Last Of England, The

By: Raymond Murray
In-House Review - Apr 17 2012

A beautifully photographed, fragmented poem structured within a series of cross-cutting vignettes and filled with homoerotic images. A politically charged film that deals with the destruction of the physical and emotional world of England by the callous policies of Margaret Thatcher. Nigel Terry provides the off-screen narration.

By: Amos Lassen

Derek Jarman's "The Last of England" is the director's personal commentary on the decline of England; it is a dark meditation on London after Margaret Thatcher. This is not a narrative film but an experimental montage if images and music and voice. Here is a powerful and evocative and stunning work that demands a degree of patience.
The film challenges the politics of England in the 1980's.
The main character is Spring but we do not know his name until the end credits. He represents the working class outsiders in Maggie Thatcher's England. There are scenes of destruction; we see the end of industry, the feeling of terror which the IRA caused. The film likewise challenges use, forbidden love, the taboos against homosexuality.
The film is cold to look at but it is also emotionally draining and moving. Jarman's forte was to challenge the viewer as he does here so well. Here he gives a treatise on the spiritual, emotional and physical fragmentation of modern society-in this film it is England but it could be anywhere. There is plenty of life on the fringes and gay imagery. Jarman creates a world stinging from the politics of Thatcher's policies with vicious imagery on the screen. It is an indictment of the 80's with no irony and loaded with sentimentality and crass stereotypes. This is not a movie for everyone so be warned that this is not your regular film.