Made in Britain

Saw it years ago by accident on PBS. Thought it was a documentary. They've only shown it once, to my knowledge (probably because so many complained about the foul language and nasty attitude of Trevor. Very unappetizing to American mid-western WASP sensibilities.). An absolutely stupifyingly mind-blowing performance by Tim Roth. Once you see, you won't forget.

Made in britain is a gritty play/movie that shows the mentality of some of the youth during Thatcherite Britain when the Tory Government were about greed and cared nothing for the high unenmployment rate and crime rate.Tim Roth plays a youth who feels that the system has let him down and rebels against all authority and anybody who wants to help him. The language is very hard which only adds to the quality of the film and the acting from Tim Roth is of the highest standard especially considering this was his first big project. It is suprisingly fresh and has not dated and is a good reminder of how thing were for some people in the early eighties and also how the youth didnt want to help themselves because they felt society owed them something because we had the worst government of the twentieth century. 8 out of 10.

I've seen this film a number of times over the last few years. The first time I ever saw it, I was an idealistic young scamp who'd done very well at school. Needless to say, I spent the entire film hoping that this desperately intelligent character would pull out of the spiral he'd got himself into.

A bit of personal history, which I don't normally supply, but in this case I believe it's pertinent. My grandfather hails from Pakistan, which is something that should make me despise this film, as Trevor, the main character, constantly harangues a Pakistani shopkeeper called Mr. Shanawaz. However, on repeated viewings I have consistently found this to be one of the best films ever made.

Roth plays a disaffected, supremely intelligent young man called Trevor who knows far more about the world than his "betters" would wish him to. His "betters" are social workers, and those responsible for making sure that he will eventually integrate into the wider British society.

Trevor is unrelenting and has no qualms about describing the society in which he lives. On my first viewing, I was horrified by his racist attitudes and the beliefs he subscribes to. However, the most important part of this film is Trevor's honesty. Honesty, however horrific it is, is Trevor's primary motivation. After watching it again and again, this is what comes through more than anything else. Trevor is uncompromising. He refuses to let society dictate his own opinions, even when that society kicks him and beats him. Trevor almost never misleads people, and practices his mantra almost to the letter. His integrity is never in doubt. Like him or hate him, you will respect the fact that he stands for his beliefs.

Made In Britain is a film about standing up for what you believe in, no matter how extreme those beliefs are. Trevor's beliefs are so compelling that he even convinces a black teenager ( Errol ) to shout "You baboons, get back to the jungle!". It also provides an incisive social commentary on the Britain of 1982. It isn't the integrated melting pot that government would have you believe it is. Following recent racial tension in Oldham and other towns in the North of England, the film's message seems particularly poignant now.

There are very few bad performances in this movie, the notable exception being the female teenagers in the JobCentre. Overall, it is a superb film that should be approached with an open mind - providing a message that all is not well in multi-racial Britain.

From the minute Made in Britain kicks off, with a 17-year-old Tim Roth with skinhead and a swastika tattoo between his eyebrows, slouching into the juvenile court to the strains of The Exploited, the energy never flags. Clarke's patented loping Steadicam follows Trevor (Roth) as he goes from assessment centre to job centre to sniffing glue with a fellow ne'er-do-well to stealing a car and throwing bricks through a Pakistani's front window, seemingly bent on pushing the system to its limits. Trevor doesn't give a f***, and in an amazing second act, set entirely in a basement room, he tells the authorities what he thinks of them: "I'm a star, mate. I'm in exactly the right place at the right time."

Trevor is hateful - he's racist, bullying, utterly selfish and dangerous, but he's also so bright and eloquent that the main feeling on watching the film is wonder at a society that could possible have produced people like this. David Leland, who wrote the film, speculated years later that Trevor would probably have gone on to work in the Stock Exchange in the late Eighties - he might well have been one of the well-heeled cronies of Gary Oldman's Bez in Clarke's 1988 football hooliganism film, The Firm. In the depressed and fearful Britain of 1982, Trevor's manic energy and contempt has no outlet - once Thatcherite policies had helped to boost the British economy, his disbelief in "society" would have been totally at home on the stock market. As Thatcher famously remarked, "There is no such thing as society", and Made in Britain shows how she caused such a state of affairs to come about.

It's also very funny, in a sick kind of way.

The late great Alan Clarke (Scum) brings us Made in Britain, a tough and uncompromising (though not actually physically violent) character study of a bored and angry teenager, played by Tim Roth, one of 'Fatcher's' children. The films rather flat narrative follows (both in terms of plot and camera movement) him through his refusal to 'conform' to the authority. Contrary to what a previous reviewer has said, it was not the intention for us, the audience, to believe that he must be forced to conform. The key in the film is that he never does conform, and that for all his obvious faults (racism and rebellion, it seems, a product of a right-wing and suppressive society) he retains the courage to stick to what he believes in. Rather than an anti-hero, Tim Roth's character seems to be more of a anarchist anti-authoritarian (rather like Alan Clarke himself) who is locked away for admitting to what he believes in.

So if you're in the mood, settle back and watch a film that packs a powerful punch. Probably most enjoyable if you're a little bit of an anarchist yourself (everyone else will most likely just be offended by it). Damned authority.