Working-Class Movies?

Have any favorite working-class movies? I'm kind of partial to "Norma Rae," which has become an old movie, I fear, and to an ancient movie: Preston Sturgess's "Sullivan's Travels," in which a Hollywood-type decides to find out how the other half lives and gets more than he bargained for.

For a British context, check out Mike Leigh's often overlooked Meantime.

Matewan by John Sales. Loosely based on a real strike.

Thanks! I've seen some of Mike Leigh's movies and liked them very much, but I missed Meantime. And I thought Matewan was great. There's a recent movie about the founding of Pullman Car Porters' union & A. Philip Randolph--I think it might be called 10,000 Black Men; I liked it.

10,000 Black Men named George, that was good. I saw it over the holiday break. It simplified things even more than Matewan did but the gist of it was correct.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Billy Liar
This Sporting Life

for three!

Brassed Off is a great working class movie with the added bonus of a very good soundtrack. It shows how the miners strikes/pit closures effects a community through the eyes of the pit band members and their families and it manages to be both funny and sad.

Meantime is a word-of-mouth movie because it had some distribution problems. The language is sometimes tough to follow if you're not a Brit, but it's worth the effort. It also has a very young Tim Roth playing a retarded character, one of few examples of a good and complicated depiction of a retarded person and family dynamics. It avoids being too sentimental and nicey-nice while also avoiding being miserablist and exploitive.

Oh, my, I had no idea Tim Roth was in Meantime. I did okay with the language in other of Leigh's movies, even though English is a second language for Americans. :-) Thanks for the info.

According to Amazon reviews, the sound in the DVD release got screwed up, which is a shame. I watch (and rewatch) it on an old VHS cassette. If you're interested in the film, you'll probably want to avoid the DVD.

>6 abbottthomas:
You forgot Kes and A Taste of Honey :-)

#4

If it's not one of those you've seen, Naked is IMO Mike Leigh's best film, with a stunning performance by David Thewliss.

There's whole sub-genre of 1960s British 'kitchen-sink' films; in addition to those listed in #6 and #11, there's films based on Up the Junction and The L-Shaped Room. They're all a bit grim and gloomy though!

For a bit of light relief, the films based on Roddy Doyle's Barrytown Trilogy: The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van.

From Australia, Sunday Too Far Away, set on a sheep station and starring Jack Thompson as the gun shearer.

I really enjoyed "The Snapper."