Comments on: The Miners’ Strike Ended 25 Years Ago Today

By: simon

simon — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:33:24 +0000

Ed & Paul I doubt very much if we will ever see another miners strike movie, it’s too long ago and there isn’t any money to be made from it, perhaps a BBC series is the best we can hope for but eighties nostalgia seems to be coming to end as well

I could be wrong of course Billy Elliot the musical goes from strength to strength, still going well in LDN, hot ticket still on Broadway, just about to open in Chicago with a US tour to follow and opening in Korea in August.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:08:18 +0000

Agree with Edward. Brassed Off also fulls into the predictable and saccharine, with Danny’s speech being its saving grace.

The trouble with the Miners Strike, is that anyone would struggle to take the middle ground and deliver a true and dramatic film into the events (if taking the middle ground can be true) Even today the opposing sides are polarised. You were either pro miners or pro Thatcher and ne`er the twain meet. Its a tough subject to cover on film, with the risk that you sentimentalise one side, and portray the other as the wicked witch of the west. I find myself in dichotomy when even thinking about it, so god knows how a film could make a balanced but realistic portrayal of the subject in 120 mins.

The Bobby Sands movie approached a similar subject , in that the hunger strike brought about extreme polarised views (again with Mrs T at the centre) I think it worked to a degree, but it was firmly on the side of Sands. Maybe its just not possible to bring the Miners strike to film , without the director taking a side, the danger is the side taken with be inveitably be from the left side.

By: Edward McLaughlin

Edward McLaughlin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:04:12 +0000

simon

OK each to their own and all.

Your friend Lee might very well be a likeable chap, and although not to my taste, “Billy Elliot” is not on its own the cause of my discontent. The point I perhaps too pointedly tried to put over, is that it is one more product of what is almost a conveyor belt of very predictable, puritanical and saccharine works, from which it would be I think, healthy to depart at least now and again.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:00:55 +0000

Postlewaite is a very fine actor indeed. hes what I call a jobbing actor, in that he seems to turn up in just about everything. Whenever he is given a lead role, hes quite tremendous, an unsung hero.

By: simon

simon — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:32:44 +0000

Paul You might be right about ‘Brassed Off’ I’d forgotten what a good film it is and isn’t Pete Postlewaite a very fine actor!

By: Paul B

Paul B — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:58:32 +0000

Brassed Off in many ways was about the Miners strike, and imo is a truer representation of the strike than `Elliott. For my money, Elliott is cliched (enjoyable for that) of small time boy done good despite the obstacles in his way. Its Kes lite, fluffy and enjoyable but with no substance.

Whereas Postlewaite positively burns with righteous anger throughout Brassed Off, ending up with his final earth scorching soliloquy at the theatre.

Danny Speech:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKx3MUqzCcQ

By: simon

simon — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:17:03 +0000

Come on Edward chill out.. I do partly agree with your comments, but it was the perfect scene to illustrate my post & people inc me luv the movie. I know Lee Hall a bit and he’s nothing like you describe, in fact I bet you’d like him. Did you watch the Comic Strip clip? Do, It might make you laugh!

By: Edward McLaughlin

Edward McLaughlin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:55:08 +0000

Correction: Geordie hireling. The votes obviously crush my every point. Where is there to go?

By: simon

simon — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:58:58 +0000

marc I went to a great New Order miners benefit gig at the Royal Festival Hall, I will always remember it for the “real” miners on the Southbank with buckets collecting change who seemed a bit menacing & exciting to us middle class students and the poor old dears at the RFH who more used to polite concert goers and were a bit overwhelmed by the sweaty leather jacket clad hordes of New Order fans.. Great night!

By: marc nash

marc nash — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:00:12 +0000

Re art and the miners’ strike, I’d just like to offer two slightly more counter-cultural responses. Firstly the music of Test Department who undertook a tour to raise money and awareness during the year of the Strike and brought us wonderful presentations by miners’ groups (and a play written by Kent Miners too that premiered up at the Edinburgh Fringe in ‘85). The second is author David Peace’s GB84 that brought Peace to my notice as the best living English author and one who is trying to drag the novel kicking and screaming into the 21st Century and away from the previous millenium where it has remained largely unchanged for 200 years.