This Is England Part 1 Analysis

The film begins by showing a montage of typically 80s fads/crazes/phenomenons and well known figures (including the arcade video game "Space Invaders", the TV show "Knight Rider" and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher) spliced between its opening titles, while non-digetic reggae music plays simultaneously. The music continues as a moving shot of an old, run down British suburb is shown, while the film title is superimposed onto this. As the music continues, so does the montage of clips, which include school boys, 80s bands playing, exercise groups and major national events such as Princess Diana's marriage to Prince Charles, the race riots and the Falklands War.

The main plot itself begins in July 1983, on the last day of term, when 12 year old white British boy and protagonist Shaun wakes up in the morning and promptly makes his way to the newsagents to read a comic without buying it, which leads to a dispute between him and the Asian shopkeeper in which Shaun calls him a "mong" as his thrown out, which is slang, shorthand and racist for "mongoloid". Shaun then goes to school and gets into a fight with a bully who makes an offensive joke about Shaun's deceased father who died in the Falklands war. They are then both broken up by teachers and dragged to the Headmaster's office, and Shaun is made to wait outside while the bully is caned by the Headmaster (caning was a typical punishment for school pupils in the 80s until it was outlawed). Then, on the way home, Shaun runs into a group of skinheads in an underpass led by Woody, who Shaun later starts hanging out with before they accept him as part of the group.