argues that Skinhead should have stayed as a union of working-class youth .
Brake argues that the Skinhead evolved out of poverty and Gavin Watson and Symond Lawes, Skinheads, both said that Skinhead was a counter to the emerging hippy culture which was middle class and in which the gender lines were blurring . Counter culture, as affirmed by Borgeson, was perceived as male youth becoming more effeminate in fashion and style but also in attitude and traditional working-class culture was being lost, further to this he suggests that this was one of the many features of skinhead aggression particularly towards effeminate men and homosexuals . Lawes even now suggests that homosexuals cannot be skinheads because just wearing the fashion and cutting your hair does not make you a skinhead .
Brake, defines the characteristics outside the basic idea of working-class culture; Toughness and violence, Football, Ethoncentricism, Work-ethic and a cynical world view, these features are arguable, in the documentaries around skinhead some of these characteristics are important. However, football, for instance, although many skinheads followed football, and many football “firms” include many skinheads, football was not an original factor for the skinhead movement but an evolution. When punk hit the national scene, according to Pitt, skinheads moved from the streets to the terraces but, certainly he, had no interest in football and many of his friends didn’t they were in the movement for the feeling and the music. However, other than the music and fashion, the other suggestions; toughness and violence, ethnocentricism, work-ethic and particularly a cynical world view did correlate to the image of the skinhead.
Both chosen representations are set in the Early-80s, 82/83, which was a revival of the skinhead movement after punk, which Pitt argues held a lot more political influence and the influence of punk. John Godfrey, in an article for the Independent, wrote that punk created Oi music, an aggressive sound which had working-class problems written in to it. Letts’ states that Oi music is where skinhead deviated from “black” music and this was an opening for the far-right. Marshall argues that these bands, this music enhanced the racist attitude and punk encouraged the wearing of the shock symbol the swastika. Punk paraphernalia held shock value and punks wore it for that reason, with songs like “Belsen is a gas,” which although lyrically can be argued as against the holocaust, they used events and symbols to shock the nation, but the adoption of these symbols meant the far-right groups saw an opening.
The Riot in 1981 in Southall at a Skinhead concert in a mainly Asian district confirmed a racism in the skinhead movement but as George argues, the introduction of the far-right not only split Skinhead, ruined the socialising for him as he no longer felt safe but sowed the seeds for the image in these films and the image still around today, whether accurate for the whole culture or not. Godfrey epitomises the evolution of skinhead in 1982 when politics entered this subculture, it caused divides a once unified group which in the media would break it , and despite movements like SHARP (SkinHeads Against Racism) the title Skinhead has been tarred.
Made in Britain
The plot encapsulates the hatred of authority mentioned by Leland and Meadows , Trevor throws away his chances of salvation because of his instilled dislike of society that he no longer feels a part of. He states “You got decisions to make about my life…it’s got bugger all to do with me! ” this is Brake’s cynicism but also Cohn’s reason behind the aggression he feels , and Leland writes this scene to show the most extreme version of what is happening to all working-class youth . He begins with juvenile delinquency in the court room, but he separates Trevor from the subculture depicting him alone, you see a snapshot of a story that Leland believes was true for a lot of Working-Class males . Therefore, there is accuracy to this image for many reasons but the lack of background to the character and any interaction with the main aspects of Skinhead culture this film cannot accurately show the subculture as it is trying to explain delinquency.
In 1980 the image of the skinhead was a new generation of disillusioned youth, with schools telling them they had no future , looking for a acceptance and the aggression and frustration surrounding it being introduced to the “Fuck you ” attitude of punk which in many ways Don Lett’s attributed the fall of the traditional Skinhead . The anger and frustration that the working-class male felt became increasingly aggressive towards society and authority and with these feelings came the feeling of hopelessness ,
“You're bullshitters! You swallow your own bollocks, you expect me to swallow it too! Blacks in here are as thick as shit, with no brains, you know it! Admit it. To be honest, I had to sit in school and watch these wankers add up on their fingers, I was held back! All the white kids were held back .”
that Clarke portrayed in this film and in many of the documentary’s including Don’t Lett’s and Capturing Culture , resulted in the ease that the far-right could use the
youth and manipulate passion of hate which tainted the image that went abroad . Made in England does show the beginning of the Skinhead that would later be portrayed in films like Romper Stomper , American History X and The Believer in which all three characters are more than racist, but Nazi’s or White supremacists. However, although racism was apparent in Made in Britain with the use of derogatory terms and vandalism, Trever was not associated with any idealism and the violence is not towards anyone as such but property. He has a swastika on his forehead, but there is no reasoning behind it and he uses this language, but he spends much of the film with Errol his black roommate, which Don Lett’s cites as the link to the past tradition and the confused little boy . He was less a hater of specific people and races but a hater of everyone with emphasis on authority .
The speech he makes to the social workers in the residential facility made it quite clear that he was not affiliated with any political leaning but that he had been failed by society. Leland explains as much as he writes in his introduction that the working-class youth were having trouble with school . This trend was noticeable within schools also, but the blame was placed on a lack of aspiration over a failing of the school . They enter as Trevor did as a young boy full of wonder and curiosity and after a lot of hours of state school he is warped and disillusioned ,
“It's rubbish, and had bugger all to do with me and my life…
Work hard, do well, get a job, otherwise you're no good, you're a vandal. That's what I learned. It's a lot of bollocks, lies! ”
The disillusionment however, comes from Trevor by way of a childish attitude, he is acting out because he is “bored and impatient” and although he is clever he also has a sense of entitlement and Leland concentrated on trying to save the youth from being aimless, the social workers in this film want to try and give Trevor some hope, offering alternatives to a life that would end in crime and prison . However, unlike the film, the book holds a final scene which corroborates this idea, he ends up “breaking rocks” with purpose and this seemed to make him productive and motivated, which is not the idea this film was meant to put across . It is part of a four-part series of films Leland did regarding his views on the contemporary school system.
Trevor becomes a more sympathetic character after this speech because each word surrounds a feeling of inferiority that he now shows through aggression. He feels a failure and now he expects nothing more. Cohn and Zeichner have written about this inferiority and it has been linked to the aggression of the Skinhead youth specifically by Borgeson when he writes about traditional masculinity and he professes that the violence surrounding the Skinhead comes from an inability to match up to societal standards for the working-class male . This is noticeable in Trevor and Made in Britain because as Cohn writes the traditional image of masculinity was as a bread winner, a worker, usually having seen war, factors of asserting one’s masculinity at a time when there was little the working-class could do to assert it .
Trevor in many ways could be the epitome of this feeling however, another failure of accuracy for the Skinhead image is that Trevor never appears to want to work, as opposed to Brake’s suggestion, with confirmation from memoirs, working was one of the main points of Skinhead as a subculture , a lot of the pride that is felt, Lawes argues, comes from trying to hold on to traditional working-class values . This appears not to be the case for Trevor, in fact, the dress and the values for Trevor do not appear to as important as his hatred towards authority which reflects that this film is a warning about general attitude over a skinhead specific film like This is England.
He dresses as a skinhead in the final scene, but boots and braces do not appear to be important to him, however use in the final scene, as he stares at an image of a happy family in a shop window further infusing the idea that skinheads are lost boys . Until this point he has not been seen in braces he just appears in reasonably normal clothing, the only thing giving him away was the cropped hair. This is arguably inaccurate because clothing and style were and are still important to all skinheads.
Nick Knight’s book Skinhead had a chapter dedicated to all the skinhead fashions, in Spike Pitt’s memoirs and Gavin Watsons interviews fashion was a major part of the skinhead tradition and Watson even mentions that there was a lot of elitism surrounding the fashions and “Man Alive” documentary a young skin recollects first time being in a group of skinheads and mentions that a lot of the pride he felt came from the “uniform” they all wore like an army.
Whereas, this, along with the music was lost from Made in Britain. Whether this was related to the fact Leland wanted the character to be relatable for all contemporary youth or whether he wanted to concentrate on the negative like its international counter parts, and contemporary media. The loss of these two features of the subculture are hard-hitting to the image of the subculture. Many contemporary documentaries as opposed to the newer ones, in fact Made in Britain as opposed to This is England which is also looking back instead of a contemporary view the original meanings and traditions of Skinhead culture are a main feature as research dictates they should be. Although, as Barry George says in The Story of Skinheads the way you perceive a story depends on where you start reading it .
When Leland wrote, and Clarke directed this film many of the historical documentaries did not exist and for instance, This is England, used photography from Gavin Watson and many more memoirs did not exist, Leland had an image of schools and the media which was a negative image, Godfrey suggests a skinhead was a bogeyman . Therefore, Leland’s view of skinhead as the epitome of juvenile delinquents is a product of its time, during the mid-80s Skinheads revival was in full swing and they had been harassing society . Pitt writes that every story you read would be a sensationalised image of a fight, the story of skinhead has several examples of skinheads being blamed for racial attacks even if they were not.
Media and films like Made in Britain instilled an image which was not one of the traditional skinhead but the superficial use of a “hardman ” image to hide a political agenda and an inferiority complex referred to as a “bonehead” by skinheads . Don Lett’s also argues that once punk had its impact on Skinhead music “black” was removed from the music and that is again when problems began as the diversity of the cult had been removed and the generations beyond would only see the image built in the 80s of hatred and violence .
This is England
Unlike Made in Britain, This is England has a more rounded vision of the Skinhead subculture . Although, it still has issues with a full image of the subculture, as it has no mention of the general violence of the subculture and the music is still side-lined, but the film concentrates on many of the important features of the culture. The soundtrack, in comparison to Made in Britain, is far more diverse using more tracks from the traditional skinheads and appears to want to push the original social diversity of the culture .
The beginning of the film shows contextual images from 1980s including main events like the Falkland’s War, Thatcher, Diana and Charles, all these images were important events in working-class life, this is juxtaposed with images of the Skinhead violence and marches as well allows a brief snapshot into the 1980s for the Skinhead, briefly hits on Brake’s main points of the skinhead subculture. However, this is, in many ways, the most accurate portrayal in the film of the skinhead subculture.
This is England, as with other depictions of Skinhead films has some semblance of accuracy and reality to it, the concentration is different to that of other films. Shane Meadows appears to concentrate on working-class life and on the skinheads as delinquent young kids finding acceptance , the violence appears to be lost until the appearance of Combo, a character who returns from prison with the instilled idea of the National Front.
The Skinhead gang enters the film as an anti-hero trying to cheer up a young kid whose being picked on. They were congregating in an underpass and drinking beer, but they are trying to be inclusive, they were just boys. The two main skinheads with all the control are Woody and Milky which in a lot of ways was the epitome of the traditional skin culture as Woody was a white working-class youth and Milky is of Jamaican Heritage , Shane Meadows appears to use Woody’s gang as the image of the traditional skinhead. Much of the film is Woody’s gang making trouble but in an innocent way, they seem to be concentrating on getting the young recruit to relieve the stress he feels and frustration about his father dying in the Falklands.
“He’s a young lad, he’s had a fucking bad week, so we bring him in wi’ us, to show him a bloody good time .”
They also have a problem with bullying for no reason, but they appear to be all about being together and having fun, which Gavin Watson agrees was a huge part of the skinhead cult . This innocent play is opposite to Trevor’s violent delinquency, they are a little community of young boys and the worst they do is break an already dilapidated housing unit, which is a social commentary on the problems that the northern towns were facing in the 80’s with social housing .
He then goes through an initiation which includes his first haircut and his first Ben Sherman, Woody in fact pretend to send him away when he doesn’t have the shirt, which follows Knight’s concentration on “the uniform ” and Marshall’s belief that the outfit helped make the man . The initiation however, goes wrong when his mother reacts badly to the hair cut but they are very respectful to his mother and they are apologetic as you would expect young people to be but not the general depiction of the skinhead. They are not violent thugs, despite Shaun’s mother referring to the boots as “thug boots ” Shane Meadows Skinheads are respectful to authority as opposed to Made in Britain.
During a party we see the return of Combo, an old gang member who had spent time in prison, whose re-entry is initially welcomed but when racism becomes apparent everything becomes uncomfortable. Woody and Milky are noticeably unhappy, however contemporary documentaries like Man Alive show that racism was not just the far-right, which along with the removal of violence make Pitt dislike the film, he, in his memoirs, berates this film as an inaccurate portrayal of the subculture as although it was no more racist than British society as a whole Woody and Milky react in a far more modern way. The introduction of Combo brings the politics into the group and Shaun is the epitome of how youth was easily manipulated into getting behind the National Front (NF), but Combo divided the group, and this is where there is further accuracy for the skinhead cult. Pitt, Letts, Marshall all agree that politics that broke the skinhead tradition .
“I aint being fucking brainwashed Combo ”
The youngest member of the tradition stayed because Combo used his father’s death as a reason to fight against society. This leads to an integral scene for the skinhead tradition and division. Combo takes the group to a National Front meeting, it shows that the NF following was not just skinheads and skinheads questioned the ideals, to the point where Combo becomes aggressive to Pukey, another of Woody’s gang that stayed, and leaves him on the side of the road.
“Do you really believe in all that shit Combo? ”
From the memoirs and documentary this statement and Woody’s reaction to the far-right were in fact accurate depictions of the time but also the indoctrination of a twelve-year-old boy, Shaun’s smile when Combo threatens some Pakistani children shows that he thinks he is standing for something important, however, the films progression shows that this decision ends in tragedy .
When Shaun returns to the Pakistani corner shop and Combo robs the shop at knife point, shows a closer representation to the Skinhead of the 1980s from the media. The use of Combo as such a stark contrast to Woody can be argued as an artistic way of showing the major differences between the old and new skinhead but ironically the NF skin portrayed by Combo is a more accurate representation of the skinhead subculture than Woody. As Marmysz argues the NF began recruiting from the Skinhead ranks because they were disillusioned and easily manipulated and above all else they were aggressive . This is England does not really reflect this as violence has been removed from the depiction of the traditional skinhead, which is a paradox in that Combo says he’s an original skin from 69 although reflects the idea of the new skinhead, many memoirs argue that this is inaccurate.
Combo’s reaction to Milky’s family and history was also the epitome of the issues facing skinheads and the jealousy that was felt towards the immigrant community, you see in the final scenes Combo’s aggression rise. He begins questioning what a bad dad is, follows the argument of Cohn that the aggression came from an inability to fulfil the masculine image, but his attacks on everyone else show that this innate aggression was the problem, which Cohn argues is a problem with the working-class ideals and the more masculine tradition is valued the worse the aggression can get. Shaun at this point however shows the misguided youth because as Combo relentlessly beats Milky he wants to stop it. Shaun was not a racist he was just a follower. This also polarises the difference between love for ones country and far-right politics, Shaun loved his country because his father died for it, he didn’t condone or want any part of this action.
In general, the film is a good portrayal of fashion and very accurate in the separation of traditional skin and new skin as even Marshall’s suggestion that the new skinhead was not as “smart, clean and tough ” as a traditional skin was shown in that Combo was not as well kept as Woody . But the removal of violence and the same lack of concentration on music and leisure time means that this film is also inaccurate . The juxtaposition of the traditional and new skinhead was unique and goes far to separate the groups, but the rose-tinted view of the traditional skinhead removes a lot of the subculture’s truth. Despite Watson’s, belief that Shane Meadows is accurate in recreating the skinhead culture, he himself on regular occasions in interviews and documentaries has said how integral violence was and how the frustration depicted in Made in Britain was an important part of this subculture .
Another positive that comes from This is England is the depiction of women as part of the subculture, Made in Britain, does not have an opportunity really to include anyone else from the subculture like This is England can but generally Made in Britain, seems to have no female characters in it that have much impact, which could be due to the nature of the film or the contemporary view of women, but it suggests that Trevor is alone in his fight, whereas you see the gang in This is England, which is more accurate for the subculture and females appear to have a more important role in the subculture than many of the others.
Quadrophenia , for instance, reflects the Mod subculture with accuracy but there is very little time when women are involved and when they are it is in a superficial way. This is England shows an “Alpha-Female” and gives her an important role in that she chooses uniform and cuts hair, which when the importance of the first haircut is discussed in “World of Skinhead” as an almost religious moment gives Lol’s character more weight in the gang than many women had. However, the reality of this is questionable, as although there appears to be more evidence of women in Skinhead culture, with reference to Gavin Watsons photography books , Pitt and Marshall still refer to them in terms of superficial ideals and Shane Meadow doesn’t bring them away from stereotypically feminine roles.
Conclusion
Therefore, with the removal of community, fashion and music from Made in Britain, you lose a lot of the soul of the cult, in the same way, This is England removing the violence from one section of skinheads you lose the idea of aggression and the cult becomes far more innocent than it should the combination of the two films gives a more accurate representation of the skinhead subculture than their international counterparts. Whether this is to do with the when the international market began reading the story or whether it is because England began this subculture and watched it’s evolution it can be argued but as far as skinhead portrayal in British cinema there appears to be no definitive depiction that is accurate but each depiction reflects it’s time, Made in Britain was entirely negative about youth and with media portrayal that is to be expected, and as This is England looks back there is a clear element of nostalgia reflected, which is a danger of memory .
Another issue which arises for a comparison of these two films particularly one is set in London and one is set more rurally, which means that the lifestyle portrayed are very different. According to Hebdige , subcultures tended to be born in London and Skinhead does not appear to be different but as it filtered into the provincial areas many subcultures begin to dilute and that maybe the portrayal shown in This is England although it appears that some of the more aggressive skinheads made their names in the north so whether this is true is hard to say. Therefore, the areas for dilution of subculture may not be as important, but opportunities were different, certainly in that Woody takes Shaun to relieve stress by trashing derelict houses, that could not be done in London.
The other major aspect is the police presence, in Made in Britain everything surrounded a distrust of authority particularly state authority and in London the police presence would have been in abundance and probably more aggressive particularly when you read Pitt’s recollection of a football match in which skinheads were targeted by police . Whereas in the more rural areas it is likely that the forces are stretched a lot further and although there would have been contact with skinheads and the police, which is totally omitted from This is England, it may not have been quite as violent.
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