Tag Archive: Gary Oldman


Unbecoming masculinity in British film

Filed under: Books, British identity, Gender, Movies, Music — Leave a comment
August 20, 2024

TYRANNOSAUR Written and Directed by Paddy Considine (UK, 2011)

As part of my ongoing research into British films and national identity, I have just re-watched Paddy Considine’s Tyrannosaur (2011), one of a small but select sub-genre of films directed by well-known actors exposing the menace of toxic masculinity. Others are Gary Oldman’s Nil By Mouth (1997) and Tim Roth’s The War Zone (1999).

The working title of my book is Mirror Visions and will look at how British cinema has reflected and shaped national identity from the 1960s to the present day. The above three films will be included in a chapter entitled ‘Unbecoming Masculinity’.

Tyrannosaur was developed out of a 15 minute short  Dog Altogether (2007) whose stated aim was  “to start a film with a man kicking a dog to death, and  to try and get an audience to end up caring about him.”   This is a tall order and within this short time frame there’s little to indicate why this hate-filled, violent and destructive man should be deserving of our sympathy. One viewer on You Tube was unconvinced and commented  “Films like this should be banned, no wonder we’re in a sick world.”

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How the best picture Oscar nominees reflect the signs of the times

Filed under: Gender, Movies, Politics — Leave a comment
March 3, 2018

DUNKIRK Try to contain your excitement but it’s almost Oscars night again!

This year, the Academy will doubtless be relieved if the ceremony passes without a hitch and that it makes the headlines for all the right reasons.

After spectacularly goofing up the best film award last year and being under the shadow of the Weinstein-related sex scandals, the spotlights in 2018 will be about as comforting as interrogation lamps.

Under this kind of intense public scrutiny, the stakes are high. Political correctness used to be routinely ridiculed but is now the order of the day and woe betide those who step or speak out of line. Continue reading →

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TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY

Filed under: Gender, Movies, Television — Leave a comment
January 13, 2012

912gigiqj2bl-_sy445_John Le Carré’s celebrated novel was, by all accounts, confusing enough as a seven part BBC TV series (starring Alec Guinness) but is doubly so when condensed into a two-hour movie.

For those, like me, who have never read the book, the burden of incomprehensibility threatens to remove any hope of enjoyment.

Who is the mole? Who’s telling the truth? Who can we trust? Why has Benedict ‘Sherlock’ Cumberbatch got such a stupid hair style?

These are a few of the many questions you will ask yourself in the course of this tale of  betrayal and double-dealing.

The trick, I would suggest, is to relax and enjoy the stylish spectacle secure in the knowledge that a condensed story outline will be available at Wikipediia  at the click of a mouse when it’s all over. Continue reading →

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BEST OF BRITISH CULT MOVIES: 50 – 41

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November 1, 2011

Any best of list is personal and subjective so there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the fact that Nerve.Com’s list of the ‘Fifty Greatest Cult Movies of all time’ is so heavily slanted towards American films. The list does, however, ignore the world of cinema and misses the opportunity to celebrate cult directors like Alejandro Jodorowsky, Andrei Tarkovsky, Werner Herzog and Akiro Kurosawa. The lack of British entries is also unfortunate.

In order to prove that movies don’t begin and end in Hollywood or on the U.S. Indie circuit I have made a rival list of Fifty Greatest British Cult Movies.

As with the Nerve list, I have limited each director to one film.  With regard to what is, or is not, a ‘cult’ , this is another relative question but generally implies some manner of what a Rough Guide to Cult Fiction calls a “lengthy and irrational devotion”. My rule of thumb guide is that the movie must have either generated such obsessive adoration and/or has otherwise achieved some measure of healthy notoriety.

The list also contains films that have won mainstream acclaim as well as others which have been unjustly ignored by the public at large and so have a small but devoted audience.

Here is my selection from  50 -41:

50.  CARRY ON CLEO –  Gerald Thomas  (1964)

Bawdy, unsubtle and stuffed to the brim with cheap innuendos, the Carry On series are, for better or worse, a British institution. This is the tenth of 29 made between 1958 and 1978 with one ill-advised attempt at a revival (Carry On Columbus) in 1992  Cleo was marketed as the funniest film since 54bc. For me the choice of which Carry On to pick was between this and Carry On Screaming. What swung it was the memorable one-liner delivered by Kenneth Williams as Julius Caesar; all together now  : “Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me!”

49. FOUR LIONS Chris Morris (2010)

4 LIONS

Cultdom and controversy often go hand in hand. Making a black comedy about Muslim terrorists operating from a London-based cell risks more than a few bad reviews. Comedian, Chris Morris is never one to be shy away from ruffling a few feathers and, while his debut film is not laugh out loud funny it merits inclusion here for its courage and obvious integrity.

48. MURDER, SHE SAID George Pollock (1961)

murder

Forget the insipid TV series (Murder, She Wrote) this features an amateur sleuth of far greater substance. It brings to the screen the perfect personification of Miss Marple in the form of the peerless Margaret Rutherford. This is probably the best in a series based on Agatha Christie’s improbable heroine with a strong supporting cast . Utterly charming. Continue reading →

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NIL BY MOUTH

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October 9, 2009

Gary Oldman’s debut as director is a brutal and harrowing movie based on his own upbringing in South London. His father was an alcoholic, a condition that he inherited and subsequently overcame. Oldman’s breaking of the cycle of hurt and self-abuse is at odds with his fictional characters who show little  capacity for such change.

At the heart of the story is Raymond (Ray Winstone) who is a split personality – sometimes physically violent and verbally abusive and at other times just  verbally abusive.

As a portrayal of worst aspects of male behaviour it is unforgettable and at times hard to watch. His existence  consists of heavy drinking, chain smoking,  petty crime, drug taking and wife beating and is so relentlessly dire that it’s nigh on to impossible to find any glimmer of  hope. The ending adds a very thin sugar coating but only because by that point  Oldham probably thought the audience had endured enough.

The title refers to the instructions to nurses of Raymond’s sick father and is used as a reference to the inability of the characters to articulate their true feelings or express any emotional warmth. The expletive count puts ‘fuck’  well past the 400 mark while some sad soul has counted 41 uses of ‘cunt’.  You’re unlikely to see it before the BBC watershed!

The hand held camerawork gives the movie a documentary feel so it’s as claustrophobic on the small screen as it would be if viewed in the cinema. Winstone is scarily convincing and Kathy Burke as his long suffering wife  and Charlie Creed-Miles as the young addict Billy are also superb.

It’s a warts and all movie that is both uncompromising and depressingly realistic.

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