Review of Made in Britain (1983) by Al M — 04 Aug 2010

Alan Clarke's Made in Britain represents subversive, political cinema at its best--it is a provocative gut-punch of film that is in turn hilarious, disturbing, and poignant. Tim Roth's performance as a British teengage skinhead who ditches school, steals cars, and causes general mayhem is about as primal and powerful as acting can be.

An indictment of the British education system, Thatcherism, and conformity in general, Made in Britain tells the tale of an intelligent young man who simply could not conform to the strict "bullshit" that he learned in school.

He desires a life outside the system, "outside of society" as Patti Smith would say, but he finds that various forces and institutions always attempt to pull him back under the regime of power and normativity.

Trevor, Roth's character, is a racist and, in many ways, a reactionary conservative, but it is precisely his inability to become a true revolutionary that allows the film to serve as a real critique of a failed educational system, a system that only teaches conformity, passivity, and docility, a system that teaches one to be nothing more than sheep.

Indeed, Made in Britain's critical view of education serves as a fine companion piece to the views expressed by Pink Floyd on The Wall, which incidentally appeared in the same exact year. When education teaches us to be nothing more than mindless drones, then might we all join the chorus of "We Don't Need No Education.

We Don't Need No Thought Control.".