No Surrender

I first watched this film about 20 years ago and remembered it as a very good piece of black comedy. having recently viewed it again I still found it very good and hilarious in parts but it is now dated and anyone who isn't familiar with the "troubles" in Ulster will probably find a lot of the plot and humour will sail straight over their heads. Considering the cast line up, the acting is pretty good and Bernard Hill is superb as always. The scene with the attempted mugging of the blind man (played by the fella who was the sergeant in Z cars) still has me in stitches. All in all a very watchable film BUT very British and a little dated.

I can't give this a 10, if only because I had a strong sense of wanting a story of some kind that I could follow along. I'm a writer and I understand plots and how they are put together so something like No Surrender throws me off. After a while I realised that this film is just made to be enjoyed as a slice of the typical madness that is a constant undercurrent of Liverpool even if you don't notice it at any particular moment. The characters of the Orange Lodge were no more zany than the auntie of one of my mates in Liverpool back in the 70s. When I turned up wearing orange trousers one day, she assumed that I was going to take part in an Orange Lodge march. It's all in there. Alan Bleasdale has crammed every classic Liverpool stereotype into this. The has-been but still dangerous IRA man, wanted by Special Branch. The feral kids on the estate. Just sit back and enjoy.

A very British film. In fact, a very Liverpool film.

Can't see many Americans liking this black comedy, but most Brits with a half decent sense of humour should love it. I first saw this in 1986 and loved it, as a follow up to `The Blackstuff'.

Writer Bleasedale had great success writing for T.V. and I'm surprised he didn't do more films (this was his only film). This was one of my favourite films of the eighties so I bought the video to see if it had stood the test of time. I gave this 10 / 10 in 1986, and even though it is dated, the gritty humour shines through the underlying theme of sectarian divide, that still existed at the time.

Bernard Hill plays a " Yosser type" bouncer, at a Liverpool social club. Michael Angelis plays the laid back new manager, as a typical scouser who's seen it all. Joanne Whalley plays the club's dogsbody, with ambitions to be a singer, and does a great job. The film is loaded with great character actors including the marvellous Joan Turner.

The opening title sets the scene: "Liverpool, New Years' Eve. Just another night out (these days)". Into the same shabby nightclub on the outskirts of town come two separate parties of old-age pensioners out to ring in the New Year, one devoutly Protestant, with a fugitive terrorist hiding in their ranks, and the other a group of Irish Catholics dressed for a costume ball, led by a blind ex-boxer with a grudge to settle. Occupying the no-man's land in between is a collection of mentally retarded hospital patients blissfully unaware that they've simply traded one asylum for another. To make matters worse, the comedy act is a total flop, the magician's rabbit commits a nuisance under his hat (while he's wearing it), and the dance band turns out to be a nihilistic post-punk group who chant "We're gonna die die die die die…" The resulting bedlam is rowdy, hilarious, and chilling, with a dark streak of humor deeply rooted in the tragic religious and political antagonism defining life in modern England.

Liverpool mid 1980's New Years Eve an unemployed man finds work managing a run down night club only to find that the local Orange lodge OAP's and Catholic Society old folks have been booked in on the same night. Mix in the worst night club acts ever seen, local gangsters, ageing terrorists and a wickedly dark humour. Hopefully this should be released on DVD soon? Bernard Hill is as usual a real star and has an appearance by Joanne Whalley in one of her first roles. Michael Angelis is excellent and the film is a real joy especially in its use of a dry humour that all visitors to Liverpool will recognise. This is a real slice of social commentary and show cases several cameo appearances including Elvis Costello as a 'walking nervous breakdown' / magician. I have since traced a copy of No Surrender after three years of searching and converted it to DVD as a back up copy. I had forgotten how wonderful the humour was I shall upgrade my ranking just on the strength of this. This film has atmosphere a real taste of my early adult life in early 80's Britain showing it was not all big hair do's and mobile phones the size of bricks.