British Film: Socio-Political studies, Living with crime
Out of the many case studies I have reviewed, they all have certain themes in common. This is bound to be the case considering they're all about living with crime. However there are also lots of variations of these themes, for example the reactions of the characters to the themes.
In My Brother The Devil it's implied that the protagonist steals a T.V for his little brother due to his good GCSE results. The mother of this small family doesn't react too negatively and let's Mo, the little brother, have his present. However once the father discovers his son's crime, he reacts, much in contrast to his wife, defiantly and tells Rash, the big brother, to take the T.V back. The theme here is theft. If we take another look at another case study of British Films, The Selfish Giant, we see another mother figure of the protagonist reacting to the discovery of her son stealing. In quite the opposite to Rash and Mo's mother, Arbor's mother immediately has a negative attitude to the whole thing and tries to discourage him from doing such things. In this case study, the protagonist doesn't have a father figure so we can't see his reaction but from this alone we see that there are slight differences in characters surrounding the same theme. If we include another example from The Angels' Share, the protagonist, Robbie, is a fresh father and his father-in-law is trying to prevent him from seeing the mother to his child or the child himself. This leads to Robbie resorting to a heist like mission to steal some very valuable alcohol with his companions. He never reveals what he did to get his money to his significant other so we can only assume she would have reacted negatively but as we can see, yet another mothers and fathers characters sway from the other case studies as in this instance, both parents are against it (as seen when Robbie scolds Mo for stealing from the brewery) however it's the father that this time begrudgingly accepts it.
Another thing most of these case studies have in common is having a young protagonist. Arbor is the youngest but considering his situation, has just as many problems and is maybe just as mature as a lot of the other protagonists in question. This shared age group of being a teen (excluding Arbor) means that the protagonists also share many similarities. One such similarity being that they've all been forced into a situation where they must resort to crime to survive. In Fish Tank, Mia steals, fights, has underage sex, drinks, despite being only 15. In My Brother The Devil, Mo gets involved with gangs and drugs despite being only 16. And Robbie gets involved with stealing, fighting and ends up on unpaid community service despite being only 18. All have come from backgrounds where crime has become desensitised to them one way or another. They all treat crime like a daily act of survival and for some of them, it very well may be. In My Brother The Devil, both Mo and his brother, Rasheed, put money in their mother's purse to help pay the electric bill. In The Selfish Giant, Arbor tries to give his mother money to help pay the bills. In Fish Tank, Mia steals car parts from a junkyard so she can drive away and escape her life. They're all young criminals with only slight variations in what crimes they commit and their motive for doing so. Arguably the most justified is Robbie for he's doing it for his son and the mother to his son. Not only that but he's the only one who throughout nearly the entire film seems genuinely sorry for his previous mistakes and is trying to correct them and clean up his fiendish ways. Which leads me to my next similarity.
Every protagonist also has a change of heart by the end of the film. They all start as quite shady individuals, committing crimes whenever it suits them but by the end, they have all left this behind them. For Arbor, it was the death of his friend that set him on the right path. For Rasheed, it was the death of his best friend and for Mo, it was getting shot. For Mia, it was her dancing auditon. And for Robbie, it was the birth of his son.
In My Brother The Devil it's implied that the protagonist steals a T.V for his little brother due to his good GCSE results. The mother of this small family doesn't react too negatively and let's Mo, the little brother, have his present. However once the father discovers his son's crime, he reacts, much in contrast to his wife, defiantly and tells Rash, the big brother, to take the T.V back. The theme here is theft. If we take another look at another case study of British Films, The Selfish Giant, we see another mother figure of the protagonist reacting to the discovery of her son stealing. In quite the opposite to Rash and Mo's mother, Arbor's mother immediately has a negative attitude to the whole thing and tries to discourage him from doing such things. In this case study, the protagonist doesn't have a father figure so we can't see his reaction but from this alone we see that there are slight differences in characters surrounding the same theme. If we include another example from The Angels' Share, the protagonist, Robbie, is a fresh father and his father-in-law is trying to prevent him from seeing the mother to his child or the child himself. This leads to Robbie resorting to a heist like mission to steal some very valuable alcohol with his companions. He never reveals what he did to get his money to his significant other so we can only assume she would have reacted negatively but as we can see, yet another mothers and fathers characters sway from the other case studies as in this instance, both parents are against it (as seen when Robbie scolds Mo for stealing from the brewery) however it's the father that this time begrudgingly accepts it.
Another thing most of these case studies have in common is having a young protagonist. Arbor is the youngest but considering his situation, has just as many problems and is maybe just as mature as a lot of the other protagonists in question. This shared age group of being a teen (excluding Arbor) means that the protagonists also share many similarities. One such similarity being that they've all been forced into a situation where they must resort to crime to survive. In Fish Tank, Mia steals, fights, has underage sex, drinks, despite being only 15. In My Brother The Devil, Mo gets involved with gangs and drugs despite being only 16. And Robbie gets involved with stealing, fighting and ends up on unpaid community service despite being only 18. All have come from backgrounds where crime has become desensitised to them one way or another. They all treat crime like a daily act of survival and for some of them, it very well may be. In My Brother The Devil, both Mo and his brother, Rasheed, put money in their mother's purse to help pay the electric bill. In The Selfish Giant, Arbor tries to give his mother money to help pay the bills. In Fish Tank, Mia steals car parts from a junkyard so she can drive away and escape her life. They're all young criminals with only slight variations in what crimes they commit and their motive for doing so. Arguably the most justified is Robbie for he's doing it for his son and the mother to his son. Not only that but he's the only one who throughout nearly the entire film seems genuinely sorry for his previous mistakes and is trying to correct them and clean up his fiendish ways. Which leads me to my next similarity.
Every protagonist also has a change of heart by the end of the film. They all start as quite shady individuals, committing crimes whenever it suits them but by the end, they have all left this behind them. For Arbor, it was the death of his friend that set him on the right path. For Rasheed, it was the death of his best friend and for Mo, it was getting shot. For Mia, it was her dancing auditon. And for Robbie, it was the birth of his son.
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