‘How are British youths represented in Quadrophenia and Harry Brown?'
Throughout many different time periods, new cultures and attitudes are introduced, which are usually taken up by a fresh generation of youths. Cohen studied mods and rockers in the 1960’s and created a theory that argues “folk devils” often emerge within society that go against social normality, reflecting the anxieties and fears of adults. This leads to “moral panic” when the media exaggerates the “folk devils”. This theory is applicable to the 1960’s time era of Quadrophenia and the modern day Harry Brown, although the representation of these deviant youths differs slightly.
The main themes in Quadrophenia are belonging to a group and fighting against “social normality”, whereas the themes in Harry Brown are still about belonging to a group, but fighting for “social normality”. There are also themes of drugs and violence in both films, but perhaps not as severe as in Harry Brown. The themes are portrayed in different ways in both films, as in Quadrophenia we follow the main character as part of the youths and in Harry Brown we follow the main character against the youths. In Harry Brown the themes of drugs and violence are very severe and over exaggerated, for example when Harry enters youth territory to purchase a gun, both him and the audience are stunned by the mass amount of marijuana being grown within the derelict building. However, in Quadrophenia we only see the purchasing and consumption of drugs from youths, which are looked slightly less harshly on than the severe criminal activity involved with drug dealing in Harry Brown. In fact, the overall themes of criminal activity within Quadrophenia are less exaggerated than they are in Harry Brown. For example although Jimmy was at the fighting against the rockers in Brighton, he was not directly causing as much of the damage like some of the other youths, which suggests to the audience that not all youths are as dramatically rebellious as others. This fighting in Brighton was exaggerated in media coverage, again relating back to the moral panic theory.
The gang ideologies in Quadrophenia are very different to Harry Brown. There is the idea in Quadrophenia that the Mods chose to rebel and fight for their opinions against the government. They chose to be in these groups for a reason, showing their opinions against capitalism and consumerism in post war Britain. In contrast, the groups of thugs in Harry Brown are mindlessly attacking and rebelling for no true reason except they were born in to such a society. For example, in Quadrophenia we see rebellion against parents and clearly in Harry Brown we see the youths following parent’s examples, such as Noel stating he is following on from what his father did. On the other hand, there is also the idea that Mods were committing mindless acts due to the attitudes in post war Britain. Because teenagers no longer had to put money they earn from their jobs towards their parents income, they had disposable cash that they supposedly spent on money and drugs. We see an example of this when Jimmy disrespectfully quits his job and blows his money on drugs which has no real cause against consumerism and capitalism. This however, is perhaps not an accurate representation. The gang ideologies in both films stereotype the two groups of youths. The Mods are represented as the way they were in the media, and as are the thugs in Harry Brown. For example, British Newspapers created a certain image for the Mods which can be seen in an 1964 article in The Sunday Times. It interviewed a 17 year old mod who claimed they went out clubbing all night every night and spent Sunday afternoons shopping for clothes and records. This created an unrealistic image of mods as theorists Jobling and Crowly argue Mods most likely had nine to five jobs with low income, which meant they were unlikely to have such money to spend on clubbing and shopping. This is also applicable to the articles we see on yobs in today’s newspapers. We can clearly see how Moral Panic has been created due to these articles, therefore leading the unrealistic representations of youths both today and previously. In my opinion, I view Mods more positively that I do the yobs in Harry Brown. This is perhaps because of the less severe representations in Quadrophenia, perhaps due to the fact it was created during the 70’s where Mods had passed and therefore the opinion of the group had changed. I feel that the ideology of “folk devils” within their time is drastically negatively exaggerated, whereas in later eras they may be viewed differently.
The groups of youths are represented with different identities, but there is the same theme of belonging to a certain group, but perhaps for different reasons in each film. There is a sense that identity gives the characters power. Giroux’s theory suggests that youths are an empty category and open to influences, which is applicable to Quadrophenia in the way Jimmy’s attitude and lifestyle is influenced by the way he sees the Mods and how adults react to them, appealing to his desire to break free of his parents grasp. The idea of identity within Harry Brown is more about power as well as belonging. The youths have control over the estate, their threatening appearance allowing them to reign on most that pass through their territory. The youths in Harry Brown are represented to want this identity just to have mindless power and authority, which isn’t always true to society as there is the idea of wanting to belong. The characters in Qaudrophenia seem to want to just belong to a group and have an identity that isn’t controlled by government. The idea of identity seems to be more important within Quadrophenia as when he starts to fall out of the group, he becomes so hysterical that it leads to him riding his scooter off a cliff, a dramatized example of teenage angst. This however could be viewed as Acland’s Ideology of Protection in the way something bad happens to him because he was a Mod, perhaps to influence youths not to have attitude. The same applies to Harry Brown where the yobs are brutally murdered by Harry because of the acts they committed and the gang they belong to which is intended to discourage teenagers and encourage adults to have a negative opinion of youths and enforce that their child does not commit the same acts.
The parents within two films seem to juxtapose against each other. The parents in Quadrophenia are against what their son is doing and result in kicking him out of their house. The influence is clearly not from them and Jimmy feels he wants to break free from their control and join the rebellious lifestyle of the Mods. However, in Harry Brown Noel wants to continue his parents attitudes, following in his imprisoned father’s footsteps. We see an opposite reaction from his mother compared to Jimmy’s when the police arrest Noel from his home. She becomes hysterical and upset begging them not to take him away and to leave him alone, where as Jimmy’s mother forces him to leave “you should be locked up!” This supports my previous idea that the current “folk devils” of society are born in to such a lifestyle therefore leading to this mindless rebellion, where as the Mods chose their identity and rebelled for a reason. In Quadrophenia the parents are used as another object of opposition for the Mods. They seem to fight against everything that is social normality, and this includes their parents. Conversely the parents in Harry Brown are used as a vessel to transfer opinions and attitudes to the youths. We see the young yobs behaviour mirrored by their parents and family members.
In my opinion, the preception and representation has changed from past eras to modern day. However, this could be because we are looking at past generations with a modern view point, meaning that Mods and Rockers were still represented negatively in the 60's, more so than they are today. The film Quadrophenia was produced during the 70's, supporting my point that the representations of teens from past time periods are not represented as severly negative as they are from films viewing current youths such as Harry Brown. I feel that Cohen's theory is completely applicable to both modern day and previous time periods as it is true that once these "folk devils" appear in society, control of hegemony comes in to play in order to remove these 'imperfections' within social normaility.
Section B marked:
Explanation/ analysis/ argument; Very valid points well backed up and sensible in relation to the question.
15 marks
Use of examples; More examples in from the movie could but used however still very good as well developed afterwards.
17 marks
Use of terminology; From what i gathered from the exemplar answers more theorists and terminology was used. 6 marks
Level descriptor; Really good and clear but sometimes strays away from the question slightly.
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