Brassed Off
Published 2021-08-01
Film info
- Title Brassed Off
- Director Mark Herman
- Year 1996
- Run time 1hr 47m
- Genres Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Tagline A comedy that hits all the right notes
- Cast Ewan McGregor
A typically British award winning comedy about a Yorkshire mining town turning to music for inspiration when faced with the loss of its way of life.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 3:33 | Flugel! |
| 4:49 | Loving the purple uniforms. |
| 11:27 | "You can't have a colliery band without a flamin' colliery." |
| 12:34 | Dabble in the flugel! |
| 24:12 | So hard, cos you just want to shout: take the money, retrain, it's closing whatever happens! |
| 28:40 | Gumption is such a great word. |
| 29:13 | "Just something my husband never said." |
| 41:35 | Smoking looks so weird! |
| 42:03 | "No hope. Just principles." |
| 52:06 | Words have consequences. |
| 53:48 | "Dinosaurs, dodos, miners." |
| 1:04:13 | The purple hair is dedication to the cause. |
| 1:11:33 | Andy lost his trumpet then. Little whistler. |
| 1:18:35 | "I write reports that no one will ever read. They have to be seen to be written but they're not written to be seen." |
| 1:27:37 | Hanging clown is the most terrifying thing I've ever seen. |
| 1:34:26 | What's London like like? |
| 1:41:04 | Does it bollocks. |
Thoughts
I think I might have seen this before but so long ago that I could barely remember anything about it. I thought it was something similar to The Full Monty but with slightly more brass instruments and slighty less stripping. That's pretty much what it was, but so moving and funny and gentle and heartbreaking. It's such a hard situation, because life and technology moves on and situations and jobs change, but there's no excuse for decimating a community and then just leaving them in the dust.
I was surprised Stephen Tompkinson doesn't get bigger billing because I think he's arguably the subject of the story - he surely gets the most screen time. But even those that only pop up now and again add so much to the story - the wife that passes her husband with barely a word every day. All those little touches were beautiful.
Rating: 5 / 5