Brassed Off

Brassed Off 1996

• Director: Mark Herman
• Based on book: no
• Cast: Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald, Ewan McGregor, Stephen Tompkinson, Jim Carter, Philip Jackson, Sue Johnston, Melanie Hill, Stephen Moore
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Pete Postlethwaite – Inception, The Constant Gardener, Shipping News, Amistad, Romeo & Juliet, The Usual Suspects, In the Name of the Father, The Last Mohican, Waterland, Alien 3, Hamlet
• Tara Fitzgerald – Legend, Rose and Maloney, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain
• Ewan McGregor – American Pastoral, Mortdecai, August Osage County, The Impossible, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Perfect Sense, The Ghost Writer, The Island, Star Wars, Big Fish, Young Adam, Moulin Rouge, Little Voice, Velvet Goldmine, A Life Less Ordinary, Trainspotting, Shallow Grave
• Stephen Tompkinson – The Taming of the Shrew Retold, Hotel Splendide
• Jim Carter – Downton Abbey, My Week with Marilyn, Cranford, Creation, Out of Season, Modigliani, Ella Enchanted, Bright Young Things, Shakespeare in Love, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Richard III, The Madness of King George, Frankenstein, Widows
• Philip Jackson – My Week with Marilyn, Frost, Hustle, Little Britain, Little Voice, Hamish Macbeth
• Sue Johnston - Downton Abbey, The Royale Family, Sex Chips and Rock’n’Roll, Frost, Morse
• Melanie Hill – Merlin, United, Stardust, From Hell, Crocodile Shoes, Spender
• Stephen Moore – Doctor Who, The Boat that Rocked, Middlemarch, Rock Follies
• Why? A favourite
• Seen: 3 or 4 times previously. Now 21 September 2019      

       Five stars at least.

       The miners at Grimley Colliery are threatened with the shutdown of the mine. The Grimley Colliery Band will also disappear. There’s no point if there’s no mine. However, the bandleader Danny (Postlethwaite) insists that they carry on and prepare for the National Championship.

       Gloria is a surveyor employed by the company to survey the mine and report on its viability. She is also a flugelhorn player and has inherited her flugelhorn from her grandfather, a miner and legendary member of the band. She is invited to join the band. Young Andy (McGregor), who has been in love with her since they went to school together as children, is smitten anew.

       Oh, the shivers of hearing the band play ‘Orange Juice’!

       Family conflicts, union conflicts, money problems, class conflict, band conflict, love, friendship, illness, struggle in the face of despair. It’s all heart-breaking, even the sort of feel-good ending. The performances of many of Britain’s finest actors are as good as expected but this is Postlethwaite’s film. He’s brilliant.

      

5 * of 5