What’s a NED you ask? It’s a ‘Non-Educated Delinquent, so the plural would be NEDS and is the title of Actor/director/writer Peter Mullan’s (Orphans) latest directorial effort.
Set in the “violent world of 1970s Glasgow,” Scotland, NEDS is about a young boy named John McGill (Conor McCarron), a child determined to succeed in life. Although determined to have a bright future, both family members (his drunken father) and teachers alike continually degrading his intellect and skills despite his kind and honest efforts to succeed. The reason they do this is because of his brother Benny, the most violent teenage thug in town. As John grows older, he’s eventually sucked into the world of street crime and joins his brothers crew, taking out all of his anger on those who don’t see eye to eye with him. NEDS is a story about innocence lost, doing what you need to survive, and what happens to good people when everybody turns their back on them.
From the get go, Mulllan wants the audience to empathize with John. Within the first five minutes of the film I was feeling really bad for John, he was a young, soft spoken, intelligent child that wanted to do all the right things in order to be the best in his class. Unfortunately for him, everyone knew his brother Benny and would always yell at John for being smart. I never saw teachers act this way towards students, yelling at them and embarrassing them because they got the highest grades in the class. From the start you could tell there would be trouble in John’s future, without support and encouragement how can one continue to endure all this negativity without turning to violence.
Fast forward a few years and John is now a young adult. He is doing exceptionally well in school and has made a friend or two. He and this one chap have become close and one day, John accidentally shatters glass in his house. The next time he comes over to give the friend a pair of soccer boots, the mom lies to him and says her child isn’t home, which John knows is false, and she won’t take boots from him. This is the last straw for John and decides to take him life to the streets where he begins to beat people up and join in on the gang wars.
NEDS is a drama that combines aspects of films like The Warriors and Green Street Hooligans, with the main difference being that in this film, the protagonist is practically forced into the violent underworld whereas that isn’t the case with the others. Conor McCarron did an excellent job transitioning from an intellect to a psychopath, his life was now fueled with hatred and violence and he could no longer control himself like he used to be able to do while in school. It was amazing to see how quickly he hit rock bottom, once he turned to a life a crime everything that he experienced happened exponentially compared to everyone else. It was actually depressing and makes you think about all the people in the world that this has happened, or can happen, to because of an unsupportive environment.
The movie includes a few odd scenes which puts its run time at 124 minutes, so brace yourself, but I think the by the end you’ll see that NEDS has its payoffs. The film is gritty, violent, and raw, but it is also passionate and well written. PS, the film has subtitles because of the heavy Scottish accents. If you have innocent ears you probably should skip this film, it may be on par with the South Park movie when it comes to swearing.
Overall, I really enjoyed NEDS. I had envisioned something a bit different in my mind when I read the synopsis but this turned out to be much more calculated and better than I thought it would be. Mullan did a solid job directing, the acting by the lead, and most of the cast, was very good, the music fit the 70’s Glasgow scene and the film on the whole just felt really authentic, something that I am keen to when watching dramas of this nature.
Rating: Raw, violent and engaging, NEDS pacts a powerful punch when unveiling what happens when innocence is lost (7.3/10)
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