Eric Richard, Robbie Coltrane, Tim Roth

MADE IN BRITAIN features Tim Roth in a lead role for the first time, portraying an unconventional skinhead named Trevor. Intelligent, yet excessively violent, Trevor bucks the cinematic stereotypes of...( read more  read more... )ten attached to such figures, with Clarke lending a sympathetic slant to a character who boils over with rage.

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83% liked it

3,972 ratings

PG-13, 73 min.

Directed by: Alan Clarke

Release Date: February 25, 1982

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DVD Release Date: February 28, 2006

Stats: 249 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (249)


  • September 24, 2009
    A great first film for Roth, its powerful and honest! Much better than Made in England!
  • January 7, 2009
    One more great film by one of the best TV directors ever. Raw it is, so much so that nowadays it plays like a documentary about the bitter side of the Thatcher years. And of course an amazing Tim Roth
  • October 24, 2008
    Long before Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Tim Roth stars in this drama about a British skinhead racist that is anti-authority and heading for a path of self-destruction.

    A good early performance by Roth, but lacked in gritty storyline ? it?s certainly not a ?This is England...( read more)?.

    2.5 STARS

    ROTH/BRITISH
  • April 3, 2008
    Peter Clive: "I really don't know what we're going to do.
    Trevor the Skinhead: About what?
    Peter Clive: About you.
    Trevor the Skinhead: No , about you, what the fuck are we gonna do about you? If you had any balls, you'd stick a knife in the bastards who w...( read more)rite all that bollocks - they're wankers!"

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    First screened on ITV in 1983, Made in Britain was the third collaboration between Alan Clarke and screenwriter David Leland. The film focuses on teenager Trevor, a violent, racist skinhead who refuses to cooperate with any attempts by the courts or social workers to rehabilitate him.

    In many respects, Trevor is an archetypal Alan Clarke character. Like Archer in Scum, he is a bright kid who sees himself as the victim of authoritarianism and believes he can beat the system by belligerence and defiance. His forthright but confused sense of pride in his white heritage is reminiscent of Clarke's notions of Englishness, like a precursor to Bexy in The Firm, he is a personification of the dark underbelly of 1980s Britain.

    Undermining established stereotypes of skinheads as mindless thugs, Trevor is intelligent and articulate, which ultimately makes him more frustrating for those who try to help him. In a key scene, a social worker demonstrates on a blackboard the trap of crime, prison and poverty that Trevor is walking into; Trevor is smart enough to understand but too angry to care. But brief insights behind his aggressive façade, reveal glimpses of a desperate individual and, obnoxious though Trevor undoubtedly is, it becomes hard not to pity him.

    Formally, Made in Britain marked the start of the kinetic camera style that would dominate Clarke's later works and inspire so many other filmmakers. Always keen to bridge the gap between actors and audience and famously impatient when arranging complex tracking shots, Clarke's discovery of the Steadicam whilst making Made in Britain added a fluidity to the film and to subsequent dramas like Contact, Road, Christine, Elephant, and The Firm. Made in Britain was written as a companion piece to Leland's Rhino, the story of a disenfranchised young black girl, and the two films were first broadcast on consecutive Sundays.

    The essence of Clarke's approach is to stay close, trust his actors, shoot on location with minimal props and in institutionalised interiors that reflect the exhaustion of public services, using functional architecture's soul-dead ambiance and what is known in the cheap seats as "naked truth." Performances are naturalistic, often searing. Tim Roth, in his TV debut, is dangerously fluent and haunting. Trevor may be a gift to an actor, but Roth avoids rebel glamour that so easily could have softened the impact. With uncompromising body language and fierce concentration, he creates a monster-in-the-making, already misunderstood, already targeted for police brutality, already crazy with rage. Arguably Clarke's finest work.
  • October 24, 2009
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  • September 5, 2009
    An excellent portrayal of racist scum. Tim Roth is such an amazing actor.
  • July 24, 2009
    This is an amazing performance by Tim Roth. Its a short film, portraying a racist, violent, skinhead called Trevor (Tim Roth) causing caos and destruction anywhere he goes. Tim Roth delivers a hilarious, performance which draws you to the film!
  • July 22, 2009
    Made in Britain, Brilliant it captivates some londoners true love for britain there own country and how people feel about foreigners and Tim Roth played the part fantasticulary he was excellent this movie is funy with tim roths witty back chat and just an enjoyable film to watch,...( read more) although the ending just seems to abrupt and for a very short movie of just 1hr 11mins i think the ending should have been better!
    but this movie is really worth a watch especially if your a tim roth fan!
  • May 18, 2009
    Weird, shortish film contained very little about the politics of the right-wing main character, and was mostly about the justice system for incarcerated youth in Britain. still worth a watch for fans of troubled youth films
  • April 14, 2009
    This movie fascinated me and grabbed my attention by how strong the script and screenplay was.it takes a look into the life of The disgruntled and hopeless British youth of the 80's and depicts perfectly the feelings and attitudes of most 16-18 year olds at the height of the That...( read more)cherite regime. Brilliant movie.

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