Movies - Brassed Off

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	Movies - Brassed Off

Brassed Off (1996) is a British film written and directed by Mark Herman. The film is black comedy about the troubles faced by a colliery brass band, following the closure of their pit. The soundtrack for the film was provided by The Grimethorpe Colliery Band, and the plot is based on Grimethorpe's own struggles against pit closures, although there also seems to be a strong correlation with the mysterious circumstances surrounding the closure of nearby "Frickley Colliery". The film is scoffed at by some in the brass band world, but is generally very positively received for its role in promoting brass bands and their music. Parts of the film make reference to the huge increase in suicides that resulted from the end of the coal industry and the struggle to retain hope in the circumstances.

Channel 4 and the Guardian both sponsored what was expected to be a low-profile film; it was not expected to gain the wide audience that it has done. Having expected viewers to be mostly those with past links to coal-mining, the film does not make explicit the political background to the plot. Curiously, the American marketing for the film (and subsequent VHS and DVD releases) tries to portray it as a cheerful romantic comedy with nearly no mention at all about the musical or political elements that dominate it.

The film stars Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald and Ewan McGregor. The film was well-received as a comedy, and by some as a political statement about the state of traditional coal mining communities in Britain. Released shortly before the 1997 UK general election which removed the Conservative government of the past 18 years, it was a timely and accessible piece of propaganda. The film has also become an infamous example of how not to imitate the Yorkshire dialect and accent. The only accents in the film that were close to accurate were those of Stephen Tompkinson and a few minor characters.

The film was particuarly well-received in former mining communities, who felt it accurately reflected the suffering they faced due to the attack on their industry by the Thatcher and Major governments. It is set during the reign of Major, when Michael Heseltine presided over a huge programme of pit closures, as President for the Board of Trade.

Background

The films is set in "Grimley" in the mid-1990s — a thinly disguised version of the real South Yorkshire village of Grimethorpe, which had been named as the poorest village in Britain two years earlier by the European Union. The nearby areas of the Dearne Valley and the Hemsworth area were also identified as in need of serious aid. Indeed, the soundtrack for the film was recorded by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, and the story roughly reflects Grimethorpe Colliery Band's history.

The miners in the film put up little resistance to the coal board's harsh redundancy policy. This can understood in the context of the 1984 UK miners' strike, which effectively destroyed trade union power in British coal mining industry. The film depicts the spirit of hopelessness 10 years after the strike, and the miners attempts to find redemption. An ongoing piece of symbolism in the first half of the film is the lack of conversation between one miner and his wife, until she finally criticises him harshly for not making a show of resistance against the closure, when he had been so full of fight in 1984.

Story

Gloria (Tara Fitzgerald) has been sent to her old hometown of Grimley to determine the profitability of the pit. She also plays the flugelhorn brilliantly, and is allowed to play with the local brass band, made up of miners from whom she must conceal her purpose. She renews a childhood romance with Andy (Ewan McGregor), which soon leads to complications.

The passionate band leader Danny (Pete Postlethwaite) finds he is fighting a losing battle to keep the rest of the band members committed. His son Phil (Stephen Tompkinson) is badly in debt and becomes a clown for children's parties, but fails to prevent his wife and children walking out on him. As his father Danny is hospitalised from a mining-related disease, Phil has a breakdown in front of a group of children (one of the darker scenes of the film), and later attempts suicide.

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