| Essexboys -
Film |
TERRY WINSOR
Director & Co-Writer
Terry Winsor's directorial debut was on the Daniel Peacock comedy
Party, Party - a movie that has become a cult classic over the
years and features the debuts of a host of now-established British
talent. He followed this by writing and directing The Great
Kandinsky which starred Richard Harris, directing the action
television series Thief Takers and writing and directing The
Magician, a television movie starring Clive Owen. Terry had
also worked with Sean Bean previously on Fool's Gold, which
won the Gold Medal at the New York International Film Festival.
Terry put a lot of thought into the psyche of Billy: "We
decided that he should be a driver because, if you think about
it, he goes through the whole film being pulled along by other
forces. At first he likes and enjoys the romance of being a
gangster, but he is very quickly immersed in the real underworld
and realises that it is much more serious than he first imagined.
He really gets in deep shit further down the line, and the story
is told through his eyes. In essence it is a story about how
he gets involved with these three other guys who end up dead.
He survives, and comes out the other side, but it is at a huge
cost to himself.
"The story also concerns the relationship between one of
the gangsters and his wife, and the fact that he had been put
away for five years. It's a personal look at their lives through
the eyes of the one guy who gets hooked up with them.
"What I found most interesting and unique was the way the
county has changed. The people of the East End moved out to
the new towns such as Harlow and Basildon to set up a new life.
And they took their criminals with them. The gangsters we have
now are the sons and daughters of those who moved out to Essex
in the 60's. Partly also, the feeling is that they were kept
in check by a community in the East End, whereas they had a
much looser relationship out in the sprawling new towns. They
just seemed to behave in a much bigger, brasher way, which makes
them interesting to look at.
"Saying that, I think it is quite a dark film. The characters,
even though they are extremely brash and lively, do have a doomed
quality about them. Particularly the main character Reynolds.
Even though he comes out the other side, he certainly goes through
Hell for the duration of the film. I think what makes it a film
noir is that it looks at the seedier side of life in Essex.
Basically it involves a murder that the police are almost completely
uninvolved in, and we are looking at the underbelly of that
gangster society. Because of this I think the film fits in perfectly
with the noir tradition of looking at crime and criminals.
"I have used a very restrictive palette whilst filming
ESSEX BOYS. I filmed in dark colours and shadows, and have tried
to avoid reds and greens, and deep saturated colours. You get
quite a dark and shadowy feeling to a lot of the scenes.
"But I think this stark landscape is filled with a huge
diversity of the characters. Perhaps a striking difference to
something like Goodfellas (where the characters overlap) is
that the characters in this film are all quite different. I
think that this movie represents Essex pretty damn well in what
those characters do, from the Tom Wilkinson character to the
Sean Bean character, they do exist in the world together, as
they do in the script.
"I think I possibly identify with Billy's character most
- because I can see how I could fall into the same trap. By
the end of the film, Billy's journey is one that nobody would
want to take.
"The title just seemed obvious. We chucked quite a few
around, and came up with ESSEX BOYS. There's a line at the end
about the Essex Girl beating the Essex Boys - it all goes full
circle, so seemed to fit.
"The violence is pretty real and it's not done for fun.
It gives a realistic notion of what these guys are like; they
are violent. They are high-octane characters. One moment they're
calm and talking, and the next they explode. They're totally
unpredictable, and what I've tried to do is get some of the
unpredictability on film. Certainly the Sean Bean character
is extremely violent. I can't pretend that I've tried to stylise
the violence in any way. What I've tried to do is capture it,
and show the reasons for it as well. So I'm showing what the
character is like and, by living in this world, the circumstances
that lead him to behave like that.
"When shooting I wasn't really concerned by the moral outrage
factor. I was thinking along the lines that when you enter a
cinema, you actually enter a world. Hopefully the audience will
experience what it is like to be in that world, and the reasons
as to why people behave like that. The characters in ESSEX BOYS
have to provide demonstrations of power, so people know what
they are capable of. Once they have proved themselves, they
can rest easy for a while. It's a bit like gunslingers in the
Old West.
"It's funny, but I think the actual Essex gangsters will
go for the movie - they'll think that it is one for them. People
like the homegrown stuff. And the people will always think that
they are bigger and badder and harder than anyone else.
"Most of the locals seemed to know who we were, and what
we were about, so certainly the news travels fast there too!
We did have a lot of Essex people as extras in the party scenes.
They are a special brand of people. They are very showy; they
do like to dress up and have flash cars and whatever. So using
the locals certainly helped us in terms of the reality of the
image.
"But for the rest out there I'd like people to take them
on the journey of the Reynolds character. I want them to see
what it's really like to be an Essex Boy." |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
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