‘Still being clever, still being smart…’
British writer-director Alan Clarke is best known for making gritty, hard-hitting television dramas like Scum and The Firm. Made in Britain, a collaboration with writer David Leland, explores some of the same issues as Scum (teenage alienation, social deprivation, rehabilitation, etc), but it does so through the prism of one troubled individual rather than a collective…
We begin in the aftermath of teenage tearaway Trevor (Tim Roth) being led away from court by his social worker, Harry (Eric Richard – better known as Reg from The Bill). Harry carries a torch for Trevor despite the fact that he seems to be irredeemable in almost every conceivable way. After being admitted to Hooper Street Residential Assessment Centre, Trevor meets Peter, a benign and well-meaning superintendent, before immediately teaming up with black inmate Errol (Terry Richards) for a fresh crime spree.
While Scum had a clear message and purpose, to attempt to reform the horror that was young offenders institutions in the ’70s, the message of Made in Britain is less clear. On the one hand, Trevor, our protagonist, is repeatedly judged, attacked or just plain ignored by institutions that are supposed to protect him, but on the other, he’s absolutely vile throughout the film. He’s proudly racist. Volatile. Violent. The kind of person you would cross the road to avoid. He remains an interesting and compelling character, and Roth’s performance is electric, but I wasn’t sure what the film was trying to convey here. Other than Eric Richard’s beleaguered social worker, everyone seemed to be either terminally antisocial or laughably inept.
Made in Britain is worth watching as a snapshot of racial tension at the start of the ’80s, and also for Roth’s star-making performance, but it’s also muddled in what it’s trying to say. A mixed bag.
