'Blues for Life' review task

‘Remember, only dead fish swim with the stream.’ a famous quote from a leading figure in independent thinking, Malcolm Muggeridge. Muggeridge’s cautionary words echo through the backstreets of suburban Surrey, the setting for Rory Duncan’s slice-of-life short “Blues for Life”. Focusing on the issue of gang culture and its satellite themes – agency and structure, independence versus duty and dependence, nature versus nurture – Duncan’s film falls neatly into a time honoured tradition of British Social Realism in film.

  When we are first introduced the three characters in the film, we straight away see a divide and juxtaposed social groups.The film opens with a setting of an empty train station, apart from one person on the platform. This is when we are introduced to the character of Dan, a confident young ‘Metal head’ and Chelsea fan, quietly waiting for his train at the empty platform. We are introduced to the character of Aaron, a young teenager, sporting large headphones and a chequered shirt with scruffy denim jeans, however quite the opposite to Dan. We see a small interaction between the two, with the older character giving the younger and nod as a gesture of reassurance. Then lastly, the unpredictable protagonist in the short, Terry, a stereotypical Hoodie, and also a loyal Chelsea fan. As the three characters are all the characters together at the bus stop, the audience may already be creating the scenario which we are often bombarded with in the media, pin pointing the hoodie as the trouble for the film.

However, Duncan attempts spin this idea on its head, flipping the audience’s expectation throughout the film. We see Terry’s struggle to break free from this ‘Blues for Life’ mindset and culture, and an attempt to regain a personal identity. The punch line of this is shown through the last scene of the film. An encounter with a group of youths forces Terry to make a decision to stay with the group, or leave the situation due to his newly formed bond with Dan which we see at the start of the film.  At first it may seem unclear as to what the attempt is to link all this characters together. It may just appear to be a typical case of different cultures clashing. However, we the use of the discrete link of football loyalty between Dan and Terry, show’s the directors effort to represent the power a collective identity can have in modern day society.

The representation of modern life is in no way polished or dulled down throughout the film. We see a situation, which could often be a frustration for youth culture throughout Britain, shown in a true light. A definite achievement for the first short from an aspiring director.