Small Faces

SMALL FACES is a Scottish film set in Glasgow during the late 1960s and follows the lives of three brothers from the Maclean family : Bobby a member of the Glen Gang , Alan who has ambitions of going to art school and Lex a thirteen year old boy and like the character of Taylor in PLATOON where the main character finds himself being split between the violent pragmatism of Barnes and the humanity of Elias young Lex is split between what brother makes the better role model

It's a complex tale that is character driven which explains why none of the comments on this page has really gone in to the plot details and if you're expecting a violent tale with youths slashing each other with razors every five minutes then you'll be disappointed . There is violence of course and some people may bleat that it lives up to the " Glesga keelie " stereotype but I disagree and it's interesting to note that the traditional battle lines of Glasgow gangs being drawn from their ethnic background ( Irish Catholic and Scottish Protestants ) is never discussed .

Despite having a small budget director Gillies MacKinnon makes the most of what he's got and watch the scenes where characters view Tongland ( Is it the notorious Gorbals ? ) which resembles a bleak alien city . The cast are uniformly excellent with veterans like Clare Higgins and Ian McElhinney appearing alongside up and coming Scottish actors like Kevin McKidd and Laura Fraser but the two best performances are by Iain Robertson as Lex and Garry Sweeney as gang leader Charlie Sloan which is just as well since most of the movie rests or falls on these two characters , though strangely neither young actor has gone on to have a sparkling career which is a pity

Small Faces stands out as an unsentimental and unpatronising glimpse of the life of 1960s working class youth in Glasgow. The film is directed with a light touch and brilliantly conveys the experience of growing up in the slums with the stereotypical escape-routes of gangs, drink and education. In refusing to romanticise its subject matter the film is bleak, funny, brutal and life-affirming all at the same time.

I nearly passed this movie up as the film guide had written a poor review (do they even watch the films?). In the end I watched the start intending to go to bed and ended up watching the whole film.

What interested me most was the picture the film gave of life in Glasgow during the 60's. The landscape of the film is one of endless factory's, warehouses and derelict buildings. All of which seem to look back to the past. The streets of Govanhill where the Glyn live are cobbled and winding narrow passages. Later in the film we are shown 'tong land'. Three massive tower blocks seemingly standing in the middle of a waste land. At the road leading in some graffiti reads 'you are now entering tong land'. The bleak concrete land in which they live is very striking and seems to belong more to the 70's than Govanhill which seems to belong back in the 1800's.

The film itself is good and I doubt anyone would be disappointed were they to watch it.

Life in the tough end of Glasgow in the late 1960s is delightfully and sometimes painfully presented here. This is clearly a work of well-observed autobiography by the Mackinnon family - Billy the writer/producer and Gillies the director.

At the centre of the film is the Maclean family - widowed mother with sons Bobby (none too bright), Alan (budding artist in spite of being brought up in the tough end of Govan) and narrator Lex, only 13 and still not sure what life is all about. Iain Robertson's performance as Lex is so good that it is barely credible that he has not reappeared in anything more worthy of his acting talent.

The film sets up a series of oppositions - gangs (Glens versus Tongs); romantic family life vs tough and unromantic street life; loyalty vs betrayal. Far from resulting in simplification, this actually makes the life of young Lex even more complex as he is, sequentially, drawn to each aspect of these opposing ideas.

Director Gillies shows he knows how to film his environment and gives us telling and memorable images - such as a huge close-up of blood running down a plug-hole that looks like some work of abstract art.

Nowhere near as clichéd as most coming-of-age movies, this is a joy for teenagers and adults alike.

If you see this in the TV listings, local videoshop, wherever, Get It! You will not find a more accurate movie that conveys the state of Glaswegian upbringing as it was and still is today. The violence, the course language and the way the young 'gangs' live and breathe on machismo and fights. The film shows an artist boy who is somewhat out of place in the world he finds himself living in. With his rather maniacal brother Bobby who just loves to go and fight the 'TONGS'. There is a younger brother in this family who becomes more of a central character as the film progresses. I don't want to give the story away so I will just say, if you want a true drama with no frills, fluff or effects, violence shown as it is, brutal and frightening (although I dont mean to put you off as it is highly watchable and not TOO brutal) -the utter desperation that some people live in and not only when this film is set in but today too. I know, I have lived in a similiar world. Nothing has really changed. If you want to find out just what this is like..GET THIS MOVIE! If you are from Glasgow or most places in central scotland - GET THIS MOVIE! Thats all :)

(Just GET THIS MOVIE..)