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Rating:  -
*** THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE 'UK" BLU RAY VERSION ONLY ***
"...What I'm Out For Is A Good Time...All The Rest Is Propaganda..."
After viewing this unashamedly gritty portrayal of British working class life on BLU RAY, you're left with two distinct impressions - one is admiration for the extraordinary restoration work done by the BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE on the newly restored near-faultless print - and second - and more importantly - is sheer astonishment at what a truly fantastic and ballsy film "Saturday Night And Sunday Morning" is.
In 2009 - with our so-called freedom and enlightenment - you'd be hard-pressed to find a movie so darkly truthful and still relevant. Masterpiece is a word that is often overused, but in this case it genuinely applies.
Directed by Karel Reisz in 1960, it was produced by Tony Richardson (who directed "The Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner") and adapted and scripted from his own novel by Alan Sillitoe. Set in Northern England, this is a world of downing pints of mild and bitter until you're paralytic drunk, red phone booths with black A/B coin boxes in them, kids getting a bag of Dolly Mixtures sweets in the corner shop, push-up packets of Sweet Afton cigarettes, busy bodies with scarves on their heads watching with malicious eyes from tenement doorways for neighbours doing anything immoral...
A young Albert Finney plays defiant loudmouth Arthur Seaton who suffers the late 1950's Nottingham factory all day, because at night and at weekends, he can have his "fun". In his dapper suit and greased-back hair, Arthur is busy juggling another man's wife, drinking and betting. Finney isn't just good in the part, he's magnificent - he inhabits every scene like a panther about to pounce - like the world owes him a favour and his character Arthur clearly believes it does (his anthem above is spoken in the opening credits as he wipes his hands in a rag by the machine-tool lathe).
Having said that, watching the movie again, you're more struck by the women whose parts were cutting edge for the time - given real meat to work with. Shirley Ann Field isn't just a pretty face as Doreen the girl who makes hairnets and lives at home with her mum; she adds a rare intelligence and class to the movie. Hylda Baker is excellent as the convivial Aunt Ada who thinks Arthur is a lovely boy, but it's Rachel Roberts as the smitten wife who nicks the film - she is needy one moment, steel the next - then towards the end, she's just beaten and broken as she realizes Arthur's heart is going somewhere else - permanently.
Johnny Dankworth's jazz soundtrack is deceptive - it seems like fun, but mostly it acts as an almost sly and sinister backdrop - happy tunes for people with nowhere to go - for the rest of their lives... It's very, very effective.
But your eyes keep coming back to the print - apart from a few lines in the opening shot of the noisy factory floor, the stark black and white footage is consistently fantastic - you can see Rachel's face blusher, Finney's sweat in the pub as he watches a war-veteran drown his sorrow in beer (Peter Sallis - the voice of Wallace in Wallace & Gromit - has a bit part in that scene) even feel the soft texture of Doreen's cashmere cardigans...a stunning restoration job done from start to finish.
The 4 extras are a mixed bag of the great and the disappointing:
1. A commentary for the duration of the film, which you can have On or Off.
2. There's an extract of an interview with Albert Finney taped in 1982 at the National Film Theatre (hosted by Michael Billington), which is accompanied by stills from the film. It's witty and informative in some ways, but criminally short at about 6 minutes. Being the main star, it's very disappointing to not hear more from him. Far better is...
3. An interview with Shirley Ann Field, which is superlative. She reminisces about each of the actors, her naivety at the time of filming, how groundbreaking the subject matter was - and of course from the stills - you get to see how beautiful she was and still is - a class act - much like Finney himself.
4. Best, however, is "We Are The Lambeth Boys", a documentary film about youths at work and play. It centres on the "Alford House Youth Club" and like the film is fully restored too. It uses the same Woodfall film team - Reisz as Director, Walter Lassally the camerman and even has Johnny Dankworth's jazzy music. It's a fascinating and lengthy insight into a world of British youth that is gone forever.
"Saturday Night And Sunday Morning" is a balls-to-the-wall triumph on Blu Ray - it's just such a shame that the mighty Albert Finney didn't get more involved - it would have been such sweet icing to an already great piece of cake.
Recommended - big time.
PS: the BFI have also done BLU RAYS of "The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner" (see REVIEW) and an astonishing restoration of Stanley Baker's "Zulu" and Michael Caine's "The Italian Job" (see UK review)....they're playable on all region BR players
Rating:  -
Ok this is a good example of the 1950's-60's genre. It's gritty, real life portrayal of the English Working class post World War II. Also called kitchen sink movies. This is Albert Finney's first starring role & he's very good as Arthur, a young, disaffected man in a dead end mind numbing job in a machine shop in Nottingham. He is too smart for his job, is genial enough, but has a definite mean streak. he takes up with a friend's wife & eventually she gets pregnant by him. He also takes up with a young woman who obviously has marriage on her mind. He navigates through these problems rather poorly. He gets beaten up by sailors for impregnanting their sister. It's obvious the young bird is going to snare him. Good slice of life movie. Almost like a proto-type for Alfie a few years later.
Rating: -
Albert Finney is quite possibly one of my favorite actors working today, and quite frankly one of my favorite actors who has ever worked in cinema. Surprisingly the first film I ever saw of his was `Erin Brockovich', but it was that stunning portrayal of Erin's grumpy yet heartwarming boss that hooked me and moved me to find everything I could starring this man. Since then I've seen just about all of his films (I've still got a few coming on Netflix) and I have to say that Finney very rarely fails to deliver.
`Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' was Finney's first leading role, and what a stellar debut this proved to be. Winning for himself a BAFTA for his portrayal of a reckless steal worker, Finney instantly shot himself to `in demand' actor status.
Finney plays Arthur Seaton, a young and wild steal worker who lives (or merely stays awake) day in and day out in order to make enough money to drink and be merry on the weekends (sounds familiar ). Seaton has his work cut out for him though, carrying on a relationship with a married woman while trying to keep his unsuspecting girlfriend unsuspecting. His feelings for Brenda (the married woman) continue to grow, but when they find themselves in a tight spot (I smell a baby in the oven) Seaton's next moves become more and more desperate and pertinent.
The question is; when is it time to grow up and take responsibility?
The films title, `Saturday Night and Sunday Morning', refers to that very question. Saturday night we party, we have fun, we remain reckless; but Sunday morning we awake to a new set of problems and we become aware of the necessity to own up to our mistakes.
The film also speaks loudly about the feeling of suffocation within our respective classes. There is a layer of desperation that you can feel seeping into the actions of each character, in particular Brenda who seems the most affected by her lot in life. Arthur and his girlfriend Doreen seem almost unfazed by what is expected of them or really where they are headed, yet it becomes apparent that Arthur is longing for something more; and as his own decisions begin to catch up with him we can see his life finally blossoming in his eyes. Arthur's very views of his parents and the people around him, the waste of life he sees, almost contradicts his very actions yet as one peers into what makes Arthur tick they can see that he is most ashamed of becoming what he so despises. He's fallen into the rut of what society has delegated to him, and as much as he hates it he fails to embrace what could make him transcend it.
`Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' is a very nicely crafted social piece that has the acting chops to match the important message provided within the films script. Karel Reisz handles the film very nicely, giving the actors room to develop their characters and deliver something strong and memorable. This is one of Albert Finney's finest moments, and it rightfully jumpstarted his very, very impressive career.
Rating: -
Now that we glamorize factory jobs and wish we had a manufacturing sector again, this movie will come to a shock at how mind numbing factory work can be. A young British man played by Albert Finney works in a factory job that he may have for the rest of his life. In the evenings, he drinks carouses with his friends, flirts with young women and beds older married ones. Of course, as dangerous as life can be on the edge, his dual life catches up with him. This movie is done in the fashion of the British New Wave where the characters are understated and presented as ordinary human beings. A bit getting used to when every character in a movie seems more like a cartoon nowadays. Give this film some time and I think you'll enjoy it.
Rating:  -
This is a rather *tedious* movie.
Naturalist filmmaking, except in rare cases (e.g., Jules Dassen's "Naked City," Stankey Kubrick's "The Killing") is often just so much lifeless, documentary-style camera-pointing.
Also, the extensive use of dubbing in these movies, as opposed to live-sound, renders the audience "once-removed" from the feelings expressed in an actor's voice; an actor's voice being perhaps his most important attribute.
OK, Albert Finney is a great actor, no question about that. But not in this movie.
As for the story, it's flat, predictable, one-dimensional. And those are its good points. (Rim shot -- ba-da bing-bing!)
For example, for a movie that's supposed to address the issue of social classes, what does this movie say other than "the guy's stuck in a rut"? Ok, but how can he escape? This question is never explored. Indeed, the ending is a TINA ending -- "There Is No Alternative" -- a decidedly right-wing, reactionary point of view.
What dialectic might be applied to the social, political and economic forces the movie attempts to portray? We're never given a clue.
Industry, automation, alienation, anomie, working class grit and grime; they're all here; but no politics, no political context, no meaningful sociological insights.
In what way does this movie speak to the human condition? Its trite, cop-out, play-it-safe ending is as flat as the movie itself.
Simply saying: "Behold, the working class!" doesn't give a movie social or political meaning. Compare this movie to, for example, "Norma Rae." "Norma Rae" is a complete, in-her-world, in-her-class character. As is her husband, her father, her children, her co-workers, the union rep she meets up with. This is what the "Norma Rae" filmmakers succeed in doing. By contrast, such "contextual political/interpersonal structure" is completely lacking in "Saturday Night Sunday Morning." As a movie, it's technically sloppy; as a story, it's all too predictable.
Yes, of course, the movie was, in its time, "quite different" from what preceded it; and no doubt at the time it was quite shocking and upsetting to certain middle class expectations. But so what? In hindsight, it's amateurish, sophomoric.
Unlike Jesse James or Willie Sutton, it doesn't hold up. (Did you see what I did there? ... Jesse James, Willie Sutton. ... A little holdup humor. I gotta million of 'em.)
One can easily find much better class-conscious movie. "The Citadel," for example, starring Robert Donat and Ralph (not Tony) Richardson.
"The Citadel" is a movie that, while not shot out in the street, with a jerky, undisciplined camera, nevertheless says more about class consciousness in British society in one minute than this movie does in its entirety.
Sometimes going into the street is just ... going into the street.
So "Saturday Night Sunday Morning" was shot on the street (with lots of dubbed sound effects), in a factory (with lots of dubbed noise), in a real, live pub (with lots of dubbed revelry), between characters (with lots of dubbed dialogue). But so what? WHAT DID THE BLOODY MOVIE HAVE TO SAY?!! If you're making a movie about the working class, shouldn't the movie have an ideological point of view? (A revolutionary idea, I know, but there you have it.)
Note: "Oh-wow-dig-the-working class" is NOT an ideology.
If a film aspires to art, shouldn't it have something to say about the human condition? Its sociological pretenses notwithstanding, this film has absolutely nothing to say about the social, political and economic forces that profoundly affect individuals and the times they live in.
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