ILL MANORS

Ill Manors

Box Office: 453,570 GBP

Rating: 7.1/10 IMDb, 79% Rotten Tomatoes, 4.6/5 Time Out

Producers: BBC Films

Plot Synopsis:

Ill Manors is a crime/drama set in the UK. Written, directed and co-scored by Ben Drew (Plan B), the film follows eight main characters over the course of a week as each one tries to fight for respect and stay alive.  The film is set in Forest Gate, London where Plan B grew up and it is based on true events that Drew had read in the newspaper or from stories that he had heard from his friends.

Media Theory:

At the beginning of the film there is fast paced editing and the footage is fast forward showing various different scenes and how they are all connected. Within the scenes you can see young people making, using and selling drugs. Acland’s theory (1995) suggests that the media use more negative stories of youth to emphasise how not to behave in adulthood and so the media can enforce a middle class hegemony. This is clearly illustrated in the opening of the film as you can see the youth acting recklessly and dangerously. There is a match on action when Aaron leaves the woods after running away from the police. This links to Hebdige’s theory (1979) that the media either represent the youth as either fun or trouble and that you never get to see the hard working teens. This is shown through in this scene as Aaron is a drug dealer and has narrowly escaped trouble with the police. There is a fade when Kirby is talking to Aaron and something reminds him of his past and it flashes back to when he was a young man and be released from jail. This links back to Acland’s theory (1995), as the media is showing the youth what not to do because you will become like Kirby.

Early on in the film you can see a long shot of a young pregnant woman-smoking weed. Ann Gould studied the representation of youth in 1999 and came up with 6 stereotypes. One of these is that all young people are self-destructive and this is clearly displayed within this scene, as the young woman is not only brining harm to herself but also the child that she is carrying. Midway through the film there is a mid-shot of a hooded young boy with a gun in his hand. This represents Greg Philo’s stereotype that if you are not part of the middle class you are automatically classed as a thug in a hoodie. The area in which ‘Ill Manor’ is set is a poor part of London where most of the characters are part of the underclass and so are therefore classed as hoodie thugs.  Towards the end of the film there is a high angle/POV where the young boy is looking up at a man holding a gun in his face.  This links to Gerbner’s cultivation theory, that the youth are always the victim of crime on some platform within the media. In the case the boy is the victim of the murder and this fundamentally illustrates another stereotype of the youth that they are vulnerable.

‘Ill Manors’ is set in Forest Gate, London and at the start of the film the use of sets show the poor conditions in which the characters are living this can link to Greg Philo’s theory because they are underclass and so maybe their upbringing and living conditions could have turned them to a life of crime. The costumes that the characters wear, for example ED are very tatty. ED wears a whiter undershirt with a ripped t-shirt over the top, which can connote he has previously been involved in violence and he has a skin head, which can link to Cohen’s theory (1972) that the youth are ‘folk devils’ as they are part of groups and gangs. This can be further illustrated as during one of ED’s flashbacks he is shown to be wearing an England flag and making white power references. This is of course a negative stereotype as it is assuming all young people are prone to expressing extremist ideologies.