Review of Made In Britain

Introduction

Made in Britain was made for television in 1983 and marks a stunning debut performance by Tim Roth as Trevor, a racist skinhead, continually in trouble, seemingly with no future. Now on his last chance at an assessment centre, Trevor`s hard exterior hides his intelligence and potential to get out of the downward spiral, but social workers have got a very hard job ahead of them to push him in the right direction.

Video

Video comes in full-frame and is a bit grainy, but relatively free of dirt, and is certainly a great deal better than that old VHS copy that you`ve probably got lying around if you`re a fan of the movie.

The visuals are not especially exciting, but do a good job of conveying the depressing backdrop to the movie, with high unemployment, crime, racism and the justice system ever present.

Audio

Made in Britain was made for television so it will come as no surprise that the soundtrack is Dolby Digital Mono and primarily offers dialogue, which is always clear and understandable.

Features

There are no extras of any description, but this is offset by the low suggested retail price of the disc.

The disc is packaged in a silver Amaray case, which contains a folded insert detailing the 15 chapter breaks, and some of the other titles available in the range.

Conclusion

Made in Britain is a hard-hitting film, that has a certain notoriety, primarily due to the language and racism. However, that aside, the film is actually a very good documentary style look at life in an assessment centre in 1983, when the country was suffering from high unemployment, increased racial tension and with many people like Trevor facing an uncertain future.

The quality of the film is underlined in one very long scene where Trevor`s past, present and future are laid out before him by three social workers in the assessment centre. This scene is excellent, with powerful performances from all involved and clearly demonstrates that there is more to Made in Britain than a racist throwing bricks through windows.

The video and sound are both acceptable given the origins of the film, and the lack of extras is offset by the low cost.

Overall, I`ve not seen this film for a number of years, and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed watching it again.