Essay - Attack the Block

Essay; analyse the collective identity of British youth in a film of your choice.

‘Attack the Block’ is a British sci-fi, action and comedy that is set on a council estate in South London where a gang of male teenagers need to defend them and the community from being attacked by alien creatures. They come across to the audience as being very violent as they attack the creatures with great force and scare them with fireworks which could be stolen as the characters are portraying a very stereotypical ‘chav’ group of people.

The film is set at night time where most crime is typically occurs in every neighbourhood.  The setting is a council estate where stereotypically people on benefits live and they aren’t very nice people as they are rude and take other people’s money. Every character is dressed in tracksuits and walk around the streets showing they are very powerful and that their parents cannot control them by keeping them at home. The characters are a range of ages with the youngest character being around 10 years old and getting a bad influence on how they are meant to behave from the older males in the film. All of the actors are male showing it is a male dominated film; however there was women that play a massive role in the film as they show the change in the personalities of the characters as they develop through the film and learn about themselves. The bad group of people cause ‘moral panic’ as they attack a random woman in the streets when they try and steal her handbag but they later on save her and make her aware that they are not as evil as they come across as. The actors are not big Hollywood actors showing that the film is low budget; however the film uses the natural light of the streets to portray the characters as being intimidating but using affects to show the aliens are bold and powerful. They speak using a lot of slang and make themselves come across to the audience as being uneducated as they can’t find the correct grammar and words to be able to get across what is going on during the alien attack and with the quote of ‘I just want to go home and play Fifa’ the audience is able to tell that they are lazy and enjoy just staying home rather than getting a job.

 Poletta & Jaspar

The young males are the collective group during the film and are labelled by the people such as the women and man who live in the estate with them that have decided that this group of people are vile human beings that are only around so that they can cause destruction and make other people’s lives worst to enjoy their own more.  The group of male characters that are in the film as shown as being very loud towards other people along with wearing dark tracksuits, this is looked at by the adults and the other people that are in that area that they are then a group of males that cause a panic towards other people and are a very negative group in society (grouped by the outsiders who are the adults).

Snow

All of the experiences that the male group of characters make them one group of people as they are all together every night and causing havoc for the people that live around them, all of the characters think that they are unique such as the woman thinking that she is one because she has a job and doesn’t associate with those sorts of people but she is actually very similar to the group of boys as she experiences the attack and has to try saving herself and the people around her.  

Tafjal & Turner

The characters in the film especially the group of males will have multiple social identities as when they are out on the streets of London with their friends they need to make sure they come across as being very strong hearted when they are attacking people and scaring people to walk away as a sense of power. However when they visit home before the attack happens to get weapons the characters are very different with their families as they are very polite and make sure that they are aware of where they are going and what time they will be home at.

Stryker

The people in the group are always learning more about who they really are and the group that they are with (the gang of males that are very rude and scary) will be who the younger characters in the group will become as they think that it is right to look and act as they do, the younger members in the group will be shaped identity wise by the group that they hang round with – all of the older boys – as they don’t realise any different, especially as one of the younger boys is brothers with one of the older ones, they will look up to this person and want to be like them.

Bakhtin

The characters change from being rude and violent people when they try to steal the woman’s handbag and then help her save her own life and their own. The theory does link in with the film as the characters change who they are throughout the film and show a different side to themselves when they are helping to make a large change to the community. The characters change who they are throughout the film itself, proving that the theory is accurate. 

Gauntlett

The lifestyle choice that the gang are choosing is to be naughty and make sure that people know who they are it is a very negative lifestyle, the members of the gang will experiment with whether or not they want to live the life of a future criminal or become successful like the women who is a nurse. The group does actually tell the younger members that they should go home whilst the attack is occurring which shows the audience that their parents have also influenced their identity by showing them how to care for someone and want them to be safe.

Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 7.4/10 and said that the film was a mix of scares, laughs and social mixes and was very British showing that the people that rated the film think that all of the youth in Britain are very similar to the people that are in the film which gives British youth a negative look as they think that all youth are rude and stay out late. IMDB gave an even lower rating of 6.6/10 due to it containing strong language and violence and enjoyed the idea of the characters starting as a villain and becoming good and recommend the film to other people.