Cinema
The Full Monty
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Full_Monty |
The Full Monty is a narrative film seeking to explore the effects of the recession occurring in Britain in 1972 on the men suffering from unemployment. This film is a comedy-drama, it uses humor to tell the stories of a group of men going through hardships due to widespread unemployment. This film deals with themes of gender roles and masculinity, and desperation. The main characters of the film are a group of unemployed men, and the film shows how this unemployment affects their lives. One character goes months without telling his wife he has been laid off, while she is out spending money that he doesn’t have. He doesn’t know how to deal with his unemployment as he feels it is his responsibility as the man, the husband, to work hard and take care of his wife. This leads to him being unable to confess his failure even though he needs his wife to stop spending all their savings. Another character is also dealing with gender roles, as he is unable to provide for his son without a job. His ex-wife is trying to take away his visitation rights, as he has no income. This character is struggling with his inability to do anything to get his son back, as there are not many jobs available. This film makes excellent use of audio to tug at the viewers heartstrings one minute and have them laughing their butt off the next.
History This film was made in 1997, directed by Peter Cattaneo and written by Simon Beaufoy. It stars Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, William Snape, Steve Huison, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Barber and Hugo Speer. The film is set in Sheffield, England, and takes place in 1972, when unemployment rates were at their highest since the Great Depression in the 1930’s. This film was actually the highest-grossing film in England until it was replaced by Titanic. What drew you I watched The Full Monty in film class my first semester of college, and loved it. When I got to London, hearing the accents and some of the British slang used in the movie on the tube reminded me of that. Social Angle The social issue here is gender roles, and how they affect men. Many people assume that old gender roles were only hard on women, when actually, they put a huge amount of pressure on men as well. While women were expected to be sweet, hardworking mothers who cooked and cleaned; men were expected to go out every day and work hard, making enough money to support their families. When either failed to do their jobs, society would look down on them. This film showed the effects of unemployment on several men, all of whom struggled with the negative reactions of society towards them for not being able to fulfill their role. |