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Oct. 3rd, 2011 11:35 amI watched Made in Dagenham (2011), dir. Nigel Cole, last night. Cole also directed Calendar Girls, and it's another of those lightly-fictionalised Heart-Warming British True Stories, though it's a much more political story than Calendar Girls, about the Ford Machinist's Strike in 1968, which began as a dispute about the down-grading of the women sewing machinists, and broadened out into a wider campaign for equal pay for equal work and led to the Equal Pay Act (although, as the film doesn't actually point out, while the women got a pay rise so that they were being paid the equivalent of the men at their grade, the re-grading issue wasn't resolved). Its sympathies are feminist and solidly left-wing, although without overly sanctifying the union: on the one hand, the union leaders are largely resistant to the women's cause, because they think that men earn the bread-winner's wage and women are working for pin-money (as the narrative points out, this wasn't always the case), and at least one of them is a venal character who's mostly in it for the expenses. On the other hand, the union does give the women a voice, and the film makes some sharp observations about the undervaluing of women's work and women's intelligence, particularly in the row between the heroine, Rita (Sally Hawins, who is very good), and her husband(Daniel Mays), a nice man who occasionally falls into Nice Guy Syndrome, but isn't allowed to get away with it (and doesn't want to, when he's made to stop and think).
The main weakness of the film is not, I think, as one of the Grauniad's reviews suggested, that it's clichéd, though there is a little too much play with Sixties icons (there's a minor sub-plot involving a Biba dress, but on the whole the period detail seemed quite good - though I wasn't there, so I suppose I can't judge). It's the uneven tone - the narrative is split (roughly two-thirds one-thirds) between the progress of the strike and the experiences of the women and those associated with the Ford Plant and the union (or management) and Barbara Castle being Barbara Castle and Harold Wilson being a bit wet, only coming together at the end. The trouble is that the politicians are largely played broadly, and unconvincingly - Wilson mostly comes across as a bumbling idiot, and Miranda Richardson overplays Castle horribly, except for a few minutes where the character comes together. (She was nominated for a BAFTA. I have no idea why). In fact, the Westminster sub-plot seems to have wandered in from a different film, possibly a spin-off of Yes, Minister (except Sir Humphrey would have eaten the useless civil servants we see being repeatedly chivvied about by Castle for breakfast). The Dagenham strand, on the other hand, is mostly naturalistic, though with a good deal of humour, and with some genuinely affecting moments. Possibly the director was trying to make some kind of point about the "real world" of the working class and Westminster's remoteness from it, with Castle's intervention in the strike (in a dress from C and A we've earlier seen Rita in) breaching the gap and resolving the conflict, but if so, it doesn't quite come off, because the "Westminster" is so hard to believe in. Richard Schiff has a rather unexpected turn as a Ford executive-come-hard-man; he doesn't look anything like Toby Ziegler, but the voice is rather distractingly recognisable,* and I had trouble fighting off the feeling that he should have been on the other side.
Despite the weakness of the Westminster stuff, though, it's well worth seeing, because the Dagenham bits are excellent. It is worth noting, though, that the film's billing as a heart-warming and life-affirming comedy, while not untrue, is a bit misleading, because there are some dark moments. In particular, there's (spoilers: highlight to read)a sub-plot involving severe, untreated PTSD, and suicide (we briefly see the feet of the character who's hanged himself). And it's nice to see a film about the working class and left-wing politics that isn't either humourless, or poking fun at the proles, or, conversely, a tragedy of the decline and fall of British industry (I love Brassed Off, but it isn't exactly cheerful).
* Still, at least they got a real American.
The main weakness of the film is not, I think, as one of the Grauniad's reviews suggested, that it's clichéd, though there is a little too much play with Sixties icons (there's a minor sub-plot involving a Biba dress, but on the whole the period detail seemed quite good - though I wasn't there, so I suppose I can't judge). It's the uneven tone - the narrative is split (roughly two-thirds one-thirds) between the progress of the strike and the experiences of the women and those associated with the Ford Plant and the union (or management) and Barbara Castle being Barbara Castle and Harold Wilson being a bit wet, only coming together at the end. The trouble is that the politicians are largely played broadly, and unconvincingly - Wilson mostly comes across as a bumbling idiot, and Miranda Richardson overplays Castle horribly, except for a few minutes where the character comes together. (She was nominated for a BAFTA. I have no idea why). In fact, the Westminster sub-plot seems to have wandered in from a different film, possibly a spin-off of Yes, Minister (except Sir Humphrey would have eaten the useless civil servants we see being repeatedly chivvied about by Castle for breakfast). The Dagenham strand, on the other hand, is mostly naturalistic, though with a good deal of humour, and with some genuinely affecting moments. Possibly the director was trying to make some kind of point about the "real world" of the working class and Westminster's remoteness from it, with Castle's intervention in the strike (in a dress from C and A we've earlier seen Rita in) breaching the gap and resolving the conflict, but if so, it doesn't quite come off, because the "Westminster" is so hard to believe in. Richard Schiff has a rather unexpected turn as a Ford executive-come-hard-man; he doesn't look anything like Toby Ziegler, but the voice is rather distractingly recognisable,* and I had trouble fighting off the feeling that he should have been on the other side.
Despite the weakness of the Westminster stuff, though, it's well worth seeing, because the Dagenham bits are excellent. It is worth noting, though, that the film's billing as a heart-warming and life-affirming comedy, while not untrue, is a bit misleading, because there are some dark moments. In particular, there's (spoilers: highlight to read)a sub-plot involving severe, untreated PTSD, and suicide (we briefly see the feet of the character who's hanged himself). And it's nice to see a film about the working class and left-wing politics that isn't either humourless, or poking fun at the proles, or, conversely, a tragedy of the decline and fall of British industry (I love Brassed Off, but it isn't exactly cheerful).
* Still, at least they got a real American.