Let's go back in time to 1961, just 3 years before the media in Britain represented its youth as being violence driven hooligans who were a threat to the very fabric of society.
1961 saw the release of the film 'The Young Ones' starring, amongst others, Cliff Richard.
The story is about the youth club member and aspiring singer Nicky (Cliff Richard) and his friends, who try to save their club in western London from the unscrupulous millionaire property developer Hamilton Black, who plans to tear it down to make room for a large office block.
The members decide to put on a show to raise the money needed to buy a lease renewal. The twist in the story is that Nicky in reality is Hamilton Black's son, something he keeps keeps secret from his friends until some of them try to kidnap Black senior to prevent him from stopping the show.
Although he is fighting his father over the future of the youth club, Nicky can't allow them to harm him, so he attacks the attackers and frees his father. In the meantime, Black senior has realised that his son is the mystery singer that all of London is talking about, after the youth club members have done some pirate broadcasts to promote their show.
So, although he's just bought the theatre where the show is to take place, in order to be able to stop it, the proud father decides that the show must go one. At the end, he joins the youth club members on stage, dancing and singing, after having promised to build them a new youth club.
TASK
Here is the trailer for the film - how is the representation of British Youth different here to what you have previously seen?
The british youth is represented differently from what I have previously seen because in this trailer the teenagers aren't violent and they're not causing trouble in fact they are doing the complete opposite. They are trying to save their youth centre by fundraising money by organising a show that they will be starring in, these teenagers are angry or aggressive they are happy and well mannered and they are trying to save something that means a lot to them which is the youth centre.
This to me shows a complete different side to the teenagers and that they are good people and they are trying to save something that means a lot to them and that something is being taken away from them when there isn't any real need for it. The previous representation of teenagers was that they are a bad influence and they are violent and disruptive. They don't like authority and they like to cause trouble whereas, in this trailer the teenagers love to dance, well spoken and have good manners. These teenagers all share the same common interest that is signing, dancing and playing musical interments, throughout the trailer they are happy and they just want to have harmless fun that won't effect or disrupt anyone. They like putting on performances and showing other people their talents that they have got. This shows that the community in general aren't scared of these young teenagers or they don't find them aggressive it is in fact the opposite they like going to see them perform and they think that they are a lovely and talented bunch of people. Even in the trailer it says 'its the gayest musical in years!' this trailer was made in the 1960's therefore the word 'gayest' has changed over the years but back then that meant happiest so even the trailer is saying that it is in fact a happy musical and its to sad or violent. The use of the colours and writings also give it away a lot as well because they use bright colours if it was a sad or aggressive film they would be using dark colours and they would position the writing in a different way as well as using a different font. There is one person however who thinks differently of these teenagers which is Robert Murphy he says that the youth centre is just another place where the teenagers can cause mischief that is why he wants to buy the land that the youth centre is and destroy it and build something else there instead. I think Robert also believes that by doing this it would mean that it will cause a lot less mischief because the teenagers won't have a place to go to plan something. I however think that if Robert does take the land then it will cause a misbehaviour to happen because the teenagers won't have a place to go and do what they love which is dancing, singing and playing musical instruments and by taking away something that they love doing they might end up being distrumtive and causing trouble.
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