This is England and Hot fuzz comparison

This is England is a film directed by Shane Meadows and produced by warp films, warp is a british film company which is the ‘ smaller sister company’ to warp music. The film is set in nottingham and is about the skinhead culture of the 80’s. Hot fuzz directed by Edgar Wright and produced by ‘working title’ who are owned by Universal films is about a policemen played by Simon Pegg who takes his job too serious and is transferred to  countryside. It’s set in the modern era and is based in sandford, gloucestshire.

Both meadows and wright used their own experiences to write and direct their movies. Meadows based This is England on his childhood and early adult life claiming as a young boy he was bullied until gaining acceptance from a group of skinheads. He was given a ‘ben shearmen  which was too big’ and a pair of Dr Martens showing he was working class and proud of it. Meadows says was ‘suddenly part of this gang’ feared by others making him feel protected for the first time in his life.  This is where he came up with the character Shaun who has to deal with all the same experiences growing up as Shane Meadows had too. In the film like in Shanes life the gang get’s infiltrated by a leader with racist views. Wright used different experiences, he claims ‘he makes films for himself’,meaning he makes films he’d watch and the comedy he would enjoy making himself the target audience. He made Hot fuzz fit into the comedy and satire genres meaning the movie makes jokes at an existing film in this case Wright focuses on Bad Boys ii. This is not the first time he has used this technique before going back to when he made Shaun of the dead which is making fun of the horror movie Dawn of the dead.

The cast of Hot fuzz is made up of we’ll known British actors, Simon Pegg (Run Fatboy Run and Shaun of the dead) and Nick Frost (The boat that rocked and Shaun of the dead) are the two main actors playing Nicholas Angel and PC Danny Butterman. They are ‘stock actors’ meaning they have worked together successfully before as lead actors on other movies. The cast also consists of we’ll known actors such as Martin Freeman, Bill Nighly and Robert Popper. This is England consists of relatively unknown actors. Thomas Turgoose (Eden Lake and This is England 86) was chosen by Meadows to play his first role as Shaun. Stephen Graham (Public enemy and The damned united) is the most well know actor on set, he plays combo a racist skinhead. Jo Hartley, Andrew Shim, Vicky McClure and Joseph Gilgun make up the cast.

There was a significant  difference in the budgeting between these two movies. This is England had a budget of £1 million and Hot fuzz had a much higher budget of £8 million meaning hit fuzz could afford to spend much more money than This is England on advertisement. Hot fuzz could afford to make there own montages as they could afford a wide range of filming equipment whereas This is England didn’t have the funds for all the equipment so Shane Meadows opens the movie with a montage using clips from the news to show what England was like in the 80’s. The reason the budget was so much higher for Hot fuzz than for This is England because of the effects needed needed such as explosions, stunts and scenes aided by technology.

Both directors use stereotypes in there films. Edgar Wright uses the stereotype that London police are over dedicated to there jobs and somethings always going on around them. He also uses the stereotype that countryside police are lazy and nothings ever going on around them. In This is England Shane Meadows uses the stereotype of skinheads being rough, hard and feared as well as there looks of having a shaven head, skinny jeans and Dr Martens.

Humor is used by both Meadows and Wright but in very different ways. In hot fuzz the stereotypes are taken too the extreme as Nicholas Angel is so serious about the law that it makes the audience laugh. Where as in This is England Meadows makes you feel part of the gang as they have banter with each other, using casual racism ‘milky’ and constant swearing from Shaun.

In Hot fuzz Edgar Wright uses lots of fast paced camera work, quick changes of angles too make boring scenes look interesting. He also uses this too imitate cop action films like bad boys ii. camera work is vital in the montage, the many different shots in quick succession. In this is England they didn’t have the technology that Edgar Wright had but they still had a mixture of long and short shots as well as the use of hand held cameras for some of the shots.

Iconography is used more in This is England than in hot fuzz, In hot fuzz the metropolitan police station is used to show Nicholas Angel was part of the metropolitan police force which is based in London also you can tell he is leaving London when he is on the underground then at the London train station but after this there is no more use of iconography. In This is England there is much more use of iconography, Meadows opens the movie with a montage all about england and we know it’s england because all the flags being waved, the soldiers serving in the falklands, Diana and then in the first few scenes Shaun enters a corner shop. Also when Shaun and Combo go too national front meeting too see other skinheads views on what’s going wrong with the nation.