Introduction
Many years ago I watched Dead Man's Shoes and I can vividly remember coming away from the film and thinking that clearly it didn't take much budget to create an incredible film. This was before I knew Shane Meadows and Paddy Considine. I was fortunate enough to have the 'This is Shane Meadows' boxset bought for me as a present (thanks to The Beautiful Game? blogger Richard) after I realised - and he realised - that I may be a Shane Meadows fan - having loved Dead Man's Shoes many years ago, and hailing This is England as a British masterpiece. Put it this way, I am watching more and more Shane Meadows films and this man is a incredible filmmaker and you folk across the atlantic need to hunt him out. The less you know about this film the better and, I would advise, that you hunt the film out before reading further because - like usual - this is more an analysis of specific aspects and this film would be much better without you reading everything before watching it. But, if you are one of the lucky ones who has watched this film - keep going...
A Western in the Midlands
When I watched this recently, a close friend noted that is almost a western as it introduces Richard Paddy Considine) as the 'stranger' who comes to town. If you push this logic further, you can see how the
