The Cut and Thrust: The Power of Political Debate in the Films of Author(s): Graham Fuller Source: Cinéaste , Fall 2015, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Fall 2015), pp. 30-35 Published by: Cineaste Publishers, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/26356460

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This content downloaded from 95.183.184.51 on Fri, 07 Aug 2020 09:43:32 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Cut and Thrust The Power of Political Debate in the Films of Ken Loach by GrahamGraham Fuller Fuller

resistance—most notably in The Wind That he was by the language of the communist a footnote to history: the story of the Shakes the Barley and the Allen-scripted Span books and leaflets a militant guest had sent Ken Loach's selfless attempt new offilm, the communist Jimmy's Hall, is ish Civil War film (2005)— him. When the aristocratic pit owner John agitator James Gralton (1886-1945) and his has proved unavoidable. In contradistinction Pritchard (Edward Underdown) calls in fellow County Leitrim villagers to run a to the hyperbolic sequences of glorified may troops to harass the miners and their families dance hall and community center in the face hem and murder synonymous with Holly into submission, however, Joel and Ben find of anti-red paranoia and the puritanical wood cinema, talk is action in Loach's films. their own language is adequate to express oppression of the Catholic during an emergency Church in the Irish Free meeting their radical yet State of 1932. This As the director announces his retirement, we pragmatic ideas about how eleventh full-length look col back at how his collaborations with different to force Pritchard to back laboration between Loach down. The session trans and screenwriter Paul screenwriters shaped the ideological viewpoint forms Ben from a sympa Laverty is a peacetime that runs from to Jimmy's Hall. thetic bystander to an movie and so naturally embryonic militant him less bloody than The Wind self, one who will soon That Shakes the Barley (2007), their tragic Although these heated conversations joingen the Communist Party of Great Britain evocation of the Irish War of Independence, erally avoid off-putting sociopolitical jargon, (CPGB). from which the Free State emerged under the speakers often represent nuanced political In Land and Freedom, the naive fiamon de Valera's conservative Fianna Fail positions they may not fully understand orcommunist be David Carr (Ian Hart) joins an government after the 1921 Anglo-Irish able to articulate. In (1975), internationalist the Partido Obrero de Unifica Treaty. Though spasmodically violent, the four-part television period epic written cion by Marxista (POUM) militia unit to fight elegantly low-key drama about a fight for the Allen, Ben Matthews (Paul Copley), a young for the Republicans against Franco. Following right to convene, socialize, and be educated Yorkshireman who has deserted from the the unit's liberation of a rural village from the outside church and state control, is as mem , is gradually politicized by fascists, his the locals vociferously debate if they orable for Jimmy's chaste romance with his experiences as a participant in the army's should form an agrarian collective. Among long-married former sweetheart, Republican ruthless oppression of the Irish Republican those present are POUM members with anar villagers' irate sorties to restore tenants evicted community following the 1916 Easter Rising, cho-syndicalist (Confederation Nacional del from landed estates, and especially the group and as the guest of a strike organizer, JoelTrabajo) or anarchist leanings and orthodox summits that ratchet up the tension. Barnett (Gary Roberts), and his family in Marxists. the The villager Teresa urges collec Such conversations, in which politically or Durham Coalfield in 1921. A literate and tivization from an unspecified political view socially opposed groups, or factions within the shrewd but meagerly educated man, point Joel because of the urgent need to provide same group, argue their standpoints, or self admits to the empathetic Ben how daunted food for the people and the men at the front. organizing working-class people Pepe, the tenant farmer beside her, vigorously debate issues essential agrees they should collectivize the to their or others' welfare and sur captured estate where they're talk vival, have become the signature ing but stipulates that he wants to trope of Loach's dramatic films. continue to farm, as an "individu Since making a Marxist analysis as alist," his "own bit" of land. Elder a young man, the British realist ly Miguel argues that working all director, who in 1980 told Leonard the land collectively will keep the Quart he "was close to a Trotskyist revolution going. A French volun position, and remain to this day an teer in POUM says that all anti-Stalinist socialist" (see "A "owned" land must be relin Fidelity to the Real: An Interview quished; a villager chimes in that it with Ken Loach and Tony Gar should be forcibly taken. A POUM nett," Cineaste, Vol. X, No. 4), has German, regretting the failure of worked primarily with the writers revolutionary in his (the fiercely anti-Stalinist homeland, urges the rapid consol former labor organizer who died in idation of the Spanish revolution. 1999), Barry Hines, and Laverty to A POUM Scot (played by Laverty) embed the class struggle in wars of agrees that the energy of Spain's words and ensuing collective two million landless peasants actions such as strikes and protests, Army deserterdeserter Ben Ben Matthews Matthews {Paul (Paul Copley, Copley, left) left)mobilizes mobilizes Durham Durham minersshould beminers harnessed for the revo though the depiction of armed like BillyBilly ShepherdShepherd (Alun (Alun Armstrong) Armstrong) on ontheir their 1921 1921 strike strike in Days in Days oflution Hope. of immediately.Hope.

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This content downloaded from 95.183.184.51 on Fri, 07 Aug 2020 09:43:32 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms InIn Jimmy'sJimmy's Hall, Hall, committee committee members, members, led by James led Graltonby James (Barry Gralton Ward, center(Barry left, Ward, hand raised),center meet left, to hand raised), meet to discuss how how best best to respond to respond to the Catholicto the CatholicChurch's condemnation Church's condemnation of their cultural of and their educational cultural activities. and educational activities.

Loach's orchestration of these and other films, and, additionally, the debates' func opinions is so seamless that viewers may tionbe as narrative engines. They are not, of filming of which demonstrates the unaware that Gene Lawrence (Tom Gilroy), course, the sole domain of workers, union These cooperativeness debates—the and community organization spirit and a POUM American, sounds more dissonant organizers, and poor people who would among members of different film trades— notes than the individualist farmer; certainly, benefit from socialist initiatives such as col became integral to Loach's films after he began his comrades do not pick up on the treach lectivization, which was also put into prac his twenty-seven-year collaboration with Allen ery inherent in his advice. After advising tice by striking Liverpool dockers in The Big on The Big Flame. Over the years, he has immediate collectivization of the captured Flame (1969) and discussed by Irish Repub devised directorial strategies to maximize the land, Lawrence warns that radical socialist lican villagers in The Wind That Shakes the conversations' appearance of reality. For Land slogans should be toned down lest they scare Barley. Frequently, they involve their reac and Freedom's collectivization debate, he asked away foreign capitalist money necessary to tionary antagonists (landowners and indus the actors, professionals and nonprofessionals provide arms for Franco's defeat, which trialists, as well as managers and union lead alike, to "unlearn" their lines so that their must be accomplished, he says, before the ers who are often "lapsed" socialists seduced comments would seem spontaneous. The revolution proceeds. Speaking clumsily, Carr by power) or, more rarely, are conducted by long, gripping sequence benefits from overlap agrees with Lawrence, not realizing he is those who collude in exploiting the working ping dialogue, the clash of regional dialects buying into a Stalinist line that will subse class. that are not always easily understood, which quently divert him to fight senselessly as an was also the case with the construction work International Brigade recruit against antifas ers' talk in the Bill Jesse-scripted Riff-Raff cist anarchists during the 1937 May Days in (1991)—Loach preferring to add subtitles Barcelona. Following that debacle, he angrily rather than insist on the verbal clarity of classic tears up his CPGB card and rejoins his Hollywood cinema—and lines spoken hesi POUM unit, whereupon Lawrence shows up tantly by one nervous participant. with the Comintern-armed Popular Front Halting speech is occasionally noticeable force that disarms it. Its commander kills in the discussions in The Big Flame, the first David's anarchist lover, Bianca (Rosana Pas of Loach and Allen's two single docudramas tor). This sequence of events shows how the about industrial workers organizing, the debate, beyond its victory for those keen to political leverage of strike action, and the collectivize, determines David's trajectory selling out of by trade and brings him to a realization that Stalin union leaders—the latter issue central to the was exploiting the Republicans' war against idea, consistently emphasized by Loach, that Franco. revolutions are betrayed from within. Writ When David, writing to his girlfriend at ten in 1967, a year before a prolonged U.K. home, describes POUM as "socialism in dock strike, it is a story of striking Liverpool action," he is referring to its cooperative dockers who are led by Jack Regan (Godfrey ethos and nonhierarchical structure, but the Quigley), a militant previously sacked by his phrase also describes the democratic nature Ken Loach:Loach: Is Is he he really really retiring retiring from from filmmaking? filmmaking? bosses and thrown out of his union, into of the debates among leftists in Loach's (photo by by Robin Robin Holland). Holland). taking over and efficiently running their CINEASTE, Fall 2015 31

This content downloaded from 95.183.184.51 on Fri, 07 Aug 2020 09:43:32 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms British communist communist David David Carr (IanCarr Hart) (Ian and Hart) fellow and members fellow ofmembers a POUM militia of a POUMunit are militia disarmed unit by are disarmed by Stalinist-controlled Popular Popular Front Frontforces inforces Ken Loach's in Ken Land Loach's and Freedom Land and (photo Freedom courtesy (photo of Photofest). courtesy of Photofest).

workplace. Regan is an Allen-like Trotskyist; Though not politically balanced, this bringingdis out one hundred thousand workers the dockers' short-lived occupation of the cussion is important in Loach's early work nationwide. Allowed to go free, the hapless port and boosting of productivity was for establishing the theme of the left being Freddie relays this fiction to the strike com Allen's "political fantasy," in microcosm, of betrayed by the left. There are four men mittee. in Though some members are suspi a successful workers' state. the room who have apparently lost sight cious, of the vote to meet the mythical dele Shot on 16mm for the BBC Wednesday their working-class roots or supposed social gates is carried in a debate less convincing Play anthology series, The Big Flame begins ist sympathies: Garfield, who is middle classthan the film's other meetings, a decision with Garfield, a Ministry of Labor represen but holds office in Harold Wilson's Labour that leads to Regan, Fowler, Connor, and tative, arriving at the docks on the eve of ten government; the ineffective trades union Ryan being arrested and the collapse of the thousand dockers downing their tools. He official Steve Fowler, Danny's white-collar dock occupation. has been brought in by Logan, a union big brother, who, like Logan, toadies to the The Big Flame highlighted the problem wig more concerned with keeping the man management; and the pigheaded docks of political representation by characters in agement happy than supporting the rank manager Bruno, a working class-man, likely Loach's films. Although Quigley gave a solid and file, to attend a emergency meeting with a former docker himself, who is first seen performance as the calmly authoritative the strike committee. Ignoring Garfield's calling the dockers "yobbos," and during theRegan, he was unable to render naturalisti glib assurances that no workers will be made meeting is drawn into a name-calling spat cally some of Allen's explicatory dialogue. redundant, Danny Fowler (Norman Ross with Joe Ryan, a comically belligerent strike When Regan talks to Danny and Connor in ington), the informed secretary of the com committee member. a pub about the need to make the strike mittee, rejects the terms of the 1965 Devlin As a barely civil gathering, the unsuccess "political" rather than "economic," his Trot Report, which proposed the "decasualiza ful meeting is parodied by the following skyist rhetoric reduces the broadly built tion" of dock labor, a measure threatening street-corner ruckus in which a couple of Irishman to a mouthpiece. The film is thus job losses across the board, and expresses his dockers bate an unemployed former col weakened by the same kind of didacticism fears that the containerization of deep-sea league, Freddie Grierson (Ken Jones), a self that marred, according to Allen himself, The cargoes will lead to further unemployment. described "revolutionist" who has become a Rank and File, his and Loach's hurriedly As the meeting becomes combative, Fowler's strident Moral Re-Armament evangelist. written He 1971 BBC docudrama about the increasing anger is balanced by the reason is so desperate to get his job back that he wildcat is strike by eleven thousand workers at able tone of his fellow committee member later arrested by the police when trying the to Pilkington Glass factory in St. Helens, Peter Connor (Peter Kerrigan), who patient break into the docks. A management plant , the result of execu ly—if glumly—explains why the strike must feeds him a tale about a clandestine party tives' of long-term fraternization with manage go ahead, there being no offer of a wage labor leaders who, he claims, want to confer ment and the government. Despite Loach increase and no guarantees of job security. with the dock strike leaders with the goal and of Allen's partiality in the sympathetic

32 CINEASTE, Fall 2015

This content downloaded from 95.183.184.51 on Fri, 07 Aug 2020 09:43:32 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms characterization of the workers and the avoids rhetoric—is a feat of performance, Beginning with 1996's Carla's Song, Rank and File Strike Committee members staging, camerawork, and editing Lavertythat became Loach's regular writing part (who show their ability to organize from demands a special mastery of television ner and and an inheritor of the tradition of scratch) and the cardboard corruptness ofcinema's moving parts. Loach is possibly incorporating debates in their films. If the the discredited union leaders, Loach unrivaled as a world-renowned filmmaker most inspiring meeting he has written is the achieved a new level of documentary who ultra has returned to such frays again after-hoursand locker room discussion about realism in his direction of the meetings. again, his humanistic enjoyment of people's unionization by minimally paid Los Angeles Some otherwise positive reviews of capacity Land for remonstrating, reasoning, ratiojanitors in Bread and Roses (2000), the most and Freedom also tarred it with the "didac nalizing, cajoling, and bickering being politically as serpentine is a Republican court tic" brush. "The film has its shortcomings— important as his socialist agenda. hearing in The Wind That Shakes the Barley. notably the didactic discussions on, for It is seldom remarked how much humor After witnessing violent acts by the British example, the ideology of collectivism," wrote contributes to the meetings written by Allen, Black and Tans (Churchill's brutal Royal Geoff Andrew in London's Time Out. "David as well as Jesse (a naturally comic writer Irish Constabulary reservists) in 1920 Coun and his colleagues are too often mouthpieces whose sole script, written from personal ty Cork, Damien O'Donovan (Cillian Mur for Mr. Loach's own educational enterprise," experience of laboring on unsafe building phy), a doctor who was about to leave for observed Caryn James in The New York sites, was Riff-Raff), and Hines. In The BigLondon, joins and fights with the IRA flying Times. This is not only a squad led by his brother matter of individual criti Teddy (Padraic Delaney). cal opinion but a problem Realizing a naturalistic representation of The later court hear skewed by the way the a focused discourse involving a polyphony ing, held to resolve a dis debate interrupts, almost of voices representing different attitudes pute between a merchant like a Brechtian interpola and an old woman over tion, the POUM militia and positions is a feat of performance, unpaid grocery bills, unit's grueling mission. staging, camerawork, and editing. evolves into a wider dis It is not in itself a non cussion about social injus naturalistic episode, how tice. Teddy backs the mer ever, but a well-acted, plausibly iterated, pas Flame, a docker who has been caught steal chant, a usurer who helps arm the IRA. sionate exchange of ideas made gripping by ing bottles of whiskey during the occupation Damien backs Dan (Liam Cunningham), his cinematographer Barry Ackroyd's short pan is ignominiously sentenced in the subse socialist mentor, who excoriates the IRA for ning shots and unobtrusive cuts by the editor quent Strike Committee meeting to cleaning supporting local dignitaries at the expense of Jonathan Morris. The scene's energy alone the port's toilets. In Days of Hope, a meeting the poor. A subsequent debate following the makes it a vibrant analogue to its poetic between the miners' strike leaders and the Anglo-Irish Treaty further divides the broth equivalent—shot outdoors amid a crowd of mine owner Pritchard—who tries to butter ers as Damien is radicalized as a Republican villagers against the backdrop of kulak antag up the working men by offering them beerfighter and Teddy, now a pro-Treaty sup onism to collectivization and mechaniza and sandwiches, a reference to Prime Minis porter, joins the Irish Free State's army. This tion—in Alexander Dovzhenko's 1930 silent, ter Harold Wilson's similar ruse in the 1960s tragic divergence—which prophesizes the Earth. and 1970s—peters out when one of the pit 1922—23 Irish Civil War—echoes that of When I asked Loach, in an interview for men sucks in too much smoke from the cigar Days of Hope's politicized Ben and his broth The New York Times article on The Wind he's just accepted. In the first episode er-in-lawof Philip (Nikolas Simmonds), who, That Shakes the Barley, if the "didactic" Hines's two-part BBC drama The Price asof a Labour MP, rejects the early Christian accusation annoyed him, he replied: "Pro Coal (1977), the incongruous royalism Socialist principles that led to his being tor foundly—because the people who say it demonstrated are by Yorkshire pit managers tured by the British Army for conscientiously also saying that a clash of ideas is not suit(presumably ex-miners) meeting to vote onobjecting during the Great War. able for a film. I was brought up on Shake what arrangements should be made to greet speare's history plays, which are full a propagandisticof visit by Prince Charles is immy's Hall, which is possibly the last debates about kingship, divine right and undercutthe by miners' representative Sid Loach-Laverty collaboration since the rights of the subject. I'm not making (Bobbyany Knutt), who deadpans that he'd like director has announced it will be his other comparisons, but I think those scenes to vote for the prince not to come at all. mia\ dramatic film, contains two of the most are intensely dramatic." persuasive informal con Critics are not oblig ferences that Laverty has ed, of course, to acknowl written—and one that edge the difficulties faced overreaches. by directors in calibrating Having emigrated to dramaturgically complex the United States in 1909, scenes requiring an Gralton had returned to ensemble: a chase, a bat fight in the Irish War of tle, a musical number, or Independence and original a debate works or doesn't ly opened the Hall, named work for each audience for the fallen socialist member. It ought to be Republican leaders Padraic stated, however, that real Pearse and James Connolly, izing a naturalistic repre on his parents' Effrinagh sentation of a focused farmland. His land agita discourse involving a tion and holding of Repub polyphony of voices rep lican arbitration courts in resenting different atti the Hall led to the provi tudes and positions—one sional government de that does not sound like manding his arrest; he it was written and that The rank rank and and file: file: striking striking Liverpool Liverpool dockers in dockers Ken Loach's in TheKen Big Loach's Flame (1969)The Big Flame (1969). escaped to America in 1922.

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\ A m 1 -j a i !:v

AfterAfter numerous numerous arguments, Teddyarguments, (Padraic Delaney, Teddy right) realizes (Padraic that he and Delaney, his brother Damien right) (Cillian realizes Murphy) hold that he and his brother Damien (Cillian Murphy) hold irreconcilablyirreconcilably opposed political opposed viewpoints political toward the newviewpoints Irish Free State intoward Ken Loach's the The Wind new That Irish Shakes theFree Barley. State in Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

The movie concentrates on the reopen horsewhipping of a teenage girl, and a Geary),noc Dessie (Martin Lucey), Molly (Sor ing of the Hall by Jimmy (charismatically turnal firing on the packed Hall by unseen cha Fox), Tess (Denise Gough), and Tommy played by the handsome Barry Ward) after IRA men. Yet, it is one of Loach's gentlest (Mikel Murfi), after young Marie O'Keefe he has returned to live with his ageing and most romantic films: the newly returned (Aisling Franciosi), who had implored mother, Alice (Aileen Henry), and work her Jimmy and his old flame Oonagh (Simone Jimmy to reopen the Hall, turns up with a land. His continued land agitation—com Kirby), the Hall's dance teacher, acknowledge bloodied back. She has been whipped by her bined with his labor activism as a member their undiminished love for each other with father, who was enraged to learn from the of the Revolutionary Workers Group (fore out consummating it (a strand of the film vindictive Sheridan during a church-service runner of the Communist Party of Ireland), Loach and Laverty invented). It is also one denunciation of that she attends the Hall unmentioned in the film—this time the strongest examples of a Loach movie dances.in Unnerved because the Hall volun prompts the newly elected (and deradicalwhich the clash between left and right, teers are being called "anti-Christs," Tess ized) Fianna Fail to collude with the though Church always present, is rarely couched discloses in that she can no longer teach there; in ridding Ireland of his potentially overt subver political terms. Though Jimmy is viliSheridan has threatened to order a boycott sive influence. The Hall was burned down, fied as a communist by Sheridan and Com of her and her husband's shop if she contin probably at the instruction of a Father mander O'Keefe (Brian F. O'Byrne), a fascist ues. Sean reveals that Sheridan and O'Keefe O'Dowd—reimag- ined as the film's con IRA veteran who's become a kind of village are conspiring to destroy the Hall. Panic niving Father Sheridan (Jim Norton), who squire, he never speaks as an ideologue, but gives way to cautious optimism when Jimmy grudgingly respects Jimmy's principled embodies, through his community hosting suggests they should neutralize Sheridan stand—on Christmas Eve 1932. (Six months and driving of cattle onto landed estates without him losing face with fellow clerics on the run, Gralton was arrested and when restoring evicted tenants to their and the wider Catholic community—and deported to America in August 1933. homes,He the spirit of human-rights activism. Oonagh ventures they invite him onto the lived out his life in New York as an organiz Modest, an appreciator of the pleasure work board. The scene is a paradigm of a perse er of unions ancl the communist-backed ing people take in music and dancing (as wascuted community using reason to concoct a Irish Workers' Clubs, which promoted left the director of 1965's Up the Junction), and plan a of action, though Alice, given the last wing causes in Ireland.) gentleman, he is less aggressive than the real line, warns the others of the danger of invit The aforementioned violence includes an James Gralton may have been, but a good ing their more powerful enemy into the abortive British Army raid on the Hall during deal like the real Ken Loach. Hall—an oblique reference, perhaps, to its early days and a land dispute showdown atThe first of the three charged group con appeasement in the pre-Nazi era. which guns are drawn but not fired (both versations occurs at an emergency meeting When Roscommon IRA men representing scenes shown in flashbacks), a 1932 land helddis by Jimmy and other Hall committee a family evicted from an estate appeal to pute resolved by Jimmy's supporters trounc members and teachers, including Oonagh, Jimmy to deliver a speech demanding its ing the owner's vicious agent and his men, Alice, a Mossie (Francis Magee), Sean (Karl reinstatement by the heavily guarded Anglo

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This content downloaded from 95.183.184.51 on Fri, 07 Aug 2020 09:43:32 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Joseph Proudhon in 1840, and Catholic power plays, it contextualizes the value of the Hall as a bastion of freedom in a Europe on the precipice. Yet, the scene unfortunately comes across as a smorgasbord of collectivist anxieties, some of Laverty's lines are stilted (like Regan's in Allen's The Big Flame), and some of the actors' line readings are man nered (unlike those in Land and Freedom's collectivization debate). The final group meeting in Jimmy's Hall is uncharacteristic of Loach's films since it takes place in the heart of the enemy and skillfully exposes its fears and doubts. Fol lowing the burning of the Hall, Sheridan, O'Keefe, and two of their supporters meet, along with Sheridan's liberal-minded young curate Father Seamus (Andrew Scott), in O'Keefe's home. They're there to discuss what to do next about Jimmy, but the curate, apoplectic about the arson attack, which he describes as "Ku Klux Klan tactics," scorns O'Keefe as the man who ordered it. Attempt ing to justify his actions, O'Keefe attributes Socialist playwright playwright and screenwriterand screenwriter the current crisis in Belfast to communists Screenwriter Paul Laverty on the set James "Jim" Allen (1926-1999). of The Wind That Shakes the Barley. like Jimmy: workers have been challenging trade union leaders as sellouts; unemploy Irish landowner, they trigger a political mentdis riots have—to O'Keefe's chagrin— prospect of his parishioners dancing licen cussion by the assembled Hall members thatunited working-class Catholics and Protes tiously to Jimmy's jazz records. is the film's equivalent of Land and Freedom's tants; one hundred thousand protesters are No survey of the debates and meetings collectivization debate. Mossie and Dessie on the streets. When one of O'Keefe's presented by Loach and his collaborators express fears that journalists would spread cronies anxiously mentions the presence can ignore in the fourth and final part of the Jimmy's words, putting landowners on Belfastalert of Tom Mann—the iconic Thatcher-era English documentary series Questions across the country and likely causing socialist the and union organizer who wouldof Leadership be (1983), which Channel 4 con authorities to arrest him and close the Hall. deported during the riots—it becomes troversially clear refused to air. The fifty-minute Encouraging them to be more optimistic, what will happen to Jimmy. The short film scene comprises an edited version of a day Sean asks rhetorically who has the right to the is crucial because it indicates that Sheridan's long discussion at Warwick University, in landowner's thousands of acres, which he campaign against the Hall owed as much which to shop stewards and convenors discuss "inherited from a foreign invasion." Tommy the previous Irish government's enlisting the of thorny issues of union democracy— remarks that the American Depression is pre the Church to promote a Red Scare (as specifically officials' frequently compro venting Irish immigrants from supporting Marnie Holborrow has noted in Irish Marx mised representation of rank-and-file inter Republican communities financially. Molly ist Review) as it did to his disgust at ests—withthe apologists toeing the Labour says the Hall should be careful Party line. Cerebral though this not to invoke the wrath of "the conference is, it simmers with Bishops" following the Church's resentments and includes sever reinvigoration at June 1932's al flare-ups, including the massively supported Eucharistic humiliation of the engineering Conference in Dublin (a display workers' union official Ken of might captured in a newsreel Cure by the steel industry shop shown in an earlier cinema steward Bernard Connolly. "It scene wherein far-right Army was very funny," Loach said, Comrades Association veterans, "and it had the kind of crackle "the Blueshirts," in the audience that politics on television ought barrack Jimmy and his friends). to have: real confrontation and The breathless discussion argument and passion that's eventually swings back to the not mediated by some bloody subject of whether the Hall TV anchorman." A genuine should support the homeless slice of combative political life, and landless or safeguard itself it also serves to demonstrate, as a social haven for the local since they do not suffer in com youths, before Jimmy invites the parison, how close to actuality silent Oonagh to speak up, are the majority of the vital, which she cannot. As the debate combustible fictional debates proves overwhelming to her, so Ken Loach has mounted and it may prove for the Jimmy's filmed. ■ Hall viewer. In touching on the situation in America, the "prop Jimmy's Hall is distributed in the erty is theft" concept introduced JimmyJimmy Gralton (Barry Ward) Graltonis arrested and will be deported (Barry back Ward) is arrested and will be deported back United States by Sony Pictures by the French anarchist Pierre toto America inAmerica the concluding scene of Ken inLoach's Jimmy'sthe Hall. concluding scene of Ken Loach's Jimmy's Hall. Classics, www.sonyclassics.com.

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