Simply Perfect

Let's be realistic.

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

"Brassed Off" is a wonderful human-interest movie set mostly in the North of England. It has bits of comedy of life, family drama, politics, and light romance all wrapped together with some superb music. The story is about a small town in South Yorkshire and its people, the town's coal mine (colliery), and the colliery's brass band. This is a delightful film for its setting, the acting and the goodly amount of brass band music we get to enjoy. The music is equal to any performance in a major concert hall. The film credits at the end state, "The events and characters depicted in this photoplay are fictitious." But the story does follow the plight of rural communities in England that faced the closing of coalmines in the late 20th century. The town in the movie is named Grimley, and the actual shooting location is Grimethorpe. That village of 1,800 is located about 40 miles (65 km) east of Manchester. The town of Grimethorpe's struggle over the coalmine closing was similar. And, the 24-member Grimethorpe Colliery Band played the music for the film's soundtrack. Other shooting locations included Birmingham and London. Scenes were shot at the Hatfield Colliery, the Delph Band Contest the Acorn Centre, and at pubs – the Drum and Swallow and Nite Owl. The final concert scene at London's Royal Albert Hall was actually filmed at Birmingham Tower Hall. While the overall human-interest of the plot carries the film wonderfully, politics of the time and place figure in the story. People who lose their jobs due to the decisions of big corporations and/or government aren't likely to find any humor in their situation. The late 20th century was a time when England stopped much of its domestic coal mining – underground and open pits. The credits at the end of the film say that 140 pits had closed since 1984, with the resulting loss of 250,000 jobs. One would have to be a dunce not to notice the obviously pointed finger at the English government, for the plight of the mine workers. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher certainly wasn't a fictitious character. That was okay, and anyone who knows anything about the Weinstein Brothers – the founders and then-owners of Miramax, would know that they are politically far to the left and rather disdainful of anything to the right. And, that' okay. So, toward the end of the film I chuckled to think that Miramax may have produced this film partly as a poke at the former PM Thatcher and the conservative party. In the movie, headlines and posters criticize the Tories. Yet, I wondered if the Weinstein's hadn't missed some things. One would be Danny's speech to the audience when he refused the national trophy the band had won. He notes that in that way, they will get attention for the town's plight. And, indeed, the press corps cameras flash away. Danny says, "The point is, if this lot were seals or whales, you'd all be up in bloody arms. But they're not are they, now? No, they're not. They're just ordinary common garden, honest, decent human beings. And not one of them with an ounce of bloody hope left. Aye. They can knock out a bloody good tune, but what the f--- does that matter? Now I'm going to take my boys out onto the town. Thank you."Another political sleeper that just sort of smolders in the film is the black lung disease that was so prevalent among coal miners. Danny suffered from it himself, and in one scene we see him cough up blood. I don't know what the history is of England tackling this issue, but it came to the fore in the U.S. in the late 1960s. Many safety measures were put in place after that. But, we don't see the miners in this film wearing masks when they are at work in the mine, and we see their faces covered with soot. Surely, the health and welfare of the workers should be a major concern for those who profess to care so much about the workers. A third political issue not even mentioned in the film is clean air. The U.S. began tackling air pollution with the Clean Air Act of 1970. I don't know to what extent Great Britain has done so, but I think there still is much pressure from the continent for England to tackle its air pollution. And guess what? One of the big polluters is coal- fired power plants. So, while the film gives a little dig at the conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, it completely ignores the health problems of the miners and England's air pollution problem. It does point out the social contradiction and hypocrisy though. If they were seals or whales, Danny says, people would be up in arms. But, they're just people, so society doesn't really care. Touché, Harvey and Bob Weinstein. The politics are real for the time and a good part of the film. But this movie has many other endearing qualities about it. For instance, the players, in their individual characters. Who couldn't like Danny, played superbly by Pete Postlethwaite? Tara Fitzgerald and Ewan McGregor are very good as Gloria and Andy. And some of the minor characters really shine In their roles. Philip Jackson (Inspector Japp of the Agatha Christie films about Hercule Poirot) is excellent as Jim. Kenneth Colley as Greasley, Jim Carter as Harry, Peter Gunn as Simmo, Sue Johnston as Vera and Mary Healey as Ida all did wonderful jobs in their roles. A beautiful scene was the band outside Danny's hospital window playing "Danny Boy." The music is the final big plus that makes this a first rate, enjoyable and memorable film.

I have been watching Waking the Dead, and thought I would explore other works done by it's stars. I'm starting with Eve (Tara Fitzgerald).The star of this film is not Fitzgerald, but Pete Postlethwaite, who was nominated for an Oscar for In the Name of the Father, and also starred in Inception and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, among others.Postlethwaite is trying to keep a brass band together in the face of coal mines being shut down, which will result in the eventual demise of his town. It is a lighthearted, sometimes depressing film which features a love story between young people (Fitzgerald and Ewan McGregor), a crisis involving a married couple (Stephen Tompkinson and Melanie Hill), and a health crisis involving Danny (Postlethwaite). Of course, there is also a national band contest at the Royal Albert Hall.There is also a bit of politics in the film with a couple of rants against Maggie Thatcher. They even managed to work Danny Boy in the film. Great!I am glad that Fitzgerald brought me here, as it was an enjoyable experience.

Minor spoilers ahoy...Yes I realise this is more a tribute to the man than the film, but frankly I don't care.Steven Spielberg worked with Pete Postlethwaite on Jurassic Park and is quoted as saying Pete was "probably the best actor in the world" and who can disagree? Brassed Off is on TV right now as I type this, being shown in tribute to Pete and in it I believe he reached the pinnacle of his career.I lived through the Thatcher years with miners strikes and the subsequent closer of the pits and heavy industry putting millions on the dole. I was there at a strike meeting held outside a local heavy industry site where thousands were later thrown on the scrap heap. The speech given by Pete at the end of the film sums it up exactly, he delivers it with such passion, I feel that he actually meant it.The supporting cast are superb, not a weak character or actor, but Pete nails this and it is even more poignant that he played a character riddled with cancer. He will be sadly missed."Stop this racket, you'll wake up in the next ward".RIP mate.

Grimley Colliery Brass Band has been going for nigh on a century, but as the town's colliery itself comes under threat of closure due to the drawn out miners strikes, so does the bands very own survival. Giving much relief to a very depressed area, the band are hoping to make the grand finals day at the Royal Albert Hall, could the arrival of Flugelhorn player, Gloria, be just what the band needs? Or is she merely the catalyst to something far more critical?Brassed Off is the first of what I personally call the Magical British Trio, three films that perfectly portray the British sense of humour during dark depressing times of unemployment. The other two of course are The Full Monty (1997) and Billy Elliot (2000), of which Brassed Off is essentially an appetiser of sorts, the warm up act for the big hitters so to speak. Not to say that Brassed Off is not worthy to sit alongside those well received pictures (home and abroad as they say), it most certainly is, it's just that its blend of humour and strife doesn't find any easy ground, thus making it hard for the undiscerning viewer to be at ease at the right moments. It is in short, unsure of what it primarily wants to be. The humour does work well tho, but it's in the dramatic core of the miners strikes, and the affects they have on the denizens of this quaint colliery town, that Brassed Off truly works, with some scenes literally tugging away at the old heart strings. Then there be the music itself, The Grimethorpe Colliery Band {on whose real life story this film is based} provide the music for the soundtrack, and its most enjoyable, often stirring, and definitely poignant at crucial moments.The cast are tremendous, Ewan McGregor and Tara Fitzgerald offer up splendid youthful heart, but they are playing second fiddle (or should that be third brass section?) to Pete Postlethwaite and Stephen Tompkinson. As father and son, Postlethwaite and Tompkinson give the film its deep emotional being, each driven by differing needs, Brassed Off's success rests with both men being able to hold the viewers attention from the get go. Tompkinson has made a very profitable and thriving career in British Television, and rightly so, but it remains criminal that he didn't go on and make more well known and profitable full length feature films after his fabulous turn here. Filmed in the ideal Northern English town of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, Brassed Off is a film that has evident problems, but to someone like me, a Brit who lived thru those depressing days under Margaret Thatcher's government, it's a film that I love for a myriad of reasons, one can only hope that one of those reasons strikes a chord with yourselves.A completely biased 9/10 from me!