Brassed Off

Miramax Films | Release Date: May 23, 1997

8.0	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 21 Ratings

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DawdlingPoetNov 25, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is a drama film with comedy elements, with themes including mining, hope and solidarity.
I found the characters to be quite relatable - some of their banter being quite amusing at times. The film contains very much a 'them vs us' attitude in terms of the whole mining industry against the government. It had the feel of a Ken Loach style social commentary docu-drama, I felt. I liked that with it being set in rural Yorkshire, nearly all the characters had strong and realistic sounding yorkshire accents - my late maternal grandparents lived in Yorkshire, so I have happy memories of that 'neck of the woods'. The dialogue is relatively witty, there are some amusing and somewhat sharp one-liners - I think its fair to say that the characters are, generally, quite warm-hearted and up for a laugh.

Cast wise, the film stars Pete Postlethwaite as the bandleader, who comes across as a very passionate person, someone who cares deeply about the band continuing and maintaining their good reputation. Tara Fitzgerald plays Gloria, someone who appears from the start to be an outsider but who has more to her than first appears - the female characters are quite bolshy, which I liked. Other cast members include a young Ewan McGregor as one of the youngest band members, Andy and Stephen Tompkinson as Phil, plus Sue Jonhston as Vera and Jim Carter as Harry.

The film doesn't contain much in the way of music, aside from (obviously) the various live performances the band perform during the plot. I found it quite rousing in a way, with mostly quite cheery pieces played. I found myself humminh a few of the tunes during the scenes following them.

Content wise, the film contains some strong language, partial nudity and sexual innuendos, although no especially graphic sex references as such. There is some violence depicted, including self harm which could be distressing to some. Due to this, its been given a 15 rating.

I thought this was quite a good film, although it is undoubtedly sombre in parts. I found it quite watchable, amusing in parts and with some surprisingly touching moments.

Yes I'd recommend this film, as I felt there were some good characters depicted, it features a decent cast and the music is quite enjoyable. It is both relatively light hearted and amusing and also sombre and touching, in different scenes. Its a pretty good piece of social commentary about a time which hit the north of England hard and as such, I'd happily recommend it.… Expand

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