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Reviews34
john-3109's rating
Richard Attenborough's (1969) film of Charles Chilton's play is set in north west Europe during World War I.
For somebody who by 1969 was only 13, this film seemed to me a radical departure for the director who had portrayed Big X - Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett (eclipsed only by Steve McQueen's epic motorcycle leap) in 'The Great Escape' only six years earlier.
His most successful war film to date had already begun to populate bank holiday Monday viewing on BBC TV to the exclusion of all others.
Pre-figuring the uncomfortable mixture of contemporary songs juxtaposed with authentic realism - which became the hallmark of the later work of Denis Potter - it marked a coming of age of the romantic notion that war was 'absolutely thrilling' and the best thing that ever happened to some people.
This film lifts us up with all the fun of the fair, to drop us unceremoniously onto the platform of Victoria Station aboard a boat-train for The Somme.
It's a powerful film, which somehow manages to celebrate the songs which grew out of the spirit of ordinary people bound up in the conflict, while at the same time leaving us in no doubt where it was all heading.
Bitter-sweet and evocative of the spirit of the times in represents.
For somebody who by 1969 was only 13, this film seemed to me a radical departure for the director who had portrayed Big X - Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett (eclipsed only by Steve McQueen's epic motorcycle leap) in 'The Great Escape' only six years earlier.
His most successful war film to date had already begun to populate bank holiday Monday viewing on BBC TV to the exclusion of all others.
Pre-figuring the uncomfortable mixture of contemporary songs juxtaposed with authentic realism - which became the hallmark of the later work of Denis Potter - it marked a coming of age of the romantic notion that war was 'absolutely thrilling' and the best thing that ever happened to some people.
This film lifts us up with all the fun of the fair, to drop us unceremoniously onto the platform of Victoria Station aboard a boat-train for The Somme.
It's a powerful film, which somehow manages to celebrate the songs which grew out of the spirit of ordinary people bound up in the conflict, while at the same time leaving us in no doubt where it was all heading.
Bitter-sweet and evocative of the spirit of the times in represents.
Claude Whatham's (1990) film, based on Nigel Hinton's novel, charts the rapid success of a young pop singer, Buddy Clark (Chesney Hawkes), a generation before the film's actual release.
Between his feckless Dad (Roger Daltrey) and struggling Mum (Sharon Duce) we follow Buddy's early success and sudden leap to fame, from his modest working-class roots.
Replete with authentic classic cars and quirky costume of the times, this moving period piece captures the sudden, incandescent radiance of fame while balancing it with the sometimes grimy and shady underside of a business which puts people under the spotlight one day, only to drop them in the gutter the next.
This is good film to watch, because it's made by people who - unlike young Buddy - have been through the mill and come out the other end in more or less one piece.
Roger Daltrey (lead vocalist with 'The Who') and Bill Curbishley (Manager of 'The Who' and co-producer of the film) give the film an authentic bite that Hollywood might have missed.
Between his feckless Dad (Roger Daltrey) and struggling Mum (Sharon Duce) we follow Buddy's early success and sudden leap to fame, from his modest working-class roots.
Replete with authentic classic cars and quirky costume of the times, this moving period piece captures the sudden, incandescent radiance of fame while balancing it with the sometimes grimy and shady underside of a business which puts people under the spotlight one day, only to drop them in the gutter the next.
This is good film to watch, because it's made by people who - unlike young Buddy - have been through the mill and come out the other end in more or less one piece.
Roger Daltrey (lead vocalist with 'The Who') and Bill Curbishley (Manager of 'The Who' and co-producer of the film) give the film an authentic bite that Hollywood might have missed.
Mike Leigh's early film 'Nuts in May' was first aired on BBC TV in January 1976 as part of their 'Play for Today' series.
It charts the experience of Keith (Roger Sloman) and Candice-Marie (Alison Steadman) who are somehow made for one another (at school) and never quite break out of the mould which their staid and sensible schoolteachers have wrought for them.
At no point - it seems - in their careful upbringing have they quite grasped that, in life, things are not always what they seem.. and that people don't always mean what they say.
Or that the rules and regulations that apply to children cannot possibly be carried forward successfully into adult life.
The title of the play is, itself, a clue. It is one of the few benefits of getting older that I can remember skipping enthusiastically, aged 4 years old and singing the song that goes 'Here we go gathering nuts in May, nuts in May, nuts in May. Here we go gathering nuts in May, on a cold and frosty morning'. Or, at least, that's what I sincerely believe I remember.
But this is madness, isn't it ? There are no nuts in May to gather. Nuts are the result of the growth of trees during the summer ! Squirrels gather them in Autumn, bury them.. and often forget about them. Nobody in their right mind ever tried to go gathering nuts in May, with any reasonable hope of success.
But Keith and Candice-Marie seem to feel honour bound to do so. Their life, in early adulthood is tied inexorably the daft things well-meaning, misinformed 'grown-ups' have told them when they were very young.
By some awful mischance, they have failed to reap the many benefits that healthy scepticism and good old adolescent rebellion confers.
Roger kisses a hot-water bottle named 'Prudence' each night, when he should be saying something else.
Although I couldn't begin to tell you where to get hold of a print of this great film. It's so good, that any effort would be well justified... even if the hot-water bottle is not actually named 'Prudence'. After all, it was over 30 years ago when I last saw this film.
It charts the experience of Keith (Roger Sloman) and Candice-Marie (Alison Steadman) who are somehow made for one another (at school) and never quite break out of the mould which their staid and sensible schoolteachers have wrought for them.
At no point - it seems - in their careful upbringing have they quite grasped that, in life, things are not always what they seem.. and that people don't always mean what they say.
Or that the rules and regulations that apply to children cannot possibly be carried forward successfully into adult life.
The title of the play is, itself, a clue. It is one of the few benefits of getting older that I can remember skipping enthusiastically, aged 4 years old and singing the song that goes 'Here we go gathering nuts in May, nuts in May, nuts in May. Here we go gathering nuts in May, on a cold and frosty morning'. Or, at least, that's what I sincerely believe I remember.
But this is madness, isn't it ? There are no nuts in May to gather. Nuts are the result of the growth of trees during the summer ! Squirrels gather them in Autumn, bury them.. and often forget about them. Nobody in their right mind ever tried to go gathering nuts in May, with any reasonable hope of success.
But Keith and Candice-Marie seem to feel honour bound to do so. Their life, in early adulthood is tied inexorably the daft things well-meaning, misinformed 'grown-ups' have told them when they were very young.
By some awful mischance, they have failed to reap the many benefits that healthy scepticism and good old adolescent rebellion confers.
Roger kisses a hot-water bottle named 'Prudence' each night, when he should be saying something else.
Although I couldn't begin to tell you where to get hold of a print of this great film. It's so good, that any effort would be well justified... even if the hot-water bottle is not actually named 'Prudence'. After all, it was over 30 years ago when I last saw this film.