Shane Meadows is a great example of a British film maker who is talented but who fails to maximise that talent . Where as Danny Boyle is often criticised for failing to maintain the first half momentum Meadows is slightly different in that he can come up with a good premise which he then proceeds to demolish via his own hand . Where as DEAD MANS SHOES quickly stops being gritty and realistic and becomes fantastical and silly TIE suffers from quickly turning from a heart warming film in to a mouth piece for Meadows which defeats the object of the exercise .
Make no mistake this is a truly heart warming film for the first half hour . Set in Grimsby in July 1983 tweleve year old Shaun is an outsider . He is an orphan whose father died in the Falklands conflict the previous year . He is the butt of jokes from school bullies and on his way home he is befriended by a group of non racist skinheads who invite him to tag along with them . Even the most cynical heart can't fail to be touched by this scenario which is helped greatly by all the cast , especially Thomas Turgoose as Shaun and Joe Gilgun as skin head leader Woody . Watching it a few short years after the film was released you can still understand why the critics loved it and heaped praise on the unknown cast and there's still plenty of time for Turgoose and Gilgun to become household names . If this is what they're capable of they're deserving of stardom
Unfortunately when the audience are introduced to racist skinhead Combo the film starts to fall apart . There's nothing wrong with Stephen Graham's performance and will hopefully join Turgoose and Gilgun on the road to stardom but as a three dimensional character from 1983 he's sadly lacking . Meadows is on record as saying that he didn't agree with the Falklands war . I'm surprised he is able to remember since he was ten year old at the time and one can't help thinking that it's Meadows who is talking every time Combo opens his mouth " we went in to that war on a lie . it was for nothing " Hmmmm how does Combo arrive at this conclusion ? It's not like Mrs Thatcher addressed the houses of parliament saying that Argentina was days away from invading the Falkland Islands in a similar manner Blair did with Iraq . It was a war of aggression by Argentina who at the time were led by a fascistic junta . For people to claim " The Falklands Conflict was due to a lie " is very anachronistic not to mention untrue . By a bitter irony The Falklands Conflict is one of he very few wars where the extreme right and extreme left in Britain disagreed . The extreme right was for sending the task force the far left were against it . As Nick Cohen and Christopher Hitchens continually point out with glee Neanderthal Nazis and gormless do gooders are nearly always on the same side
In fact one can't help wondering why on earth it is set in the Summer of 1983 . If Shaun had been orphaned in 2004 and the story took place in 2005 then you'd still have the exact same film . Perhaps this was Meadows intention but decided having a film set against the background of Iraq and Afghanistan because it might be too similar to DEAD MANS SHOWS . . Meadows wasn't a teenager in 1983 and it shows . Anachronims abound like Strawberry Switchblade on the radio and Blockbusters on TV and how could the Summer of 1983 not have Blue Monday by New Order being played at every opportunity ? If you're going to make a film set in a particular time then please let someone who was there direct it . Since Meadows has decided to bring up politics I'll rubbish him by asking what on earth was the point in showing footage of the miners strike which took place from March 1984- March 1985 ? If political events take place AFTER the timeline the scenario is set then please don't include them
In conclusion TIE had all the potential to be one of the great feel good movies ever to have come out of Britain a sort of THE FULL MONTY meets LITTLE VOICE and the way the film quickly becomes something " gritty and realistic " is somewhat unforgivable . Some people think they've been misled in thinking this was going to be a Brit version of American HISTORY X and I can see their point and one can't help thinking how much more praise Meadows might have received if we'd never have met Combo and we'd had Shaun , Woody and co walking off in to the sunset friends forever
Make no mistake this is a truly heart warming film for the first half hour . Set in Grimsby in July 1983 tweleve year old Shaun is an outsider . He is an orphan whose father died in the Falklands conflict the previous year . He is the butt of jokes from school bullies and on his way home he is befriended by a group of non racist skinheads who invite him to tag along with them . Even the most cynical heart can't fail to be touched by this scenario which is helped greatly by all the cast , especially Thomas Turgoose as Shaun and Joe Gilgun as skin head leader Woody . Watching it a few short years after the film was released you can still understand why the critics loved it and heaped praise on the unknown cast and there's still plenty of time for Turgoose and Gilgun to become household names . If this is what they're capable of they're deserving of stardom
Unfortunately when the audience are introduced to racist skinhead Combo the film starts to fall apart . There's nothing wrong with Stephen Graham's performance and will hopefully join Turgoose and Gilgun on the road to stardom but as a three dimensional character from 1983 he's sadly lacking . Meadows is on record as saying that he didn't agree with the Falklands war . I'm surprised he is able to remember since he was ten year old at the time and one can't help thinking that it's Meadows who is talking every time Combo opens his mouth " we went in to that war on a lie . it was for nothing " Hmmmm how does Combo arrive at this conclusion ? It's not like Mrs Thatcher addressed the houses of parliament saying that Argentina was days away from invading the Falkland Islands in a similar manner Blair did with Iraq . It was a war of aggression by Argentina who at the time were led by a fascistic junta . For people to claim " The Falklands Conflict was due to a lie " is very anachronistic not to mention untrue . By a bitter irony The Falklands Conflict is one of he very few wars where the extreme right and extreme left in Britain disagreed . The extreme right was for sending the task force the far left were against it . As Nick Cohen and Christopher Hitchens continually point out with glee Neanderthal Nazis and gormless do gooders are nearly always on the same side
In fact one can't help wondering why on earth it is set in the Summer of 1983 . If Shaun had been orphaned in 2004 and the story took place in 2005 then you'd still have the exact same film . Perhaps this was Meadows intention but decided having a film set against the background of Iraq and Afghanistan because it might be too similar to DEAD MANS SHOWS . . Meadows wasn't a teenager in 1983 and it shows . Anachronims abound like Strawberry Switchblade on the radio and Blockbusters on TV and how could the Summer of 1983 not have Blue Monday by New Order being played at every opportunity ? If you're going to make a film set in a particular time then please let someone who was there direct it . Since Meadows has decided to bring up politics I'll rubbish him by asking what on earth was the point in showing footage of the miners strike which took place from March 1984- March 1985 ? If political events take place AFTER the timeline the scenario is set then please don't include them
In conclusion TIE had all the potential to be one of the great feel good movies ever to have come out of Britain a sort of THE FULL MONTY meets LITTLE VOICE and the way the film quickly becomes something " gritty and realistic " is somewhat unforgivable . Some people think they've been misled in thinking this was going to be a Brit version of American HISTORY X and I can see their point and one can't help thinking how much more praise Meadows might have received if we'd never have met Combo and we'd had Shaun , Woody and co walking off in to the sunset friends forever