This is a tale of two movies.
One, The King’s Speech, you may know about, and the other, which you may also know about but only if you live in Scotland, is Neds (see end of piece for trailer).
The main characters couldn’t be more different, they’re set about 30 years apart and the swearing by George VI is in fairly controlled doses. Peter Mullan’s film is less discerning with its swear words. It may take a more enterprising film writer to do the actual maths on it, but it surely rivals Nil By Mouth and Casino on dropping the F and C-bombs.
Those who have seen Neds will know it also unsentimentally looks at how a young man’s potential is derailed by parental and educational neglect, and inevitable peer pressure.
Like so many modern films, it suffers slightly from being around half an hour too long, but nonetheless it is a remarkable and powerful piece of work. It manages to be funny, moving, poignant and disturbing. It speaks powerfully about the importance of choices made in adolescence. Be warned if you haven't seen it: it is not for the faint-hearted, and unlikely to be confused with a Judd Apatow movie.
It is made all the more moving when you read Mullan’s own story of his alcoholic father, time spent with street gangs and struggle to make it to higher education.
Although Neds won the Best Film at last year’s San Sebastian Film Festival, Peter Mullan will probably not be partying down the front with Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush at all the award ceremonies but the film’s star Conor McCarron should be. His performance in its own way is just as powerful as Firth’s. Voters at BAFTA must have taken the day off the day they screened Neds.
Like most of the cast, he was not a trained actor when he turned up to Mullan’s open audition. Unlike most of the 300 others who auditioned, it would be amazing if McCarron didn’t pick up an agent or was cast in something else soon.
Whether you credit actor or director for McCarron’s performance, another piece of praise should go to those who ensured the film made it into cinemas, including Scottish Screen and the UK Film Council. When The King’s Speech wins its Oscars, the support of the Film Council is likely to be mentioned in the speeches - particularly as George Osborne is committed to scrapping it.
Director Tom Hooper says that “without the Film Council, The King’s Speech wouldn’t have been made”.
The King’s Speech features an Academy Award-winning Best Actor and Bafta-winning Best Actor, is about the Royal Family, and touches on a world war, and is in addition part-funded by mega mogul Harvey Weinstein. These are all arguments to suggest it would have had a chance of reaching the multiplexes without the UK Film Council.
A film about Glaswegian Non-Educated Delinquents? That’s more debatable.
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