BSR Timeline

1960S - Cross roads to crime
Crossroads to Crime is a 1960 British crime film where a man called Don Ross discovers a gang of lorry hi-jackers from the back of a transport cafe.  Connie Williams , Sergeant Pearson  scoffs at Ross's concerns that the criminals are responsible for a series of vehicle thefts along the A1 Road. From this, we can tell that the themes are crime, violence, theft , mystery and murder. More evidence is from the text ( trailer ) , which shows several uses of diegetic sounds connoting violence. gangs and murder within the film. Nevertheless, the diegetic noises is a soundtrack of trumpets playing, at a fast pace connoting excitement within the film and giving an impression of danger. It is set around the A1 Road in London which gives opportunities for high pace chases which, involve yet again violence but, thrill for the audience.  - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATAeuCVXqLQ&safe=active


1970s - PerformancePerformance is a 1970 British crime drama film,Chasis a soldier in an east London gang led by Harry Flowers ;his specialty is intimidation through violence as he collects pay-offs for Flowers. He is very good at his job, and has a reputation for liking it. His sexual liaisons are casual and rough.  The themes used in this text are, madness, sanity , sex , and violence. It is set in east London. The sound used is Rock music, which connote a rebellious tone towards the characters and mood, it also uses diegetic noises of gun shots which show violence and connote an insane world.

1980s - The Long good Friday.Harold Shand , an old-fashioned London Gangster is aspiring to become a businessman, albeit with the financial support of the American Mafia, with a plan to redevelop the  London Docklands as a venue for a future Olympic Games. Yet again, the themes in this text are violence, guns, gangs which is set in London. The sound used often are diegetic noises of explosions which, give connotations of an atmosphere of violence and danger nevertheless, most of the people wear suits which give connotations of a luxurious life and high-class people.

1990s - TrainspottingTrainspotting is a 1996 British crime comedy drama film.  Trainspotting have alot of themes of drugs,violence, crimes , sex which are, seen as conventions of a British social realism film. The characters are quite rebellious and carefree with no direction in life.  They also used rock music,   which give connotations of also rebellion and rejecting the norms of society. Nevertheless, the costumes they wear is also quite dirty, which show the poverty they live in and the carefree manor of not caring how they look.


2000s - Billy Eillot

Billy Elliot has quite different themes which are protest, riots , depression , poverty , inspiration and ambition. These are all connoted through Billy Elliot persona ,to subvert the generic stereotype of boys being masculine. He does this through being rebellious and practicing things he loves.  There quite a few shots of medium shots of billy practicing his hobby, showing the work he puts in to be different from society. They use alot of fade-to-black transitions to show a slow pace throughout the text and the time-line of the movie.

2010s - Four Lions

Four lions have themes about Terrorism and comedy, which is often seem as a juxtaposition due, to the terrorism being horrific and not funny, giving off a satire tone. It is set in London and Pakistan and often alot of medium shots of the  environment with the main characters in it, to give off a sense of the world they are and , maybe how out of place they are. They often wear religious clothes, to show their serious mood about their religion and how they respect it. The sounds are often explosions, giving off connotations of danger while, there are diegetic noises of the people arguing giving off the satire mood.

Overall, the themes of British social realism have changed over time having more conventions, themes and meanings as, usually the old films in 60s-70s would be based on only one theme which, would usually be crime and violence. However, this is now expanded to drugs, rebellion, protest and even satire comedy to lighten the mood of the kitchen-sink-dramas.