Far too frequently, the space between adolescence and manhood is occupied by gang membership. Whether it’s the Sharks and the Jets, the Mods and the Rockers, or the Crips and the Bloods, gang association is a common fact of modern life, no matter the city, decade, or milieu. Small Faces is set on the outskirts of Glasgow in 1968, a far remove from the Swinging England of the period’s popular mythology. The three MacLean brothers — Bobby (Duffy), Alan (McFadden) and Lex (Robertson) — who have been raised by their single mother (Higgins), are all coming of age in their working-class neighborhood. Bobby, the oldest, is a bit of a loose cannon who suffers from horrendous nightmares and runs with the neighborhood gang. The middle son Alan is a budding artist who plans to avoid the neighborhood skirmishes by going off to art school. The youngest son Lex is 13 years old, and it is through his perspective that we view the movie. Giddy with the excitement of an air gun given to him by his older brother Bobby, events are set in motion when Lex unintentionally shoots Malky (McKidd), the psychologically unbalanced leader of the Tongs, in the eye. Adding further injury, brother Alan has been keeping company with Joanne (Fraser), Malky’s childhood sweetheart whom he still seeks to possess and control. What seems at first for Lex an exhilarating entrée into the adult male universe quickly escalates into a frightening and uncontrollable urban battlefield. At the beginning of the film, we see Lex behaving as a young boy, tagging along with his older brothers and sneaking alcohol at family functions. By the close, the “wee man,” as he’s called, is a shaky young adult, a witness to more violence and malevolence than his inexperience can stand. It’s appropriate that the film was co-written by the brothers Gillies and BIlly MacKinnon and draws on shared autobiographical memories of their youth. Small Faces also stands in contrast to the other big Scottish film hit of the year, Trainspotting (although actor Kevin McKidd appears in both). Rather than painting a picture of subcultural lifestyles, Small Faces depicts the ordinary strain of daily working-class life. The portrait, although it is without flashy fanfare and hip stylistics, is genuine and disarming — in the most literal sense of the word.
This article appears in October 25 • 1996 (Cover).
