How does your chosen text illustrate conflicting attitudes to class?
Documentary films of the Free Cinema movement such as We Are the Lambeth Boys (Reisz, 1959) can offer us a view into facets of society within 1950’s Britain and an ideal viewpoint from which we can study the changing and conflicting attitudes to class within the period. Reisz’s creation seems to epitomise the Free Cinema movement’s ‘sympathetic interest in communities’ (Hillier and Lovell cited in Lay, 2002, pp 58-59) as we are ushered into the everyday lives of normal members of the Teddy Boy subculture which was so often in contention with earlier generations and mainstream society. The film seeks to represent to wider society an antithesis to the threatening portrayal of Teddy Boys as folk devils by the hegemonic influence of the media. This essay aims to investigate the extent to which this was successful and illuminate the methods used within the film in neutralising conflict in culture.
We Are the Lambeth Boys documents the phenomenon of one of the first groups of rebellious teenagers which was played out on the stage of 1950’s Britain and attempts to remove the threat from this new subculture by sophisticated means. Rather than the now common rebellion we see against previous generations, Cohen suggests that the Teddy Boys may have been different:
… the first murmurings of separation later to be expressed so explicitly and vehemently … came with the Teddy Boys. They were the first group whose style was self-created, although they were reacting not so much against ‘adults’ but the little that was offered in the fifties … (Cohen, 1972, p.183).
The Teddy Boys came on the scene in the early 1950’s to general public alarm, donning the Edwardian clothing which had previously been associated with the upper and middle classes and modifying it as they saw fit (May, 1996, p.444). They coupled this new fashion with a love of imported American culture, especially music, hairstyles and the assumed demeanour of Hollywood film characters. This new type of teenager featured heavily in the media and in the minds of an alarmed public, and the film seems to approach these issues in a manner intended to diminish that alarm. In one particularly moving scene, we find a number of the Teddy Boys starting out their school day in prayer and singing hymns. As the hymn is performed, the film continues on to a powerful sequence of shots of the Teddy Boys and Girls in traditional working class jobs. The use of intra-diegetic sound is evident here, as the hymn forms a powerful soundtrack to the working teens. It seems to project Christian values upon the children and suggests a link between their school and working lives. This is helped by the use of mise-en-scene. We see one particular girl working in a factory as she assembles food on a conveyor belt, and the conveyor belt could be seen as symbolic of the larger conveyor belt of school, work and marriage. This use of sound and symbolism to project a concept or idea upon a group of people can be compared to the methods in O Dreamland (Anderson, 1953). Anderson’s use of the intra-diegetic laughing puppet sounds and the mise-en-scene imagery of the working class behind bars is very similar in technique to Reisz but can be contrasted heavily in its intention. While Reisz seeks to eliminate the threat from his subjects by making them more accessible and human to wider society, Anderson is making a statement about disappointment and horror in the working class as they fall into the hegemonic trap of a meaningless seaside diversion. We Are the Lambeth Boys continues to offer us a pious and hardworking portrayal of its subjects as we catch a glimpse of a cross around the neck of a teen postal worker and as the film dissolves from an image of schoolboys in rows into rows of keys on a typewriter. These techniques can be seen to span the gap between this youth subculture and the rest of society, just as another key feature of this film is designed to do: the narrative.
We Are the Lambeth Boys features a non-diegetic narrator who is very different in sound to the subjects of the documentary. Judging by his accent and style of speech along with some of the comments he makes, we can ascertain that he is an outsider from the Teddy Boy group and is probably part of the middle or upper classes. He has a complex role in the film, translating the speech and actions of the teens as well as filling in valuable background information. One of his most important roles is in connecting the Teddy Boys with larger society and removing their perceived threat. One example of this during the school and work scene is when he describes the sort of work one of the girls does and informs us that she will continue working until she marries. This integration of the teens with traditional ideals of British society is important in banishing the folk devil perception and granting access to the film’s subjects in a more basic human manner. It could be argued that in some cases the narration takes on a tone of condescension toward the subjects of the film, making light of their desires, interests or opinions. While this could be true, it could also be a way of connecting to an outside audience who would undoubtedly be perplexed by and unused to these teens. As such, we could see it more as a method of making sense of the confusing rather than an attitude of direct superiority. Nevertheless, it is the narrator of this film who drives it forward, makes sense of the visual information and provides for us and viewers at the time the majority of the information needed in order to form an opinion about the Teddy Boys and Girls.
In conclusion, we can see that similar to many of the documentary films of the 1950’s, We Are the Lambeth Boys conveys both complicated and conflicting images of class within the period. Reisz clearly aims to give wider culture a view into the humanity behind the demonised image of the Teddy Boy subculture and illustrate the intentions and abilities of the subjects to integrate their new forms of expression into the traditional ideology of work and married life. The use of intra-diegetic sound, the mise-en-scene and dissolves within the film form and the style of narration suggest wider conflict within the culture and a sophisticated attempt on the part of the director to utilise hegemonic style to project popular ideology onto a subculture which was much maligned by the mainstream media.
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Bibliography
Bedarida, F. (1991) A Social History of England, 1851-1990. 2nd edition. London and New York: Routledge.
Cohen, S. (1980) Folk Devils and Moral Panics: Creation of Mods and Rockers. 2nd edition. Oxford: Martin Robertson.
Lay, S. (2002) British Social Realism: From Documentary to Brit Grit. London and New York: Wallflower Press.
O Dreamland. (1956) Directed by Anderson, L. [online] Available from: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/media/stream.jsp?id=779292 (Accessed: 11 November 2009)
May, T. (1996) An Economic and Social History of Britain, 1760-1990. 2nd edition. Longman.
Storey, J. (2006) Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction. 4th edition. Harlow: Pearsons.
We Are the Lambeth Boys. (1959) Directed by Reisz, K. [online] Available from: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/media/stream.jsp?id=1192653 (Accessed: 11 November 2009)
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