Reviews

An excellent film, with more tension than the Golden Gate Bridge ;) The tone was set early on with the historical context, showing how the west created the circumstances that led to the Revolution in the first place, by installing the Shah and then supporting him irrespective of the human rights violations in his country (of which he claimed no knowledge, as the film shows). The filming of the protects and siege of the embassy were very realistic - at some points I thought they were using original footage.

Being of an age where I remember the events quite vividly, knowing Iranians with family back in Iran and Brits working there at the time, the film brought all that back to life for me. I didn't need the events around the actual escape spiced up (as Affleck has admitted) as the tension was already there. Just having the housemaid quizzed at the gate showed the tension and menace graphically enough for me. The scene in the spice market showed the chaotic mayhem that existed at that time in the country - no one was really in charge, anyone could take it upon themselves to exercise a bit of revolutionary action of their own.

I would recommend this to anyone who wants to get a true feeling about what such an event is like, including the psychological impact on those involved. One wonders about the Revolutionary Guards who slipped up that day - did they make it or was an example made of them? It shows that whenever you have an upheaval in a country - just as in the more recent Arab Spring events - the outcomes are very uncertain and the forces unleashed are almost uncontrollable.

I've always liked Ken Loach's films, but this one is special. Set realistically in Glasgow, it could be set in virtually any major city in the UK with only minor tweaks (kilts apart). As with most of Ken's work, it's essentially about the infinite redeem-ability of the human spirit, given half a chance.

Comparisons are being made to the Full Monty, but I don't quite see that. If anything, it's a far better Trainspotting, with jokes to replace the parts you hardly want to watch. It's hilariously funny and if you don't blurt out at least one guffaw during the film, you are dead from the neck up. At the same time it is not a "feelgood" movie as such, because it faces the stark realities of the situation of the main character head on. Their lot is fairly hopeless and unlikely to get much better.

Inevitably in a film designed to fit within the constraints of the medium, it compresses far more than is sensible. More development of the way Robbie comes to understand his options would have been better, as would his growing relationship with Big Harry. You can forgive that, as otherwise it would have been a 10 part series for TV. Budgets are tight and we all know that this would never have made it.

I raise a glass to Ken, we need more like him. A man who reminds us so well how the world can be a better place, rather than just telling us how bad it is. That's really the Angels' Share, after all.