Neds (2010)

Encompassed by violent street gangs, neglectful parents, bullying teachers and a dearth of positive role models, a studious but emotionally abandoned kid turns thug.

Director:

Peter Mullan

Writer:

Peter Mullan

Stars:

Conor McCarron, Greg Forrest, Joe Szula

7 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Conor McCarron	...	John McGill
Greg Forrest	...	Young John (as Gregg Forrest)
Joe Szula	...	Benny McGill
Mhairi Anderson	...	Elizabeth
Gary Milligan	...	Canta
John Joe Hay	...	Fergie
Christopher Wallace	...	Wee T
Richard Mack	...	Gerr
Paul Smith	...	Key Man
Khai Nugent	...	Tam
Ryan Walker	...	Sparra
Lee Fanning	...	Minty
Ross Greig	...	Fifey
Greg McCreadie	...	Tora
Scott Ingram	...	Casper

Storyline

Despite having a drunken, abusive father and a brother who leads a local gang John McGill is a studious boy for whom a bright educational future seems to beckon. However his studiousness isolates him and when he is invited to join the gang it gives him a sense of belonging. However he becomes increasingly more violet, stabbing a boy in the neck, for which his brother is blamed and jailed, and dropping a breeze block on a rival gang leader, causing him permanent brain damage. John is temporarily thrown out of his home by his mother and suspended from school though when he is readmitted he is placed in the remedial class. John now has no interest in education but in being the top boy amongst the NEDS or non-educated delinquents. He is invincible, and even the lions at the local safari park let him pass without attacking him.

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Plot Keywords:

abusive father | bridge | brother brother relationship | kissing | broken window | 

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Taglines:

Some people need to be taught a lesson.

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK France Italy

Language:

English Scots Latin

Release Date:

20 April 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Chuligani

Filming Locations:

Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, UK

Box Office

Budget:

£4,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£283,210 (United Kingdom), 23 January 2011, Limited Release

Company Credits

Production Co:

Blue Light, Fidélité Films, StudioUrania

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Originally Peter Mullan planned to shoot the film in the same style as Ken Loach - ie, shooting in sequence and only giving the actors the scenes that they were required to do on the day so that they wouldn't know the outcome. However, Mullan only caused greater problems for himself by not shooting in sequence as he found himself constantly explaining to the actors what they had just done chronologically. After two weeks, he relented and gave all the actors the full script to read and learn.

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Goofs

Teachers were not allowed to smoke in classrooms in the mid-1970s.

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Quotes

Canta: I'm Canta fae Hardridge and I fucking like battering wee swotty cunts like you, ya prick. See, when you're in my school, you gonna get your cunt kicked in every single day. First day, I'm gonna break your legs, fucking demolish you, rip your heid off. I swear to God, you're dead, wee man. First day, you're fucking dead.

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Connections

Features Les aventures de Robinson Crusoë (1964)

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Soundtracks

This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us
Written by Ron Mael
Performed by Sparks

User Reviews

when lions lay down

Growing up in inner city Glasgow in the Seventies, gangs are ubiquitous. The stories of stabbings and kickings have an awful, magnetic allure. Jimmy Boyle, mythologised by his lack of presence due to incarceration, like an Anti-Mandela figure, is the archetypal hardman in a town still nicknamed No Mean City. Glasgow's Miles Better has yet to be thought of. And school is not where you learn, it is where you survive.

Like Lynne Ramsey's Ratcatcher, Neds resonates with Glaswegians born in the Sixties who grew up in this mayhem, and now look at it with the benefit of age and distance and wonder how we ever took it for normality.

John is the academically gifted younger brother of a locally respected/ feared ned. His father is mostly missing or drunk, his mother struggles to cope. Like many Scots, the family role model is the one who has exiled herself. Joe's big brother Benny (a charismatic Joe Szula) provides a buffer between him and the worst of the violence - but also gives him a free pass towards initiation. Mean, visceral humiliation from local bully Kanta propels John away from study and towards Benny's sphere of influence. After many trials and betrayals, John survives that, till another humiliation at the point of a crossbow pushes him again to the brink.

Cinematically, Mullen is playful and challenging here. The director says Kubrick and Peckinpah were evoked in keeping with the time; the duct taping of knives to hands is pure Peckinpah, and the juxtaposition of foot-tapping music with jaw-breaking violence recalls Kubrick. The ending is big canvas cinema, but it worked for me. There is also a lovely rhythm here, the gangs running toward and away from each other more often than not. That's how I remember it in Maryhill - big boys always running after or away from other big boys.

Drunk Dads (Mullen in an acting career best), Bolan, six of the belt, winchin' up the graveyard, change on the buses, Provvie cheques - I loved it. But then I grew up with it. Outside Glasgow, and a certain generation, this might be more difficult to access. It will do better in Europe and Asia where the subtitles will help, and the essential coming-of-age story will rise to the fore more.