How are youth represented in British cinema?

In British cinema, the youth are often portrayed as rebels against society. I will examine how this is done through the films human traffic, lonlieness of a long distance runner and the television prgramme spaced.

In Human traffic, authority figures, such as Jips mum, are shown in a completley different way to the youth of society. For example, when we first see Jips mum, she stands where the camera can see more of her compared to her son Jip. In addition to this, when he begins a conversation with his mum, he is often seen fiddling with his hair, avoiding eye contact and looking nervous. This indicates that Jip doesn't want to be there. This straight away gives the audience the impression that Jips mum is in command. It is seen as cultural hegemony to obey your parents, and in a way Jip does this. He initiall wants to be "in and out in 5 minutes", but instead is persuaded to stay until his mum is finished with her client. However, although obeying her, he isn't best pleased about this, which indicates that he is outside of cultural hegemony.

In addition to this, Jip is also shown to hate his job, something which the majority of the youth in Britain are seen to do. During one scene, Jip is seen as being raped by his boss, and he has no control and cannot retaliate. thos shows two things about cultural hegemony, one Jip has no control in his job, and two, he is exploited through work.

We also see Moff, and his relationship with his father. Moffs Dad is a policeman, which is ironic due to Moffs drinking and drug issues. Moffs father is constantly arguing about Moff not having a job, which is a social norm. He goes on to say "you don't even have a girlfirend!", again, something which is expected by society. The fact that Moffs father is an authority figure through his own job further illustrates the importance of Moff getting a job.

The importance of having a job in the television prgramme Spaced is also shown. For example, we often hear the phrase "making the best of the situation". This shows the importance of having a job, and you must have one even if you don't enjoy it. This is something which is very common in society, where people only keep their jobs for money or just to be accepted by society. The idea of "making the best of it" is shown in a clip where Mike, a lollipop man, is seen as being aggresssive and in command, almost in a miltary fashion, when he is helpiong to help school children cross the road.

The Loneliness Of A Long Distance Runner shows authority figures as being big, commanding and well respected. We see the idea of respecting authority figures when the boys are standing in linesm, and reply to these authority figures with the word 'sir'. The boys all obey these figures untill one of the men approaches Smith, and tells him to go on his regular run. Smith then goes on to leave the 'cage', which indiactes that the youth cannot be trusted by their elders and must stay under serveillance. When Smith breaks this cultural rule by leaving the cage, we hear jazz music, something which was seenn as being outside cultural hegemony at the time.

Overall, the three examples all show different ways of representing British youth. Human traffic shows them as not aknowledging the cultural rules, Spaced shows individuals as not enjoying a job, but just getting on with it, and Loneliness Of A Long Distance Runner shows the youth as obeying authority figures, despite previously not having done so. Just by looking at some of the cultural 'rules' in society, and how the youth react to them, we can see an indication of how they act in society.