Neds
Tags: violence

Plot synopsis:
Neds is a dark coming-of-age film that follows the story of John McGill, a young boy growing up in 1970s Glasgow. While a brilliant student who excels in his studies at school, his studious nature causes conflicts with his working-class family and the wider, gang-riddled neighbourhood.
John's immediate family consists of his mother, a part-time hospital worker; his father, an abusive, alcoholic, tool-maker; and his older brother, Benny, leader of a neighbourhood gang called the Young Car-D. On a visit from New York, his Auntie Beth encourages John to leave Scotland when he is older to pursue opportunities there.
The film opens with a leaving ceremony marking John's transition from primary to secondary school. On his final day, John is accosted by Canta, a local bully and member of the Hardridge Paka Gang, who intimidates him, threatening to beat him up when he moves to secondary school. John relays the details of the encounter to his brother who enlists the help of his fellow gang members to track down and assault Canta as punishment.
Once John begins secondary school, apart from not being in the top class, everything goes well. Informed by the headmaster that he will be moved up to the appropriate level by Christmas time by proving he is different to his brother, who assaulted two teachers and was expelled, he successfully progresses. However, he finds himself socially isolated and his teacher advises him to attend a summer camp for children with disabilities. There, he becomes friendly with a middle class boy called Julian. One day he accidentally breaks one of Julian's father's LP records and is forbidden from seeing Julian again.
While walking home, a group of Young Car-D gang members threaten to mug him until they realize whose brother he is. They stop harassing him, ask him to join them and offer John vodka and cigarettes which he accepts, marking the start of his downward spiral.
When the school year recommences, John has changed his ways for the worse: drawing graffiti on desks, being impolite to teachers and smoking cigarettes in the toilets at break time. At one point he is caught up in a fight between two gangs and obtains a knife which has been kicked under the door of the toilet cubicle in which he is hiding.
In revenge for the rejection by Julian's family, John throws a pair of football boots full of fireworks through the dining room window while they are eating. He then visits a social club, where members of the Car-D gang eject two members of rival gang The Krew. Returning, they hurl a bicycle through the function room window, urging the Car-D to give chase up to the edge of their territory where they escape via a walkway. John gives chase, running into an ambush and is in turn chased by The Krew and pursued by their leader. Escaping by pushing his way into an Irish woman's home, John evades the rival gang. It emerges later that she is the mother of the boy who hurled the bicycle.
John becomes more deeply involved in gang feuds taking place between 1972 and 1974. He slits a boy's throat in a gang fight and hides the blade. Returning home he finds that the police are there and hides from them. Upon their departure, John learns that his brother has been arrested as a suspect in the stabbing. The next day he finds that his brother's bail has been set at £15 by the Sheriff court. He robs a bus driver at knife point to raise the money, but fails to pay the sum in time.
On a walk with Claire, one of the girls from the gang, John spots his one-time tormentor Canta, now an isolated and slightly pathetic character. John confronts him about the bullying incident years earlier, and agrees to move past it, but Canta makes a snide remark as he turns away. Enraged, John first knocks him to the floor, then drops a stone slab on his head, causing permanent brain damage.
John becomes increasingly confrontational, throwing a glass bottle at a passing police officer, as he hangs out with the Young Car-D in a park, which results in them ostracizing him for attracting police attention.
His father is drunkenly abusive to his mother so John later beats him about the head with a frying pan. His mother orders John out of the house and he is forced to take refuge in the machine room in a block of high rise flats, living on deliveries of bread and milk stolen from tenants. Returning to his refuge he finds the room locked and, after sniffing glue, wanders the streets, stripped to the waist. Seeing a statue of Jesus, who John jokingly urges to come down, he has a glue-fuelled vision that Christ accepts the offer but then challenges him on his poor life choices.
The next morning, his sober dad finds John and tells him to come home. His father asks him to put him out of his misery and end his life. John goes to his room, taking two knives which he tightly straps to both hands. He goes downstairs and finds his father urinating in a bottle. He asks John to wait until he is asleep, so John wanders the streets. When he encounters members of the rival gang, he attacks one, leaving him grievously injured. Pursued by the other gang members, John is himself badly beaten. Members of Young Car-D then spot John and fight off his attackers, only to have the enraged John turn on them. Injured, he returns home to the room where his father is asleep but is unable to go through with killing him. Falling asleep, he collapses on top of him.
He chooses to change his ways and returns to school, attending a remedial class, wanting no further involvement with the gang. The class goes on a field trip to a safari park and their minibus breaks down. Thinking the teachers have abandoned him with the brain-damaged Canta, John decides to leave the van. The film closes with John and Canta walking hand-in-hand into the distance through a pride of lions, who ignore them.

Review: A good film that gives a very accurate portrayal of what life can be like for a young kid growing up in Glasgow.
The film is set in the 70's but the main themes are just as applicable for youngsters in 2011 (trying to fit in, feeling like part of a group/gang).The highlight of the film is the performance of Conor McCarron as a bright student who makes the wrong choices and finds himself part of a young gang.
And school is not where you learn, it is where you survive.Like Lynne Ramsey's Ratcatcher, Neds resonates with Glaswegians born in the Sixties who grew up in this mayhem, and now look at it with the benefit of age and distance and wonder how we ever took it for normality.John is the academically gifted younger brother of a locally respected/ feared ned.
I haven't really watched many (any?) Scottish films but I am familiar with Peter Mullan, having seen his completely depressing TYRANNOSAUR previously.
It's a film with a nostalgic '70s ambiance and an autobiographical feel, featuring the misadventures of a shy, chubby schoolboy who ends up becoming a fearsome teenage gang member.NEDS is a lengthy, slow-paced and frequently hard-hitting movie that tackles some uncomfortable home truths.
The pace is perfect, Peter Mullan does an excellent job in showing the downfall of the characters and asking questions of society and how tough life can be for a young kid in what is a violent city.
First off, let me point out a few things, to people who obviously didn't get this.People who complained about the silly music, you really couldn't see that the director was trying to show how ridiculous the violence was?People who didn't get the Jesus thing, well, you've obviously never come from a dark enough culture, where solvent abuse is rife, and people have extremely vivid hallucinations.I was raised in the area the movie is set, and the time it was set, and i can tell you, its very accurate.
The production values of the movie are good, and its certainly way better than average and keeps you entertained, i watched this as a piece of "World Cinema", even though i come from the area, and had no trouble at all with the dialogue, but then again, thats me, i can see who others would find it difficult, then again, i would moan about this spoiling the movie, when in Rome ...
"You are a swat Mister Mcgill"Peter Mullan's Neds has become one of the small number of electrical Scottish films that have been made within the last 20 years.
As it goes Peter Mullan has always been interested in directing and from my point of view has a Ken Loach appeal about it when it comes to writing and producing scripts.NEDS a film which portrays a young mans will to succeed in any circumstance and every hurdle which is played by society must be dealt with-in an appropriate 70s fashion.
The film is set in Glasgow in the early 70's and it deals with the struggles of youth growing up at a time when knife culture was rife and the threat of violence lingers in the air..We follow young teenager John McGill and his low-life friends in and around Glasgow, as we follow his time at school where at the start he is a model student, however his notorious brother who is a member of a gang and who is well known amongst the other NEDS, casts a shadow over Conors life as he is soon sucked into the gang life himself, now this may seem like a cliché but trust me there are a few good surprises that rises this film above all the other British films made over the past 10 years...Now this is the real kicker, i live in Paisley that is right next door to Glasgow and the heavy Scottish accent (Glaswegian) that is used throughout the film is a real joy to listen to, there was so many times i was laughing my ass off at how funny this film can be, but there are some harrowing moments as well, i have no idea how this film will translate over seas??
This is a great movie that will touch your heart for anyone that has been raised in tough neighbourhoods around the world..Great performances from the entire cast, solid direction from Peter Mullan, and a good story that needed to be told especially in Scotland, if you get the chance check it out, you'll be glad you did....
First I have to admit that one reason that made this film more appealing for me was that at the moment I live in Glasgow, right in the area, where the film was filmed and here the "neds" are a part of daily life, only in different uniforms that in 70's.
Though it might have been good to show little bit more the gruesome results of stabbings as it feels here, and in that movie too that sadly many of these young "neds" do not even realise the fact that knife can kill and is not a toy.
Watch out in the future for Conor McCarron who plays young John McGill, the bright schoolboy who has so much hope ahead of him as he leaves primary school.
Top marks to Director Peter Mullan and all who took part in this wonderful "real" & "no holding back" film of a time in Glasgow's history which is not known about by many outside of the area..
I have been waiting ages to see this Peter Mullan film, and was not disappointed when i eventually went to the screening last week with 3 generations of my family...
All this gives the impression that McGill's life is a Shakespearian tragedy From a technical point of view there's absolutely nothing wrong with Mullen's film and shows what can be achieved with a small budget .
STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning John (Connor McCarron) excels as a child in his studies, but the rough, hard environment around him soon has an effect on his personal character and, as he grows up in 1970s Glasgow, he moulds into one of the pack, as problems at home and school breed the violent character within him, going up against the hard drinking, knife wielding thugs that are the sworn enemies of the hard drinking, knife wielding thugs he's in with.Glasgow still holds the notorious accolade of being 'the knife crime capital of Great Britain', so this could have been just as hard hitting and unflinching as it was setting out to be being a modern day drama.
Still, this feels like quite an undisciplined effort from Mullan, which veers into outlandish, arty moments (such as the lead character duking it out with the Lord Jesus Christ) that only serve to make it an even more alienating experience than it already is.
After spending much of the 1990's making a name for himself as an intense character actor in the likes of Trainspotting and My Name Is Joe, Peter Mullan announced himself as a director to watch with 1998's Cousins.
His tough upbringing in a rough area of Glasgow meant that his talents in front of the camera would normally be employed in tough, intimidating roles, and Mullan drew upon his experiences as a young man for Neds, a social realist drama depicting an academically promising young boy's descent into gang culture and into the footsteps of his notorious older brother.'Neds' stands for Non-Educated Delinquents, a term I heard often during my time living in Edinburgh, and one applied to the sort of tracksuit-wearing hooligans also labelled as 'scallies' or 'chavs', depending on which area of the UK you're from.
The 'ned' here is John McGill, played by Greg Forrest as a youngster growing up in 70's Glasgow who hopes to use his intelligence to make something of himself, but finds himself pulled onto the streets due to a number of factors: from his disinterested, cane-happy teachers to the pressure of living up to his brother's reputation.
Mr. McGill isn't much to look at, but he has a presence terrifying enough to silence a room when he enters, and a tendency to come home drunk and bawl abuse at his long-suffering wife.Mullan has a real talent for staging tense situations, with some of the events played out in Neds no doubt taken directly from real experiences.
Still, this is raw, unflinching film-making from a director clearly hoping to draw attention to the plight of youngsters growing up in such grim working-class surroundings, where respect is earned through brutality and allegiances are decided by which side of the bridge you live on..
Then the movie jumps in years to a teenage John McGill and he's a completely different character.
Peter Mullan's film about Glasgow's Non-Educated Delinquents is not quite as straightforward as it may at first seem: there are some fairly common elements (the bright kid trying to learn his way out of poverty, the drunken father, the violent street gangs) but also some odd, surreal imaginative scenes, and an overall narrative that grows more opaque the longer the film lasts.
Peter Mullan's Neds is set in the early seventies in Glasgow which is excellently recreated, Connor McCarron plays John a promising student who is is led astray with a bad crowd, it doesn't take long for John to follow in the same footsteps of his older brother who revels in the same gangland shenanigans.
Upon hearing of Peter Mullan's forthcoming project i waited in anticipation for this release but i was disappointed with the end result it certainly was on paper a great idea, He has hit the nail on the wood with the atmosphere and drama but Neds is a film with a promising start but it then takes a dark detour towards the end i was sorely disappointed with this effort it is nowhere as grand as classic fare that deal with teen drama such as Coppola's The Outsiders Rebel Without A Cause,As much as i respect and admire him as a filmmaker/Actor i was disappointed with the overall product..
(I know the two often go hand in hand) I just didn't feel like the character development justified the direction that the plot went in.So plot was so-so, performance wise it was pretty solid, particularly for young, amateur, Scottish kids.
Ultimately I found myself wanting to enjoy the film more than I actually did.Sidenote: I grew up in Scotland, not too far from Glasgow and for a long time 'Neds' didn't necessarily know they were 'Neds'.
I was interested to see the character in this refer to himself as a Ned. I know that the word itself goes way back and I am sure it is accurate in the film makers experience, but interesting how that differs from people who live just a few miles away (admittedly that was 80s/90s/early 2000s) I also appreciate that Glasgow gang culture has a long and complex history where as I lived in a more rural area where groups were mainly interchangeable (apart from the great Neds Vs Goths War of '97!).
Although the first hour is controlled and captivating, the second hour becomes script-messy, loses intensity and is too long: the movie should have been 15-20min shorter.As for John's character, though there was material, he lacks depth, his psychology and increase in power are not enough controlled, and I failed to feel strong emotions towards him.Neds can be compared to This Is England, and though the latter was a little different, I preferred it because everything was better described: script, character, psychology, message.
Clichés of shell-suits, drink bottles, smoking and loitering in parks and you get the idea of what a "ned" is meant to be.Peter Mullan makes this partially biographical film about the slide of a precocious teenage boy from star pupil to the dregs (in the 70s).
He is unique in Peter Mullan's depiction of 1970's Glasgow, where the only real aspiration for him is to not become a NED – a non-educated delinquent.
Every time I predicted something the story surprised me, though it loses its way a bit as McGill is drawn deeper into delinquency.Mullan is honest in interviews about his inspiration for the film's content.
i was looking forward to watching this film as the age group of the main characters where about the same age as myself(age 12 in 1974).i am also from glasgow.
i am a big fan of mullan but there was no character in the film you could care for,from the start i was trying to work out what relation the girl who went to America?
Peter Mullan has captured the essence of Glasgow gang culture impeccably while challenging oft-heard current notions of "it wasn't like that when I was a boy".The film is brutal, touching and, thanks to an excellent script which oozes with the tension and volatility of the darker side of Glasgow's character, it carries an ever-increasing level of tension which culminates in an explosion of violence and emotional turmoil that is heart-breaking as much as it is disturbing.The dialect is definitely a potential stumbling-block to the film's chances of appealing to a world-wide audience, despite it's themes of tribal-like warfare on the streets ringing true in all corners of the world.
He is left (almost literally) thrown to the lions, unsure about where he will go and what he will do, dragging the ball and chain of his previous atrocities behind him with no-one left to turn to, no-one to back him up, everyone has given up on him and left him behind.Peter Mullan has delivered yet another fine film with N.E.D.S and one that will no doubt bring mixed reaction through both it's realistic and uncomfortable portrayal of Glasgow youth and its unwillingness to adopt a sweet and audience-satisfying end which gives a conclusive answer to all that has gone before.
Having met Peter Mullan while I was at university, I know that he is not one for happy endings or giving the audience what they want.
Mullan has provided us with 2 excellent films in Orphans and the Magdalene Sisters but NEDS is disappointing in the extreme.
The feel of the 1970s didn't come across and at one point the main character 'John' calls himself a 'ned' - not a term used by ordinary people at that time.
Another powerful drama after The Magdalene Sisters from Peter Mullan, set amidst the adolescent gang culture of 70s Glasgow, and loosely based on personal experience.
John McGill, played with both menacing brawn and sensitive intelligence by McCarron, turns his back on his academic successes in favour of his older brothers gang lifestyle after experiencing prejudices within society and hypocritical, violent authority figures.The film doesn't hold back on the violence that gang mentality stirs up, often contrasting the boys as softly spoken individuals from decent homes against their violent gang behaviour.
Neds falls into the broad category of "coming of age" movies that  automatically have words like "gritty," "uncompromising," "brutal" and  "realistic" pinned on to them far before we're given the opportunity to  make up our own mind about them.
Set in Glasgow in the 1970's, it tells  the story of John McGill, a promising student who falls in with gangs  and goes off the rails.
Whilst by and large the events that take place in Neds are similar to  those of other youth dramas (abuse, violence, searching for belonging  etc) and are in part delivered very well compared to its peers, it's  difficult to sing its praises purely because of the major flaw that  runs throughout the film; the strength of its lead character.
This  isn't a major sleight against newcomer Conor McCarron as much as it is  a comment on the development of John McGill as the crux of the  narrative (saying that though I couldn't quite tell if McCarron was  meant to look like he was on the verge of bursting out laughing at any  given moment or whether this was just a poor job on his part).
Despite almost losing it completely towards the end, there does seem to be a last final chance for some redemption for young John McGill...The final scene at Blair Drummond safari park reminded me of Peter Sellers walking on water in his last movie - Being There!
Neds tells the story of John, a Catholic teenager growing up in 1970s Glasgow.
The movie won Best Film at the San Sebastian Film Festival in January 2011.Good points: The characters were well portrayed and gave a good performance, making it realistic and a good representation of how life would have been like as a young Scottish boy.
Tormented by school bullies and his drunkard father; growing up, Joe (Conor McCarron), decides it is easier to follow in his brother's footsteps and become a NED (non-educated delinquent), because it is easier to survive the times and neighborhood being a ruthless hoodlum.
Basically, set in 1970's Glasgow, Neds (Non-Educated Delinquents) are roaming the streets, and school boy, ten year old John McGill (Greg Forrest) has been surrounded by it for some time, but ignores it to do well in his studies.
After a very good academic career, fourteen year old John McGill (Conor McCarron) is ready to start secondary school, but with a dysfunctional family consisting of a drunken and violent father (Peter Mullan), troubled mother Theresa (Louise Goodall) and brother Benny (Joe Szula) constantly getting into trouble with the police, dark clouds appear in his personality.
I agree with the critics that it loses some grip towards the end, but all the actors, most of which are newcomers, especially McCarron and his younger self Forrest are fantastic, the realism in parts with the violence and school punishment makes for good viewing, an interesting coming-of-age drama.