BRASSED OFF
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: This film is by turns a comedy, a
serious drama, and an anti-Tory political tract.
But Mark Herman who wrote and directed certainly
knows how to create characters in whom the audience
can place an emotional investment. This film about
a century-old brass band in a dying Yorkshire
mining town is predictable but has a lot of
affecting human drama. Rating: low +2 (-4 to +4) 7
(0 to 10)
New York Critics: 5 positive, 4 negative, 4 mixed
Since the 1950s the British have certainly known how to make modest but affecting films in ways that American filmmakers rarely attempt. Some simple comedies from the post-war era gave us eloquent and loving pictures of British village life still memorable today. That tradition is strong in BRASSED OFF, but mostly in the first half of the film. Director/writer Mark Herman hooks the audience with a light comic view of the mining village of Grimely, but increasingly the replaces the comedy with serious drama. We see the village having its most difficult times with the pit closings of the Margaret Thatcher administration. Finally, with the viewer hooked and caring about the characters, the film gets in its angry speech about the policy of pit closings of Thatcher's Tory party. Not that it is a total surprise with the opening of the film making some angry remarks about closing mines to replace with nuclear power plants.
The heart of the Yorkshire town of Grimely is its colliery. ('Ere. of Grimely--well, most of it anyway--is the Grimely Colliery Brass Band. The band has been around for a hundred years. But these are hard times for Grimely. The company looks like it might close the colliery and if there really is a pit closing, the whole town might just as well dry up and blow away. Already there are those in the band who are so depressed about what is happening to the town that they are ready to quit the band. Band leader Danny (Pete Postlethwaite, the currently best thing about THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK) cannot believe that people in the town will let the band die, even if the mine goes under. Just as the band is starting to founder, new life is breathed into it by a new member. Gloria (the radiant Tara Fitzgerald), granddaughter of a former great band member, returns to the town of her birth with her grandfather's flugelhorn. The first woman ever in the Grimely Colliery Brass Band plays the flugelhorn as well as her grandfather did. Suddenly the band starts looking and sounding better to the band members. While the future of the town is souring, the men are distracted for a few hours a week by music and a little flirting. And of course some of the wives are jealous. But things grow grimmer in Grimely as the company offers a job buyout. While some band members are sacrificing food for music, most of the town is looking at whether they want to mortgage the future of the town in the buyout or hope the mines are not closed. Mark Herman has a feel for the humanity of the people, no doubt based on his youth in Yorkshire.
Pete Postlethwaite is one of the British actors who does a great job and nobody seems to make much of a fuss about. He had major roles in films such as IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, or bit parts in films such as THE USUAL SUSPECTS. His bicycle-riding band leader in denial about how serious the town's problems are is entirely different from roles he has done before. Tara Fitzgerald is a decent actress, and though I have not seen her in any really demanding roles, she is certainly a joy to watch. Ewan McGregor, like Postlethwaite, is also in two current films, this and THE PILLOW BOOK. And with his Scottish name it goes without saying that he was in TRAINSPOTTING. Veteran character actor Jim Carter (THE ADVOCATE, BLACK BEAUTY, and RICHARD III), looking like a heavy-set Leonard Rossiter, usually can be counted on for a bit a color.
Americans will be at a slight disadvantage in seeing BRASSED OFF. They will be informed at the outset what a colliery is, but the Yorkshire accent takes a little getting used to. What very likely were some funny lines will go past viewers not quick enough to pick up what is said. Curiously the anti-Tory sentiments may hit home from similarities in policy between the Conservative Tories and the Republican Party. But the political arguments will lose a little impact since coal-mining is shown to be a dangerous profession which shortens lives. The viewer may decide that it is just as well that the next generation is saved from going into the pits and instead is forced to find other work.
Not surprisingly, the score by Trevor Jones is big and brassy with some nice brass renditions of popular light classical themes. The score is played by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band who also supplied extras for the story's band. No doubt Grimely is based in no small part on Grimethorpe. This is a film that has more than a few moving moments and it worth looking for. There is more to this film than the trailers would lead one to think. I rate it a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1997 Mark R. Leeper
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