SOCIAL REALIST FILMS
Social Realism in films is representative of real life, with all its difficulties. The stories and people portrayed are everyday characters, usually from working class backgrounds. Typically, films within the social realist genre are gritty, urban dramas about the struggle to survive the daily grind.
The Social Realism Genre was born in the 1960s in an era called British New Wave. Amongst the many films that emerged during the new wave of social realism, there are dozens of examples that are still popular to this day such as Look Back in Anger, A Taste Of Honey, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, This Sporting Life, Billy Liar, Cathy Come Home, Up The Junction and Room At The Top. You will probably have heard of more recent examples of social realist films, such as This is England, Kidulthood and Ill Manors.
YOUR HOMEWORK!
Research at least one social realist film (see list below)
Do NOT just copy the Wikipedia entry, and please do NOT all do the same film - try to find one no one else has done, or at least to say something no one else has said!
Post a link to a picture relating to the film (a poster, a screen shot or the DVD cover) and identify at least three ways the film fits the social realist genre.
MAKE SURE YOU COMMENT USING YOUR OWN REAL NAME, NOT "ANONYMOUS", OR IT MAY LOOK LIKE YOU HAVEN'T DONE THE WORK - AND DETENTIONS WILL ENSUE...
MAKE SURE YOU COMMENT USING YOUR OWN REAL NAME, NOT "ANONYMOUS", OR IT MAY LOOK LIKE YOU HAVEN'T DONE THE WORK - AND DETENTIONS WILL ENSUE...
Examples of Social Realist films:
Adulthood
This is England
Half Nelson
Kidulthood
Fish Tank
Kes
Looking for Eric
Nil by Mouth
I Am Slave
Tyrannosaur
Fish Tank
Vera Drake
Secrets and Lies
Sweet Sixteen
Bullet Boy
Life is Sweet
Billy Liar
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
A Taste of Honey
Look Back in Anger
This Sporting Life
Up the Junction
Room at the Top
This is England is an example of a social realist film. It portrays the other side of life where daily struggles occur. It is evident that This is England is a social realist film due to several things. Firstly, most of the male characters are skinheads. Skinheads represent British youths that come from working class backgrounds that are members of a particular group. They also appear to be quite unpleasant towards people. Secondly, they face struggles in their daily lives which they have to overcome. It shows society some negative aspects of life that British people have to deal with in reality. Lastly, they express their political views in a racist way sometimes. Some economical issues that were being complained about included the unemployment of British citizens due to the rise of immigrants entering Britain. They were making racist remarks to individuals from other nationalities.
ReplyDeleteHanifa Majothi
Well done, Hanifa - and thank you for getting the ball rolling. You've picked up on several important points like the working class background of the characters and the idea of struggle and political comment.
DeleteWhen you say, "The other side of life", is it "other" to you or "other" to the majority of film genres? Are you referring to the fact that many films try to gloss over these aspects of society and focus on less complex issues, whereas Social Realist films confront them head on? To improve, make sure you always link your point back to the genre, e.g. are the male characters in Social Realist films always skinheads, or is it that they are usually members of a particular group or gang? And are Social Realist films always about racism, or are they always about conflict?
A film that could be included into the social realist genre is Kidulthood it displays the everyday life of high school kids in England. Three ways in which it fits into the social realist genre is its uses of drugs and alcohol, teenage pregnancy and weapons like knives, guns and baseball bats. Drugs and alcohol are very common in England and are used by a lot of teenagers they are used for various reasons like boredom, experimentation and because they are being pressured by some of their friends. Teenage pregnancy is very common in the UK in fact 1 in 8 girls become pregnant before turning 18. Weapons are carried a lot by teenagers especially those in gangs, almost one in five teenage pupils surveyed for a police study said they had carried a weapon in the past year, some of which said they carried it for self-defence and very few admitted to carrying for the purpose of an attack.
ReplyDeleteAnisah Piprawala
It's great that you have looked up the facts to back up your argument - that will really help in terms of discussing how realistic Social Realist films really are. Well done.
Deletehttp://beauchampcollegemedia2010.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/bullet-boy-poster-03.jpg
ReplyDeleteIn this Bullet Boy poster we see a young boy in black and white surrounded by a cold blue fog, light shines from the right onto his, focusing on his facial features but he seems void of emotion and unaware of his surroundings, but we can see an image clear in his mind of two younger boys playing with a gun.
This image is a dark red, which may represent anger or evil.
The poster shows that this 'Bullet Boy' may feel regretful or guilty after the events that are stuck in his mind occurred.
Bullet Boy seems to show certain features of social realist films, such as overcoming struggles and self redemption.
Clever to research one of the films you will be writing about later, David, and your analysis is strong on detail and on connotations.
DeleteTo improve, investigate the film's themes and see how the poster reflects these. "Redemption" is an excellent and very apt word to sum up the struggle in this film.
adulthood is an example of a realist film as it potrays the not only hard but the scary side of life. The conflict is't between the blacks and the whites but competitive teenagers fighting for respect.
ReplyDeletei have not seen the movie however the conflict seems to be between charcters who hurt the people they hate's loved ones or worse murder which links in to real life as there were 156 murders in London when the movie was made(2008)
Heba Yassin
I'm so pleased you have a fact to back up your points - that really helps you to evaluate how realistic these films really are. Your points are also apt and incisive. Well done.
DeleteKidulthood is a perfect example of a social realist film. From the front cover, we can tell that it will portray the lives of young people living in a gritty urban area. In the background we also see estates and tower blocks, this links to the clothing of the male characters as they are all wearing grimy and a thuggish type clothing. One of the characters in the photo has a baseball bat which could link to the violent atmosphere. There is also a hint of hope in the cover, as we can see sunlight coming from the left side of the image, this could hint that not all is bad and maybe a hint of change for the good.
ReplyDeleteBurkay
This gets straight to the point and is well-written and insightful. The next stage will be to try to make more use of media language (e.g. camera angles/setting/mise-en-scene/foreground/background).
DeleteWell done.
Kidulthood is a perfect example of a social realist film. It touches all aspects of a normal teenager's dy to day tife. nothing is sugar coated. the main character goes through differnt difficult things that will occur when one lives in an urban area.the main character gets his girlfriend pregnant and because his father was absent its dose not accur to him how to become a father. his paternal instinct is absent.
ReplyDelete-shaam hassan-bare
Great points, well done. Don't forget to refer back to the genre, e.g. 'This is typical of social realist films...'
Deletekidulthood is a good example of a social realist film. The film portays the lives of many young people. One of the main charactors gets his girlfriend pregnant and because he didnt have his father around, he dosnt know how to become a good father because he didnt have a male role modol in his life.
ReplyDeleteAdulthood is the follow on movie from Kidulthood. This movie is focussed on Sam who recently came out of prison because he killed Trevor ‘Triv’ in Kdulthood. This built conflict between him and Trevor’s friends. This movie also is about how far one friend will go to get revenge. This relates to social realist film because it is to do with a few teenagers life and there struggle to get by and also the downfalls that occur. People could also relate to this in real life because things like this happen which is one of the reasons why I think people might like this movie. Some of them want respect but some just want to get out becaus they feel trapped. This is a good example of a social realist film because it shows highs and lows of there life.
ReplyDeleteits a good movie, it inspires me and tells us that black people shouldnt be judged because they're not bad people. Although i havent watched the whole movie so far i think it is a good movie and theres alot to it.
ReplyDeletesihana
this movie is a fantastic movie and it show me that people can live any dream and become anything they want to be , but society just puts us asblack people down . ( NOT EVEN JUST AS BLACKPEOPLE THE YOUTH AND OUT NEW GENERATION )
Deletesembia
I think that kidulthood can be entered into the genre of social realist film because in this film it is showing you how some teenagers go about there daily routine. As you can see on the front cover of the kidulthood there style is very urban and the way we can also tell is because of the props they are using for example one of the boys are holding a bat which will give you a little clue that there will be violence in this film. if you look at the picture you can see that the picture has been taken from a low angle so that they're all looking down this shows that they have a high status and may want the viewers to be intimidated.
ReplyDelete