How British Social realism themes are used

Petty crime

In this scene from Kidulthood, we see a teenager robbing some beers from a corner shop. Here the character is committing a petty crime, as it is nothing major. Crimes like this are common in society, and we see them in many British Social realist films. This sequence portrays this theme to be quite casual for the teenager like he does it every day, and also portrays it as violent which we see from the language and the character throwing a beer. If i was to use this theme, then i would explore other petty crimes that aren't really seen in British Social Realism films. An example would be things like underage driving with no insurance, which is a crime that happens a lot in British Society. So adding many different petty crimes would make it a bit different from other films that have explored this theme.

Poverty

In this scene from 'Looking for Eric', we see the main character washing up some dishes and starts talking to an illusion. The state of hes kitchen looks very messy and not well kept, and the character also looks the same. This establishes the theme of poverty as it shows that hes style of living isn't very nice, and as it looks messy it shows he doesnt have alot of money because people who do would not treat their house like this. This scene portrays the theme as tough. The persons life looks very depressing and dull, and as a house is like a mirror of a person, it shows the character isn't well kept as hes house isn't either. Also it portrays it as very depressing. The darkness in this scene makes the audience feel depressed and as the character is talking to himself makes the audience feel sorry for him. Poverty is in every British Social Realism film so in my work, poverty will be one of the main themes. The characters will have a tough life and have to do whatever they can to get money, where all the other themes will start to merge in.

Racism

Here we see a few white skinheads rob a corner shop owned by an Asian man. The characters write racist things on the shop wall and call him some very racist things. Racism is portrayed very casual like they do it every day, and also violent as well as we see weapons being used and threats being said to the shop keeper. the fact the little boy is also involved in the racism shows that he has no respect and society is very rough.  If i was to explore this theme in my work, i would use it in a different way, and make a white person being a victim of the racism, to change things around and explore the theme from different angles.

Drugs

In the opening sequence from trainspotting. We see a character laying on the floor after smoking drugs. We also hear in the voice over he says 'who needs reasons when you've got heroin'. Here we can see drugs is the main theme of the film as its established in the opening sequence and the character basically says hes life is about heroin. This clip portrays the theme as being quite fun, as the music is upbeat and there's a lot of action going on in the opening sequence. It also comes across as failure, because the character is talking about how he didn't choose life, he chose drugs, and as hes getting chased it shows hes life isn't very good. If i was to explore this theme i wouldn't make it the main theme, but drugs would revolve around my character and be apart of their life which has caused some of their problems.

Domestic Violence

In this scene from Nil By Mouth, we see a very violent man beating hes wife, whilst a child is sitting at the top of the stairs listening to what is going on. We don't see the damage that is done to the wife. This clearly establishes the theme of domestic violence, as this scene is very effective because we don't see her get hit, so the audience thinks about what damage was done and makes the audience feel like they would if they saw this in real life. This scene portrays the theme very emotionally, because it makes the audience angry watching this scene and shocked, as we see the little girl has to live with this. Also its portrayed as violent because its a man hitting a women which many people find very traumatising  If i was to explore this theme in my work, i would use a young female character who has a violent father who hits her and her mother. I think this would make it more traumatising as the younger female being abused would be even more effective.