Film Review: Brassed Off (1996)

over 1 year ago

(source: tmdb.org)

Today’s Europe, in which wind farms get demolished in order to make way for reopening and expanding coal mines, is world very different to the world inhabited by protagonists of Brassed Off, 1996 British film written and directed by Mark Herman. Grimley is a small town in the north of England where people for decades have almost exclusively worked in local coal mine. The mine somehow managed to survive 1980s collieries’ closures conducted by Margaret Thatcher, but a decade later Conservative government is preparing for new round. Mining company, in order to prevent any trouble with the unions, is offering generous severance packages to workers willing to quit the job and formally vote for pits to be closed. All that is of little concern for Danny Ormondroyd (played by Pete Postlethwaite), leader of town’s brass band, which he wants to bring to prestigious music competition at Royal Albert Hall in London. Other band members, including Danny’s desperate and financially challenged son Phil (played by Stephen Tompkinson), know that the likely closure of pit would mean the end of the band. Their morale is temporarily lifted with arrival of Gloria Mullins (played by Tara Fitzgerald), young and attractive woman whose talent with flugelhorn suggests that the band might actually win. Andy Barrow (played by Ewan McGregor), young coal miner and band members, recognised Gloria as his old childhood love, but problems arise when he learns that she actually works for mining company management. He keeps this for himself and the real crisis begins when Danny gets ill before the competition. This coincides with a miners voting whether to accept severance or to keep their traditional way of life.

At first glance, Brassed Off looks very much like The Full Monty, another and much more successful film about impoverished and unemployed working men who try to win back their dignity through show business. Although still belonging to comedy genre, Brassed Off is actually much more serious film. Herman, who grew up in coal mining areas of Yorkshire, is much more explicit at pointing fingers at the plight of British working class in 1990s. According to him, it was Conservative Party and its cynical profit-driven policies that caught devastation among coal mining communities (including real life village of Grimethorpe which served as basis for “Grimley”). Yet, strong views didn’t prevent Herman to deliver content that often made British comedies superior to their Hollywood counterparts – clever mixing of social issues with humour, superb cast and very humane treatment of characters. On the other hand, obligatory romantic subplot dealing with Andy and Gloria muddles the formula and makes Brassed Off overlong. This shouldn’t be much of an issue for fans of film music, because soundtrack by Trevor Jones is very good and the film itself gives fascinating insight into the world of local brass bands and entire subculture built around them.

RATING: 6/10 (++)