Analysis of an Opening Sequence - 'This is England'

I have chosen to analyse the opening sequence to 'This is England' because I think it builds a good foundation for the film to develop from. It also gives the audience a feel of what was happening in England during the 80's, as we see images of many iconic symbols such as the Rubix cube, but we also see the gritty wars British people were facing in the Falklands, and also at home in England.

We see images of violence and anarchy mixed in with archive footage of some of the harmless past times of the 80's. This creates a strong contrast and I feel that it makes people want to continue watching in order to find out what was really happening. We see images of people and events that have an impact on the character's, which are revealed later in the film, and this archive footage reminds us of these things, gives us more knowledge about the setting and presents the anarchic atmosphere present throughout the film.

The editing of the clips give us clues as to the attitudes people held, for example, two clips were edited together which shows Margaret Thatcher firing a gun of some sort and then it cuts to a shockingly graphic image of a British soldier dying. This links with the fact that people believed Thatcher sent the Soldiers directly to their deaths by sending them to this war.

The first few shots of the film's main character occur after the title sequence and we are immediately shown links between the life of 10 year old 'Shaun' and  the riotous archive footage shown previously. For example, we see a picture of a soldier sitting by Shaun's bed and this presents enigma codes as the audience want to know the links. We also hear the voice of Margaret Thatcher through the radio, which Shaun quickly turns off: giving us ideas of the attitudes towards the Prime minister at the time.