Sweet Sixteen Opening Scene analysis

 

Ken Loach, director of Sweet Sixteen, a British social realism film,employs a number of features to make the film appear more realistic. This film is about a young 16 year old boy that is in an unstable situation as his mother is in jail and his father doesn’t seem to be a straight shooter.  In the opening scene you see the boy and a friend in a pub trying to sell cigarettes to people, Ken Loach highlights this by using a close up on his hand while handing the cigarettes to a women. In social realism films it is usually shot in dark low lighting areas so without close ups you would have been able to see the boy selling the cigarettes  This makes the scene more believable as he has his body in the way of the bartenders so they cannot see what he is doing, allowing him to sell them to her.

In the next scene you see the two boys walking down the street after they had just been kicked out of the pub, Ken Loach uses both mise-en-scene and long shot. He uses a long shot to show the clothes they are wearing, they are dressed in cheap looking tracksuits and caps giving off the impression that they are chavs, although they are represented as chavs they don't look out of place meaning they live in a poor area fitting the Social Realism genre the film is based in.

 

In the next scene the boys spot a lorry reversing out from an alleyway, the boys take advantage of the drivers poor visibility and help him reverse out but in doing this they make him reverse into the motorbike knocking it over. He then steals the policeman's helmet and then runs of as he gets chased. Ken Loach includes this scene as it allows both humour for the audience but also an understanding of the area they live in. this is because the boys make the driver run over the motorbike as a cheap form as entertainment as due to the lack of money they have they can't afford to go out and do things they have to create their own for of entertainment.

 

 

 

Connor