swpmre

Absolutely nothing new. The franchise just makes the fights longer (oh god soooo long) and the deaths more unusual. Why bother with same old same old? Late capitalism offers us nothing even for our escapist Saturday night fantasy. Spend your money on some ice-cream and watch camberwell green at home. At least you won't feel like you've been robbed at gunpoint by someone with rubber bullets. On and on this review goes. Somewhat like the film and the silliness. Still. Could be worse. There could be a sequel in the works. Oh my God there is. It's going to be oh so different. Honest guv. Really. Don't.

Pleased to be able to see this on the big screen, but sadly only four others were there to see what is an important study of the most significant struggle of 20th century Britain.

The film is excellent in its documentary coverage of the Battle of Orgreave, the connivance between the Thatcher government and the British state's forces, and how this was covered up. There is moving testimony by strikers. However the interviews with cops and scabs also help show how the miners were broken.

But the real problem is that the film depicts the strike's defeat as simply being because of the violent defeat of the miners at Orgreave. While important, the real reason for the loss was the failure of the wider union movement to deliver significant and sustained solidarity strike action. The video of the lorries leaving Orgreave with coke for the steel plants should have explained that the drivers' unions failed to call them out.

I was also disappointed that there wasn't more about how the wider working class sustained the communities through solidarity and donations. These workers' didn't get strike pay.

So while the film is inspiring, emotional and will make you hate Thatcher even more, it doesn't get to the heart of how and why the TUC, the Labour Party and the union bureaucrats let the miners down. Thus viewers don't learn the lessons of how we can win next time.