NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

FountainPen Absolutely fascinating film. You have to wonder, though, how accurate it is, especially with regard to the staff, the social workers who deal with juvenile delinquents. Interesting how the main scoundrel in this pic, a white teenager (played brilliantly by Tim Roth) who spews racial hatred, immediately befriends a black teenage lad with whom he shares a bedroom in the detention centre. The film is totally fascinating, engrossing entertainment, but it is a tragedy because it deals with hugely serious problems in society, problems that ultimately affect us all, and which are still out of control. Highly-recommended. 9/10.

darren tyndall (tyndall30) Well done BBC, back in the days when the Beeb did gritty dramas, they released made in Britain, directed by Alan Clark. Again he brought us another shocking drama, in the same niche of Roy Mintons 1977 drama Scum, again directed by Clark. A very memorable film, if you was a punk during the 70's or a chav during the 00's you can still represent with Trevors anti-authority figure. With a few recognisable characters from ITV's Crossroads and The Bill, and an excellent role played by Tim Roth, who most people seem to think started acting a week before Reservoir Dogs was cast. A timeless piece of TV history... I found it left me begging at the end of the drama, for more....classic lines from the film are too many to mention, see Skinnymans album Council Estate of Mind for some good samples from the show...I would give it a 9 out of 10 but on a Dazmondo scale, Being a violent thug as a youth, its a classic....

davideo-2 STAR RATING: ***** The Works **** Just Misses the Mark *** That Little Bit In Between ** Lagging Behind * The Pits Trevor (Tim Roth) is a skinhead with a Nazi symbol tattooed on his forehead roaming the streets of London with no respect and no regard for authority. He's about one step away from prison but first the powers that be are going to try an 'assessment centre', where his behaviour will be monitered and analysed. But will even the threat of prison and this decision be enough to turn him on the straight and narrow? Alan Clarke died in 1990, so his work was just about before my time, but it seems the bloke sure knew how to make a shocking film, with his most well known feature Scum and a few years down the line this very short but undeniably hard-hitting piece (which copies the aforementioned film's effective strategy of not having a soundtrack.) In his debut role, Tim Roth takes the lead and, despite his more calm, composed presence off screen, here he somehow manages to convincingly portray a dangerous and violent rebel completely off the rails and with little hope of redemption. The supporting cast pretty much shimmy in his foot steps.It's nowhere near as graphic or shocking as Scum, but it still manages to hit hard and makes me hope that one day I'll be able to see that other acclaimed film of Clarke's, the football violence drama The Firm. ***

Amanda Johnson I saw this film whilst studying in London, and though it isn't exactly pleasant, it does capture your imagination. Roth's performance is as brutal and realistic as everyone says, and the rough, hand-held style of the camera-work contributes to its documentary feel. I don't think I am alone when I say these things; however, I hesitate to talk about how this movie stacks up to other films about skinheads, particularly American HISTORY X. The fact that both movies include the nationality of the main characters says it all--as much as we might like to think that all skinheads are alike, insomuch as they are all equally stupid, Trevor wouldn't make sense in America and Derek Vinyard (Ed Norton's Chararter in AHX) wouldn't make sense in Britain. Each character is a unique product of their country's history, politics, racial attitudes, and ideas of self. Thus I don't think either character--or either movie--can really be evaluated in terms of the other. And while the lead performance is captivating, and might be worthwhile for Tim Roth fans (legend has it Tarantino was inspired to cast him in Reservoir Dogs after seeing this performance), I can see why this film has not been a big hit in the United States. As I said before, the issues discussed in the movie are specific to a particular moment in Britain's social history, and don't translate well. For example, the ending shows Trevor and his new black friend teaming up to assault a South-Asian merchant. This cross-racial animosity toward South-Asian immigrants is reflective of Britain' unique experience with multiculturalism, and wouldn't make much sense to Yanks, given our country's racial history and patterns of immigration. I would recommend this film for the lead performance, and perhaps for its potential to inform the viewer about certain aspects of Britain's multicultural history.