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Reviews
I, Daniel Blake (2016)
Bleak essentially accurate snapshot of the UK benefits system
I've been wanting to see this film ever since I first heard about it and finally I managed to watch it last night. I've read most of the reviews already posted here and was interested in the varying interpretations and reactions although I personally felt quite a few reviewers were, perhaps, seeing elements that weren't actually there.
I'm not going to summarise the story, partly as that isn't the purpose of a review and also because it's been summarised ad nauseum in other posts here.
I never got the impression Loach was saying all benefit claimants are good people nor that he was implying the 'working class' were all penalised. I took the film to be a 'snapshot' of two people caught up in the benefits system for different reasons.
As someone who later in life has had to go through the benefits process to try to claim ESA so many of the specific instances in this film resonated. I kept nodding as Blake tried to 'go through the hoops' as he tried to get help as I had been through the same type of scenario I think my favourite line, which was almost a 'throwaway one' was whilst Blake was on the phone to the DWP help line, waiting to move up the queue and once he gets through and gets nowhere he says "at least change the bloody music". Having spent a long time listening to The Four Seasons extract on a loop whilst waiting for someone to answer the DWP phones I knew exactly how he felt.
Perhaps what wasn't made clear enough was that the 'Healthcare Professionals' who conduct assessments are employed by private companies contracted by the government and then report their findings to the DWP for a decision to be made. There has been much in the press about the problems with these assessments and they do appear slanted to ensure as many claimants as possible initially get rejected. It is, perhaps, telling that around 60% of people who do appeal have their claims allowed but there are also a large number who never get that far as they get 'worn down' by the bureaucracy.
I partially disagree with those reviewers who said the Job Centre officials were portrayed as unfeeling monsters as they are very tightly constrained over what they are actually allowed to do and the current rules they are bound by leave little room for manoeuvre. I would also take issue with the reviewer who seemed to think Blake would have been able to use a computer, many older people are still internet ignorant either from fear of trying it or having no interest in doing so.
So viewed as a 'snapshot' I found this film riveting, it didn't drag, made many salient points and hopefully will make audiences think.
It isn't easy viewing and won't leave you with a warm and fuzzy feeling when it ends - but I do think it is well worth a look.
Anthropoid (2016)
Retelling of a WW2 incident that 'Operation Daybreak' did much better!
I should start by admitting that the 1975 film "Operation Daybreak" is one of my favourite of all time and I was looking forward to this new retelling of the events surrounding the assassination of Reinhard Heydrixh in Prague during WW2. Both films are, overall, pretty factually accurate as to the main details but both also include an amount of 'dramatic licence'. As it's impossible for me to discuss this film without comparisons to the earlier one I have decided to use 'watchability' as my main criteria and on that basis I'm afraid the 1975 film wins pretty conclusively as far as I'm concerned for a number of reasons.
After a few lines of text setting the scene Anthropoid jumps straight into the story as two parachutists land in a forest There follows an amount of exposition by way of the characters talking but because the film makers decided to have them speaking with Czech accents this is not always easy to understand.
This is a problem that runs throughout the film as, apart from the Germans who speak (unsubtled) German the rest of the cast all adopt these accents which, combined with an amount of mumbling and quiet dialogue caused me some problem throughout understanding some of the speech.
(In Operation Daybreak all the cast spoke unaccented English except for the Dermans who also spoke German but in several transmissions of the film this was subtitled which was a good thing to help understanding.) I don't know how much of the sequence where the two assassins make there way to Prague is factually accurate, a similar problem arises with the 1975 film but one short sequence did jar for me and that is when one of the men goes to shoot an escaping collaborator and his hand shakes so much he can't do it. Other reviewers have mentioned this, some enthusing how it shows the doubts the shooter has but personally I find it very difficult to believe that a previously decorated soldier trained by the SOE for the mission would really have a problem killing someone who could, potentially, ruin the whole plan! There are many sequences in this film where close ups of faces are used as well as what appears to be hand held cameras but I found such a modern technique rather jarring for this film and this wasn't helped by some fast cutting editing - if this had been a Jason Bourne film I would have expected it but not here.
I don't intend to summarise the story here - that's been done over and over in other reviews here but there is one aspect I do want to discuss as it is, for me, one of the main reasons I think 'Daybreak' is much better than 'Antropoid'. It concerns the character of Heydrich.
In this film virtually all we know about Heydrich is they plan to try to kill him. But that's about it! A few lines about him being a bad man but nothing really to make you really want them to succeed. In 'Daybreak' some time was taken to show how utterly ruthless the man was and he is superbly portrayed by actor Anton Differing. It made you WANT the assassination to work because you had some idea about him and this is almost totally lacking in 'Anthropoid'.
Admittedly some elements of 'Anthropoid' are more accurate than the earlier film - specifically the methods used to get information following the assassination attempt but whether this is just because they might not have been allowed to be shown in the 1975 film I don't know.
Both films have a 'love interest' which I felt slowed them down but this was something that happened in 'real life' to a lesser extent.
The final segments of both films are excellent, hard hitting and poignant and on this 'Anthropoid' delivers very well - except for one short bit near the end which I won't specify here but I will say it was schmaltzy and spoiled it for me rather.
At the end of 'Daybreak' as the credits rolled we were told what happened to each of the main participants and I was surprised this didn't happen with 'Anthropoid.
So whilst this film has a lot to commend it I personally think 'Daybreak' is much better for the reasons I have mentioned above.
Yes, Prime Minister (2013)
Difficult series to pull off under the shadow of the original
I must start by saying I am a massive fan of the original series of Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister.I watched them when first transmitted and later bought the box sets and watch them at least once a year. The interesting thing about them is that, despite them being made many years ago, they haven't really aged. Admittedly the references to finances are out of date as far as amounts go etc, but the situations, to a great extent, still exist in politics today in a similar form. Also the original cast was practically flawless and gelled so well together you really believed in the characters, even the supporting cast was believable and strong.
So this 'reboot' had an extremely difficult job from the start and as I watched the first episode I kept hearing the dialogue in the voices of the original cast. something rather hard to shake off. There were some funny lines but all too often they were less effective than intended because of the totally different way the three main protagonists handled their characters.
In the closing credits it says 'based on the stage play' and, indeed the last 4 episodes are really one main continuing story line involving possible procurement of sexual favours for a foreign diplomat which, at times, almost descended into farce. The other big difference is that the series is set at the Prime Ministers country residence and not No 10, which I can understand as a stage play but feel it detracted from the series as a whole.
I mentioned the principle characters earlier, Jim Hacker was portrayed more as a gurning idiot than an idealist with an average intelligence, Sir Humphrey was too animated to do his character justice and also had an annoying laugh and Bernard Wooley looked more like a rugby player with weird hair than a sincere, eager to please civil servant.
Perhaps if I had never seen the original I could have been kinder, but I feel that trying to bring back a TV programme that was voted as 9th best British Sit Com ever was probably on a hiding to nothing from the start.
Worth a look if you have either never seen the original or can really watch this and forget your memories of the original. Sadly, for me, neither of these conditions applied.
Sons of Anarchy (2008)
An unexpected gem and a 'guilty pleasure' I'm still thinking about
Due to my involvement as an Op in an irc chat channel where the other Ops are American I have been introduced to a number of US TV series. Having recently 'binge watched' Justified one of my US friends suggested I tried Sons Of Anarchy. Not being a fan of bikes and bikers I wasn't sure if I'd be able to stay with a series with this as the main premise but Boy was I wrong!!! I was hooked within a few episodes and proceeded to watch all 7 seasons in about 8 days. By the time my 'mega watch' ended I really cared about the central characters even though they were basically violent, amoral and psychotic.
They perform criminal acts and many episodes are violent, very violent, to the extent that Game of Thrones is almost a kids tea party in comparison. But it works!! As I said the central characters are amoral but so are most of the people they are in contact with and they do actually have a pretty strict code of conduct but it's based on the kind of world they inhabit, not the normal, cosy world many viewers will be familiar with. The primary motivations behind many of their actions is to be totally loyal and to protect their 'family' and this is not just their own relatives but also the Sons Of Anarchy club itself. This overwhelming commitment to 'protect their own' is a strong thread throughout the show and I got drawn in. I found myself accepting much of what they did as I understood the reasons behind it.
They make mistakes, get the 'wrong end of the stick' on occasions which leads to appalling acts of retaliation that the viewer knows are unjustified as we know more than the gang do - but I still maintained my affection for this bunch of misfits.
One reason, I think, is that over the seasons the main characters are so well fleshed out, with their own unique personalities and foibles, that you really care that they get out of whatever the current situation is but at the same time you often have a sense of foreboding as to what their actions will lead to.
I read some of the user reviews which were less than flattering and in every case the writer had only watched one or two seasons at the time of writing. So many of the comments are incorrect such as 'they always get away unscathed' etc.
They don't! There are many sequences that stay in the mind long after viewing and many of those are because of the use of some incredible songs used as a backdrop to the visuals. As I don't like spoilers I don't plan to elaborate but I will say 'The Lost Boy' and 'Come Join The Murder' are two songs that remain in the memory long after the episode they were used in has ended because of the way they are used with the visuals.
By the time I'd completed the final season I was genuinely sad that was it! I wanted to know how they got on in the future but by making me feel like this the writers have done their job.
If you're are squeamish or have unflinching moral values this might not be for you but for anyone else I really would recommend giving it a try.
I am so glad I did!!!