MovieChat Forums > Sweet Sixteen (2002) Discussion > Loach glorifies and excuses thug/chav be...

Loach glorifies and excuses thug/chav behaviour


Im so sick of all this liberal wishy washy BS,every dirtbag that robs/steals or acts like a total maggot is excused these days because of their "tough upbringing"!! gimme a break,send these bastards back to the 19 century or to some 3rd world country and they would be screaming to be sent back to their council estate house that is paid for by decent working people,
a "tough upbrining" these days means that you only have enough dole money to go out getting plastered/stoned only 4 times a week.
anyone that watches this film and feels sorry for any of the dirtbags in it,is guilty of helping the parasitic chav culture that is runing soceity these days

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You sound familiar... I remember butting heads with a numbskull just like you last year on these boards. You're a class-snob. Don't blame Loach for highlighting your character flaws, congratulate him for it.

meus sententia est res

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[deleted]

Give me a break. You divide the world up into 'chavs' and 'non-chavs' and you expect me to take you seriously?!

It's a playground insult that adults should be barred from using unless they're being ironic. If you can only express your dislike of someone by use of a gross generalization, then you're just as desperate as the people you're trying to insult.

If you want the truth, then I think the reality is that the film was just far too complex for you to gain anything from it.






Believe or die! "Thank you, forgiving Lord, for all those options..."

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hey u obviously never had to live on dole money it's *beep* hard.
My family were on the dole for a couple years.U try living with 2 kids and urself on £100 a week.
U r a snob who think people on the dole r all scroungers who should get a job.
My family were not scrounging my dad left us and my mum couldn't work because she had 2 look after me and my brother so try telling me that ain't a tough upbringing.
U don't know the situations people on the dole may be in u just judge them first.

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being on the dole is *beep* hard, and i am trying to get off of it by going to uni but can afford that, so dont tell me thats its an easy life and we are scroungers getting pissed all the time, if i could get a job i would, and i havent seen this film but if its anything like other ken loach films it does NOT glorify it. nob head.

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Maybe if you didn't spent money on weed alcohol red bulls and whatever else you posted in the requiem for a dream post you and your mum wouldn't need support from your fellow English/Scotsmen.I live in America and I consider myself a liberal but I'm tired of losers popping out kids waiting with hands out yet people in the house drink smoke both kinds even got scrap to deep hard drugs and we all know they ain't cheap. Stop whining don't breed and work for your living

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You're missing the point. Loach presents stories that depict the realities of the way some people live their lives today. He doesn't judge, and despite what you say, doesn't glorify violent behaviour either. There are always causes and effects. I like to you to pinpoint the glory in Liam's life in this movie, except for the parts where he feels he has done good things to help his own mother and family.

I've always thought of Ken as a man on a mission to tell the type of stories that, without him, may not be told - and they deserve to be told.

You, my friend, seem unfamiliar or at odds with the world you live in. That's your problem. I come from Greenock myself. The lives portrayed in this film do not tell the full story of the town. However, the portrayal of life for some of the communities and areas is captured with precision. With this film, Ken Loach hit the nail on the head in a funny, powerful and heartbreaking way - once again.

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Loach isn't a liberal he is a SOCIALIST and a radical. His style is a form of neo-realism that focuses on the struggles of working people.. it's proletarian cinema.. its realism

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[deleted]

I don't agree with Ken Loach politically. But in Sweet Sixteen he doesn't excuse thuggish, anti-social, criminal behaviour. He paints a realistic picture of certain people living on run-down estates with not much opportunities. Some call it "social realism", other may call it "poverty porn".
I still think it's a good film - it doesn't mean I have to subscribe to Ken Loach's personal views on politics or capitalism.

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You complete *beep* mong. I haven't had the misfortune to share Liam's upbringing but it's pretty obvious that, with neither mother nor father, he had next to no chance of ever breaking free of what he was born into. What I liked most about this film, something that will have completely bypassed your ludicrously blinkered viewpoint, is how love and affection can survive in an almost apocalyptic world.

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I tried to watch this film the other night and had to switch off halfway through. Ken Loach is a director who glorifies poverty - I well remember his film "Cathy Come Home". In it the couple, despite having two children already and the husband losing his job, managed to conceive another child. This was the 1960s after all, and the wife could have gone on the pill. Loach doesn't seem to understand that people have to take responsibility for their own lives. But of course that wouldn't fit his extreme leftish propaganda. I'm certainly no right-wing Conservative, but many poor families, like my Scottish grandparents, had to live their lives without State help.

Apart from that, I had problems with the very strong, mumbling accents. I realise that's how some people speak in that part of Scotland - but even other Scots would have problems understanding what the actors were saying.

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Whilst I do not agree with Liam's conduct throughout Sweet Sixteen, the behavior displayed is meant to be an examination of how someone might cope in Liam's situation.

I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

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