This is my home city, I always remember when these riots happened. They were unlike previous riots, these seem planned as garages and shops were stolen. We were all warned not to go in to town that day as something may have happen. This does seem very biased to the asians side or the riot, although the story may have been true the police pushing forward, it doesn't show the others there shuch as white black and others and it should. However in Bradford we had the racial tensions rising over the years to the point of you could literally feel it in the city. The film was good but it would have been nice to see other point of views
4 Reviews
Superior well balance powerful television
too_many_movies4 May 2006
When television directors tackle relatively recent news events, there is a tendency to allow a current political climate to cloud our perception of the past. Depending on your point of view that climate could represent a distrust of ethnic communities and their incendiary influence upon modern Britain, or equally a distrust of the current political and police authorities bearing in mind the draconian curtailments of civil liberties and arguable persecution of such communities.
Despite being such a controversial subject this drama managed to depict powerfully depict both the dangers of simplistic and aggressive community 'nationalism', and those of simplistic and aggressive authoritarian responses. It also depicts the aforementioned dangers of allowing one separate news event to influence another, with an international terrorist operation becoming a mitigating factor in a community riot, purely for superficial reasons.
With a strong lead performance by a talented young actor, Karim comes across as primarily confused and alienated by both his country and his community for equal and opposite reasons. To the most militant of his Asian associates he is a 'coconut', or an Asian uncle tom for his integration into 'white' Britain. Britain fails him equally in misunderstanding the cause of his community's anger, responding to it foolishly and with little of the cool thoughtfulness required of a mature liberal democracy. We both like and hate Karim, we empathise with his anger yet condemn it, demand like his father that he take responsibility for his actions, yet are appalled in the way he is failed by the justice system.
Like Jimmy McGovern's Hillsborough or the Antonia Bird's recent Hamburg Cell, the Bradford Riots is television drama at its finest, both politically sharp and emotionally engaging it is another great example of the need for channel 4
Despite being such a controversial subject this drama managed to depict powerfully depict both the dangers of simplistic and aggressive community 'nationalism', and those of simplistic and aggressive authoritarian responses. It also depicts the aforementioned dangers of allowing one separate news event to influence another, with an international terrorist operation becoming a mitigating factor in a community riot, purely for superficial reasons.
With a strong lead performance by a talented young actor, Karim comes across as primarily confused and alienated by both his country and his community for equal and opposite reasons. To the most militant of his Asian associates he is a 'coconut', or an Asian uncle tom for his integration into 'white' Britain. Britain fails him equally in misunderstanding the cause of his community's anger, responding to it foolishly and with little of the cool thoughtfulness required of a mature liberal democracy. We both like and hate Karim, we empathise with his anger yet condemn it, demand like his father that he take responsibility for his actions, yet are appalled in the way he is failed by the justice system.
Like Jimmy McGovern's Hillsborough or the Antonia Bird's recent Hamburg Cell, the Bradford Riots is television drama at its finest, both politically sharp and emotionally engaging it is another great example of the need for channel 4
racism is not accountable and religion isn't to blame
bad_gyal_shmz10 May 2006
i was very disappointed when i saw this film on t.v. It failed to show that both of the parties were involved, both Asian and white, but inevitably you decided to frame the Asian community who all live in Bradford.after the film was broadcast on T.V. the amount of racism has increased in our communities, due to the nature of the film. you clearly showed a bias point of view and failed to get the Asian view across, which clearly shows that Asians are only seen as terrorists, thugs, bullies and criminals. but what you failed to realise is that you obviously didn't consider what the after affects would be of this film being produced, because now the amount of racism has increased just because of the film being produced one thing you have to realise is that there are always 2 sides to a story n you only showed one and it was obviously the wrong one!!!
Excellent movie
maj_a27 May 2006
Just seen this and i got to say its Excellent , It reminds me off a Asian lad who got sent down for riot-he got the hashes sentence 8 1/2 years ,Amjad Rashid , Acky reminded me off this guy , Very sad at the end , made me all emotional. Amjad Rashid was a guy i knew from school and just like the movie all his family was torn apart , some off the scenes where made just down my road :)
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PS :- Your comments should focus on the title's content and context. The best reviews include not only whether you liked or disliked a movie or TV-series, but also why. Feel free to mention other titles you consider similar and how this one rates in comparison to them. Comments that are not specific to the title will not be posted on our site. Please write in English only and note that we do not support HTML mark-up within the comments.
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