A Masterpiece!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

A nice feel-good movie charting industrial action by female machinists at Ford's Dagenham factory.The tone is upbeat, stirring. The female workers are presented as down-to-earth, colourful, commonsense types, pitted against the vested interests of the grey suits in both Ford's management and the Union hierarchy.The cast features the great and good of the British film industry - Miranda Richardson, Bob Hoskins, Andrea Riseborough and others all put in good turns and give the movie plenty of character. Sally Hawkins steals the show as the movement's natural- born leader, Rita O'Grady.The movie does dip its toe into some of the conflicts created by the women's actions - there's the sacrifices Rita has to make at home and the strain on her marriage, the infighting in the union, and the impact the women have on men's jobs at the factory. But it never turns too dark. It sticks to its guns as a feel-good movie and you never have much doubt that it will end happily.Overall, this a highly watchable movie filled with character and life and a good dose of history too.

The movie has a cast of likable protagonists, coupled with fantastic humor and a gripping story (based on real life events which make it even better) and is well acted with pretty much everyone putting in solid work.The issue at hand is equal pay for women, and it's fascinating to see what it was like for them way back in 1969 and wonder if things have changed now that we're pushing 2015.This movie really needs to be seen by a lot more people, because I feel like in another twenty years this will be looked back upon as one of those under appreciated movies that didn't get much notice when it first came out.So if you haven't, go and watch it.

Movies about equal rights for women aren't exactly abundant, which made this movie a very pleasant surprise. It's well made, representing the 60s on screen in a realistic manner, and well acted, featuring performances by some very good actors we sadly see to little of in the bigger productions, like Bob Hoskins. And its story is both true and important, and a true testament that history can be made anywhere, as long as those fighting for it stay true to their purpose and see it through. UK cinema has so much more than James Bond to offer, and there are many gems out there deserving to be discovered by a larger audience. This is one of them. Highly recommended!

Two of the performances I enjoyed most were those of the men who were flunkies for some woman who is high up on the bureaucratic food chain. She's a self-described "fiery redhead" and is on the side of the women machinists who are striking for equal pay at a Ford plant in England. As she dresses down the undersecretaries -- Kloska and Jupp, maybe -- they squirm and flinch, their eyes bulge, and they manifest all the outward signs of discomfort. And they're great at it, gulping and glancing at one another with their mouths agape.Then there's Sally Hawkins as Rita O'Grady. All the performances are good but she's outstanding. She's petite and frail but when she smiles or gawks at something we notice a determined set of choppers. She's not a demanding fire eater either. She's chosen as de facto leader of the strike by Bob Hoskins, who bypasses the nominal head of the union because he senses a winner in Hawkins. And she is a winner. She makes few heady speeches but is quietly effective. At their first meeting, the high-echelon politician asks what it would take to satisfy Hawkins. How much more pay would they settle for, short of equal pay with men. "Seventy-five percent?" There is a long nervous pause and Hawkins pipes up in her thin girlish voice, "Ninety percent?" After looking at the summary I was genuinely worried about this movie. Is it going to be another celebration of feminism in which all the men are stupid chauvinistic brutes and the women confused, beaten, defiant, ultimately victorious? Nope. It's more subtle than that, more like "Norma Rae" with less domestic drama. There's only one stupid line of dialog. A reporter asks the women how they will "cope" without pay during the strike. Hawkins replies with anger, "COPE? We're WOMEN." Imagine a reporter asking that of male workers on strike and some guy replies, "COPE? We're MEN!" I know nothing of British labor history so I was a little confused about who was who and, never having heard of this incident, didn't know whether it was fictional or historical. When Harold Wilson showed up, I concluded the event had been real rather than dreamed up.The husbands are presented as maybe a little weak but generally supportive of the women's strike. One of the husbands, mentally disturbed, hangs himself. I'm so glad this wasn't a case of "sleeping with the enemy." Is there a villain? Of course. There must always be a villain in any story of conflict, and this movie isn't sophisticated enough to humanize him. He's a kind of liaison with Ford's plants in England. He carries on about the need to make a profit and threatens to move his plants to another country and put tens of thousands of Brits out of work if the strike isn't broken. He doesn't mind unions as long as they're powerless. I can't help wondering if the Yanks don't have people running for president today who carry the same Neanderthal values in their bones. (Sorry.) The women machinists wind up with more than they had bargained for -- 92%, in fact, and a law mandating equal pay was passed a few years later. Progress is made in incremental steps.