I let my son watch a bad film

[MrsSnape]

My 8 year old was bored today and so I told him to watch a DVD. He asked if he could watch "This is England" and so I said yes...I'd seen it before but I couldn't remember much about it, only that the main character was about 10 years old which I thought DS would like.

Anyway I carried on with my cleaning up then about an hour later I heard all this ffing and blinding coming from down stairs and remembered how bad the film really was not to mention the violence, sexual talk and racism. DS just looked lost but he'd watched most of the film.

Now I feel terrible.

[Marina]

Is that the Shane Meadows one? About the boy brought up by some scary-looking-but-OK-underneath skinheads...and all is going reasonably until his horrible thuggish brother comes back to claim him or something? I've seen other Shane Meadows films but not this latest one.
I have to admit I would not want a child this age to watch anything by Shane Meadows, but I would disagree that his work is bad per se. Graphic, depressing,yes. But he is good on the redeeming power of friendship and many people think he is one of the most thoughtful and interesting British filmmakers working today.
I think there are many worse, less moral films out there, some of which might be superficially "more appropriate" for their audience. If we are talking Bad vs Good, I think Shane Meadows as a director and screenwriter is infinitely preferable to the patronising stereotyped snobbish sentimental shite peddled by Richard Curtis (for example).
Have you spoken to ds about the film? Do you think you could turn the situation around by asking him what he thought about the life the little boy led, who his real friends were etc? Children can surprise you with what they take from films and TV programmes. That's what I'd do IMO, just as if in real life you witness violent/racist behaviour/hideous swearing, you try and defuse it for your child and give it a context.