This Is England '86 2/3

The film This Is England uses the same cast as this later TV series. The beginning of this clip in my opinion is beautiful and one of my favourite openings, it is gentle and shows tragic beauty.

• The first few shots have only diegetic sound, the tides and the seagulls. They show derelict buildings and warehouses, from neglect. It cuts to a well composed shot of the sunset over the water.
• To contrast this beauty, it then cuts to a disturbing shot of a blood stained leather seat, followed by a hand, and then Shaun’s face gazing at the driver. Following these shots, they suggest that the driver has killed someone in his own car with his bare hands, and Shaun admires him and idolises him for this heroic act. Shaun has been manipulated by this grown man to do what is wrong and criminal.
• It cuts to a shot of the driver, character called Combo, with blood on his shirt. However he hangs his head, which suggests he is not proud of what has happened. This could change the audience’s perception of Shaun. He is still a little boy and doesn’t understand what has happened, scared.
• As soon as they talk it is a cultural signifier accustomed to their accent, stereotypically in TV drama’s much like This Is England ’86, this implies that they are the working-class/under-class suffering from poverty and deprivation. Shameless is similar in that the people living on the estate have accents and those who came to evict them, spoke well with good grace.
• The clips suggest that Shaun and Combo are similar and not much differs bar their age, however the shot of the front of the car showing them sat in it, suggests that however similar they may appear, they are two different people.
• Shaun gets out of the car and says “Bye Combo”. This suggests that Shaun has left him, now he has no one to help him with his troubles. Why is a grown man needing help from a young boy anyway?
• The shot of Shaun standing in the rain suggests that maybe he has no where to go and no one to talk to much like the character Combo. Or it could suggest that he has washed Combo and his issues away and is starting fresh like a new drop of water.