The document discusses analyzing the narrative structure and techniques used in the film This Is England. It prompts considering how the film represents time and space through its focus on the main character Shaun's summer holidays. It also suggests examining if the characters are simply functional or more complex, and tracing Shaun's character arc. The document advocates analyzing the film's style and if it uses documentary or narrative devices to tell the story and influence the audience's feelings and thoughts.

1. How conventional is the Narrative of your chosen texts?
Whilst the narrative of this film may seem relatively conventional compared to the
flashbacks and parallel narrative shenanigans of Slumdog – however once we start to
peel back some of the ideas, it turns out that Meadows has constructed a narrative
as thought provoking as the content of the film…
Things to write about...
Things to consider...
• The constriction of Time & Space
• Structure – can Todorov’s theory be applied?
• Characters, functional; archetypal or three dimensional
• Representations of reality & era – style and substance
• Shaun’s story, his character arc
• Use of music to tell the story – themes and parallels
• Narrative devices – a documentary that tells a story?
This film takes place over a specific period of time – Shaun’s summer holidays – this gives a
specific parameter to work within. How has time and space been represented, how does it
reflect the fact that Shaun is only twelve or thirteen at the start of the film. How are the
audience made aware of time passing both in the plot and in the imagery.
The movie does not have a conventional structure – there appears to be two disruptions in
the plot. Think of the film as divided by Combo’s speech in his flat – how do we see echoes of
the first half of the film in the second half?
The characters contribute a lot to tell this story but are they simply functional, or do they
have more depth. Trace Shaun’s character arc – how is this conventional.
Consider the stylistic choices made in the film – is it purely a documentary style or has
Meadows used Narrative devices in his use of camera and editing that tells us how to feel or
how to think?