Gary Unwin (Eggsy), the film's main character, comes from an unprivileged background and gets into trouble with the police quite frequently. His late father sacrificed himself for a man of his team, which resulted in his death. His mum, then got remarried with a violent and alcoholic man, who despises Eggsy.
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| Gary (on the left) accompanied by Harry Hart (a Kingman agent). |
In the picture above, Eggsy is wearing Adidas, which is a popular brand worn by "chavs" in the United Kingdom. He is also wearing gold jewellery, which is a popular accessory in that particular youth subculture.
As for Eggsy's personality and lifestyle, he often goes to the pub with his friends and had a strong cockney accent. He also lives in the Alexandra Road estate in Camden, which is known to be a rough and blue-collar area. That reinforces the stereotype of chavs living in poor areas and off benefits. Eggsy also displays anti-social behaviour due to his violent appearance but also during one particular scene when he joy rides and crashes into a police car, which got him into custody.
During the car chase, Bonkers, a song by British rapper Dizzee Rascal, was playing in the background. Dizzee Rascal is an artist who specialises in Grime, which is a sort of aggressive rap. This genre of music is widely popular in the chav community, which therefore demonstrates accuracy and fits with the theme.
However, during the process of the training Eggsy goes through, he also changes his ways and becomes a much more mature and refined man. Indeed, his mise-en-scene had changed massively as well as his mannerisms.
In the picture above, he is wearing a formal suit with suede shoes, which is an outfit widely seen in the upper-class society. His manners have greatly improved as he has become courteous and sophisticated in the way he talks and walks, but he also becomes a much more mature and courageous individual, as he takes on a numerous amount of soldiers to save the world.
I personally think that the film represents the power of class and status well, as the upper class community is known for wielding the greatest power but also for being the most influential individuals. Indeed, in the film, Eggsy who was originally a chav, had to go through a transformation in order for him to be delegated the task of saving the world. This shows that working class people do not possess much power in society nowadays and remain handicapped in many ways.
