How important are locations to living with crime?

Both London to Brighton and Bullet Boy are British films that deal with the issue of living with crime. The settings and locations are key to how these films portray their criminology to the spectator, and the representations of the characters are often mirrored by the settings they are a part of.

The settings and locations within London to Brighton help to convey a scene of working class. The first scene initiates the spectator into the film with two prostitutes run into a broken down, graffitied public toilet. As the setting moves on to grotty streets and small, grotty flats, the spectator begins to understand that the characters are working class. This conveys the ideal that this may be why they are prostitutes, and indicates that the characters have become involved in this lifestyle of crime due to their working circumstance.

Similarly, the settings and locations of Bullet Boy play a major role in the plot. Not only does it establish the setting, but the view of the back streets of rural London immediately gives an indication of the class of the characters, and suggests that this is significant to the action. Equally, the setting of working class, back street London is suggested to be the main reason Ricky is involved in the drug and gun culture he is trapped within. When talking to Shea, Ricky admits that he wishes to leave, and live somewhere else. He claims himself that the setting of where he lives is why he has a criminal lifestyle, and explains that his only hope of reforming is if he moves somewhere else. Kelly, in London to Brighton, has the same idea. When she and Joanne kill a customer, they flee to Brighton, which has a much calmer, safer setting, as she believes that by embedding themselves in a different, safer city, they can escape the lifestyle of crime and its consequences.

A striking contrast is made with the setting of London to Brighton as the two female leads enter the house of the customer, who is a doctor. It is a vast house that is over-exposed in a washed out white. The walls, floor and ceiling are all bright, pure white. As the audience is aware that he is a doctor, his house has a clinical tone. White also represents purity and innocence, which is contrasted by Joanne herself, in deep scarlet lipstick and jumper. This shocking visual helps to convey her message of innocence. She is young and does not understand the intensity of what she has got herself into, and the clash of red on white represents the defilement of her and her innocence. The colour scheme of this location also portrays the doctor as a false hero. Traditionally, the hero would be dressed in white, and his white house and clothes suggest that he would be the ‘good guy’. In correlation to this, the ‘criminal’ prostitutes are dressed in red and black. This contrast in ideology actually suggests that the higher class characters such as Duncan and Stuart are actually more likely to be involved in more illegal and dangerous lifestyles than the working class characters. Derek and Kelly live within a criminal lifestyle due to their prostitution arrangement, whereas Duncan, even as a doctor, enjoys more deprave, immoral and illegal activities that are more dangerous and with severer consequences than the others. Stuart even lives a lifestyle reminiscent of a ‘king pin’ gang leader; rich, powerful, and criminal.

The idea of youth within Bullet Boy also suggests a reason for their criminal lifestyles. The youthful setting of a club toward the beginning of the film is the setting for the major clash between Wisdom, and the apposing gang. It also underlines Ricky’s unwillingness to rejoin this lifestyle. He is at the club to see his friends, have fun and dance with his girlfriend. However, after a Wisdoms encounter in the bathroom of the club, he summons Ricky away from his chosen pass time and convinces Ricky to accompany him as he threatens the opposing gang member, and kills his dog.

Both films convey the idea of entrapment within the lifestyles of the characters. Therefore, for each, there is a place of openness and serenity. In Bullet Boy, Curtis is often seen to be playing in a large open field. This represents the freedom he has in choosing how to live. He is the youngest character, and so is not immersed in a life of crime as Ricky is. Therefore, if he chooses, he can live free of crime as he grows older, just as he plays in the open field when he is younger. Similarly, the setting of a beach front portrays this ideal for Joanne in London to Brighton. She is only twelve, and so the freedom of how to live her life is still apparent, if she can only free herself from this situation. As she and Kelly sit on the beach front, Kelly is shown to be sat their smoking, not enjoying or really understanding the significance of their location. Joanne however, is playing with the stones and in the sea. Her youth and innocence understands and enjoys the freedom that the beach and the ocean represent for her. A similar message is also portrayed in another British film, Sweet Sixteen. As the main character reaches his sixteenth birthday, he stands on the beach front and looks out at the ocean. This visual however is used ironically, as by the end of the film he is trapped within his life of crime and its consequences. For Joanne however, this image still represents hope.

In conclusion, London to Brighton conveys many messages and values about living with crime to the spectator, through the convention of settings. Most of these are very similar with other British films such as Bullet Boy. These harrowing films capture, and inform the spectator of how different people have to live within criminal and immoral societies.