GBH

GBH

(A.k.a. RIOT)

GBH opens with news footage of the 2011 riots, instigated by the police shooting of Mark Duggan and spread out over several days, in several British cities (chiefly London boroughs). As we witness a TV montage of some of the senseless destruction those dark August nights saw, we hear Prime Minister David Cameron’s condemnation of the actions in voiceover.

Then we rewind to one month earlier. We meet Damien (Nick Nevern), a cop changing into riot gear in an atmosphere of eerie silence which is shattered when he and his colleagues ram open the door of a suspected gang’s apartment and start battering heads. But Damien is curiously subdued during the operation.

We soon learn the reason: his drinking pal Kyle (Merveille Lukeba) was among the flat’s tenants. Damien still mixes with his pals from his old life as a football hooligan, and his ties are such that he’s not above turning a blind eye in order to get them off with their criminal charges. Although his Chief Constable (Steven Berkoff) is unaware of this, most of Damien’s colleagues – including officious prick Ben (Thomas Worthington) – strongly suspect him of corruption. His only ally on the force, it would seem, is pretty young Hilary (Charlie Bond).

If life at work is fairly shitty, only spiced up by occasionally being able to exorcise the demons of his own abusive childhood by laying into incarcerated suspects of domestic violence, Damien’s home life isn’t much better. His girlfriend Sarah (Jenna Harrison) dumps him when she discovers him cheating on her. His old pals continue to use him to get themselves and their mates off the hook whenever they’ve been naughty.

Things look up when he makes a connection with new girl on the force, Louise (Kellie Shirley).

Fast-forward two weeks and Damien has become a regular beat partner with Louise. A bond has formed, developing via dates to the cinema etc, and he seems a lot more content with his lot.

But, as we move one week closer to the riots, tragedy strikes locally – and Damien blames himself. He’s a copper working on the violent streets of London. His mates remain on the other side of the law, and are starting to take unkindly to his maturing into the responsibilities of his job. And the opening shots have already informed us that, in a short while, things are set to go extremely Pete Tong.

That’s the only piece of ghastly Cockney rhyming slang you’ll see in this entire review, I promise.

Ignore the trailers and marketing campaigns, as they suggest GBH is a film about cop who enjoys being a football hooligan in his spare time. It’s more accurate to describe it as being the profile of the meltdown of a man battling to overcome the violence inherent in him. Damien’s troubled past is explored via flashbacks and prison visits to his jailbird Dad (who, curiously, looks a maximum of ten years older than his son …).

On a broader scale, GBH attempts to tackle the problems at large with today’s society. Truancy, benefit cheats, domestic violence, drugs, shootings, rape, police as welfare officers, gang-related crime and general misery: GBH is obsessed with providing a gritty social commentary on the grimy side of life in modern Britain. Kudos to first-time feature director Simon Phillips for striving to avoid the glamorisation or watering down of real issues at every turn, but there are caveats.

First of all, the way the film is split into chapters – "Two Weeks Later", "The Bullies", "The Domestic Abuse", "The Shooting" etc – is wholly unnecessary. Worse, it’s annoying and serves no dramatic purpose. Coupled with an occasional tendency to use staccato editing techniques, these conspire to rob GBH of its gritty documentary style at times and are the traits of a debut filmmaker wanting to show us his flair.

Thankfully the tenacious realism is maintained elsewhere, bolstered along by largely convincing performances and unforced dialogue. It’s all doom and gloom, of course, but is well-played and shot attractively enough to keep things from becoming too oppressive. It’s all perhaps a little too earnest towards the end, but we can forgive it that.

As a character study, I’m not sure the film is entirely successful. There is a trajectory that Damien undertakes, certainly, and a coda that could arguably be viewed upon as a bittersweet redemption. But there’s little exploration or explanation of the psychology behind the violence, either of the lead character or the pitiful world he sees around him.

GBH comes uncut on UK DVD in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, enhanced for 16x9 televisions. The picture is a generally good one, offering warm colours and sharp imagery throughout.

English audio comes in 2.0 and 5.1 mixes. The latter is a powerful, well-balanced proposition which shows how some of the reported £1.5 million budget went on an impressive sound design scheme.

The disc opens to an animated main menu page. From there, a static scene-selection menu allows access to the film via 12 chapters.

There are no extra features.

A film ostensibly (but not really) about the riots, directed by an actor of low budget films such as AIRBORNE, and starring a former actress from "East Enders" (Shirley). I know, I know, GBH sounds appalling when you put it like that. But it’s not, it’s a pretty decent film and Phillips shows real promise as a director. He even gets a good performance out of Berkoff. Well done on that score.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Revolver Entertainment
Region 2 - PAL
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
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