My Take on the Timeline

*SPOILERS THROUGHOUT*

Many are criticising this film for the speed in which John moves from being a bookish, quiet lad to a knife-weilding maniac. For me there are some key moments which people are overlooking...the seeds are sewn early.

1. His aunt tells him the Americans love the Scots because the speak their minds. He clearly has a massive respect for his aunt because she has made it out of Glasgow and sees taking no *beep* as the way to do it. Always aim to be top.

2. One key point of the film is when Brown (forget his nickname, although it began with a K or C!) threatens him on his last day of primary school. This puts a deep fear in him that troubles him all through the summer until he acts on it and gets his brother to sort him out. Although shocked by it initially he's really excited by the power he wields simply by association and begins to see himself as untouchable.

3. This association leads to the headmaster in High School not trusting him. Already John shows signs of superiority and he works hard to get himself to the top and is willing to take punishment to do so - even though the teacher lets him off.

4. Another key point of the film is when the knife comes scurtling under the toilet door. To use a crass comparison, this is like his He-man sword - it quite literally turns him.

Then, once he's turned bampot...

5. The desperate need for bail money - this is partly driven by John's need to have his brother there to maintain his reputation but also by the way their relationship has grown now they are gang members together.

6. The Jesus moment - well, that's glue sniffing for you.

7. When he ends up in the remedial class with his brain-damaged victim and when his Dad asks him to finish him - I think this is where he finally develops a death wish and when he ventures with two knives into the enemy gang's turf you really wish they would finish him off. When he doesn't die and has to come back and do his father's bidding he can't.

8. Leading Brown through the lion enclosure. A rather weak ending but I guess we're supposed to assume he's putting both of them out of their own misery caused by that first meeting on John's last day of primary school.

It was a deeply depressing film.