Neds (film)

Not to be confused with Ned (film).

Neds
Film poster
Directed by	Peter Mullan
Produced by	Rebecca O'Brien
Starring	Conor McCarron Martin Bell Grant Wray Marcus Nash Linda Cuthbert John Joe Hay Sean Higgins
Cinematography	Roman Osin
Edited by	Colin Monie
Music by	Craig Armstrong
Distributed by	New Video Group
Release dates	9 October 2010 (2010-10-09) (Dinard Festival) 21 January 2011 (2011-01-21) (United Kingdom)
Running time	124 minutes
Countries	United Kingdom France Italy
Language	English
Box office	£632,204

Neds (2010) is a feature film directed by Peter Mullan. The film tells the story of John McGill (Conor McCarron), a teenager growing up in 1970s Glasgow, Scotland. The story line follows John's involvement with his city's ned culture and the consequences of it on his teenage years.

Neds won Best Film at the San Sebastian Film Festival in January 2011.

Leading actor Conor McCarron attended St. Pauls High School RC, leaving school at the age of 16. He was given a great reception for his performance as John. Despite never having acted before, he has said that his aspiration in life is to become an actor. McCarron was born in 1993.

Plot

NEDS is about a young boy growing up in 1970s Glasgow called John McGill, a bright pupil who excels in all subjects at school. He comes from a working-class family: his mother is a part-time hospital worker, his dad is an alcoholic wife-beater who works as a joiner. His Auntie Beth, who is visiting home from New York where she now lives, encourages John to leave Scotland for New York when he is older. Once he Graduates from primary school, a boy called Canta from a young team at Hartridge says he will beat John up when he moves to secondary,John tells his older brother Benny, who is a gang leader of a young team called "Car-D" and Benny "fixes" the problem. Once John joins secondary everything goes fine apart from not being in the Higher Class, he is then told by the Headmaster that if he proves different from his Brother (who assaulted two teachers last year before being expelled) then he will move up class by Christmas time, which he does. Since John lacks having a social life with friends, his teacher advises him to attend a summer camp for children with disabilities, where he meets a Middle-class boy called Julian, one day he accidentally breaks one of Julian's dad's records and is forbidden to see Julian again, while walking home a group of neds that call themselves "Young Car-D" threaten to mug him until they realize who his brother is, at which point they leave him alone and even offer him to join them as well as vodka and cigarettes (which he accepts).This is the start a downward spiral, Once school starts, It has become clear that John has changed his ways badly such as graffiting the desks, being impolite to teachers and going for cigarettes in the toilets at breaktime (One point he gets caught up in a fight between two young teams, and finds a blade while hiding from the fight in the cubicles). At one point during a weekend he gets back at Julian's family for rejecting him by throwing a bag full of fused fireworks through his dining room while they're having dinner before going to a social. While there, members from the "Car-D" teams force two boys from a rival team called "the Krew"out of the social who later come back and throw a bicycle through the function room window, urging the "Car-D" to give chase up to the edge of their territorial zone, split via a bridge. John gives chase further running right into the rest of the "Krew" and their leader who chase him into a kindly Irish lady's home who shelters him temporarily (It turns out that the lady is mother of the boy who threw the bicycle). After a period of fighting other gangs, running from the police, hiding his blade in long grass, John comes home to bad news- his brother has been arrested under accusation of slitting a boy's throat in a gang fight. John fails to pay the bail due to running out of time after stealing money from a bus driver with the help of the threat of his blade, his violent lifestyle continues to the point where he confronts and hits a now isolated and weak Canta over the head with a slab while out for a walk with Claire, one of the girls from the gang, causing severe brain damage, abandoned by "Young Car-D" for unprovokingly attracting police attention by throwing a glass bottle at an officer passing through the park where they hang out, after being thrown out of his own home for beating his father for drunkenly harassing him and his mother. John is then forced to shelter in the boiler room of high rise flats, surviving by stealing the neighbours milk and bread.One day John finds the gate to the boiler room locked and goes for a walk to a statue of Jesus Christ, who John urges to come down jokingly, he then has a vision that he does so but the figment of Jesus ends up beating him for his choice of life. The next Morning, his sober Dad finds him and tells him to go home. At the end he chooses to change his ways via restarting school from the lower class, and wanting no further involvement in the gang. The class goes on a field trip to a safari park and their minibus breaks down. The teachers abandon him with Canta, at which point he shows remorse and walks hand-in-hand with Canta through a pack of lions; the lions leave them alone. The moral of the story is no matter what you've done you can always change and still deserve forgiveness.

Cast

• Conor McCarron – John McGill
• Martin Bell –
• Grant Wray –
• Marcus Nash –
• Linda Cuthbert –
• John Joe Hay –
• Peter Mullan - The father.
• Sean Higgins -

Reception

The film has received mostly positive reviews from critics.

External links

• Neds at IMDb