La batalla de los sexos

Watching this for the first time since I saw it and its mother series as a kid, I was struck not by its supposed naffness, nor by its vulgar humour but by its sheer authenticity. Surely the true face of the British Working class has never been so accurately portrayed. Here are people in all their sweaty, ugly, sexed-up un-glory. Everything has to be a vulgar laugh, sensitivity is outlawed, sex is a constant obsession and everyone is potentially the butt of a joke. Authority is mocked but never really challenged and money is continuously short. If, in years to come, people want to understand what it was like to be working class in Britain in the early 1970s, they could do no worse than catch this film!

We seem to live in a world of "watch what you say & do". Today's sitcoms are ruled by very well calculated PC rules. We have all embraced this refreshingly new approach to behavior. Unfortunately we are losing our sitcom heritage. We can now only laugh at a very narrow band of situations e.g "man bashing" seems to be a favourite with modern writers. Can't blame 'em, they've got bills to pay as well as me & thee. On The Buses gives us a window into the past. Prior to the 1980's this is how life was. I know I've lived there. All the characters are charicatures (eh?) of people we have known and either loved or hated. Mum (Doris Hare) is holding on to her long suffering but loyal son Stan (Reg) who never gets his way with the ladies as does Jack (Bob). This is one of the mysteries of the universe!!. Blakey is the boss we've all had & hated. Bring back British Sitcom.

So what if this movie is non to pc and treats women as objects of lust. There are people who will hate this, moan about it, analyze and deconstruct it. IT'S A MOVIE!! If you don't like it don't watch it. Admittedly it is not to everyones taste but these will be the people who are too young to remember the series or the times. For the rest of us who do remember, we look back with nostalgia, see the old cars, advertisements the way people behaved and we smile. Harmless fun that does no one any harm. There is far worse on the screens now days, movies where every second word is a swear word, bullets flying, on screen sex. sometimes it's a breath of fresh air to see something that is a little different from a bygone age.

When Inspector Blake's (Stephen Lewis) decision to hire women bus drivers threatens Stan (Reg Varney) and Jack's (Bob Grant) over-time windfalls and lay-about ways, the boys take time off from seducing clippies, afternoon delights, and dealing with Stan's dysfunctional family (including an enormously pregnant Olive) to ensure that the ladies don't last. As I always liked the characters in the original show, I decided to give the film version a butchers. Not surprisingly, the plot is thin, the gags painfully predictable (has there ever been a sidecar in a comedy that stays attached to the motorcycle?) and there's lots of cleavage and frilly knickers on display. Stan has a certain short charm but seeing his mate Jack as a highly accomplished lothario is a bit of a challenge (in the TV series, even Blakey got in a few wisecracks about Jack's prominent choppers). Stan's hapless sister Olive (Anna Karen) and her miserable husband Arthur (Michael Robbins) are hilarious (to this day I can't hear the name 'Arthur' without hearing Olive's plaintive voice), as is the much put-upon Inspector Blake, whose mustache-muffled snickering whenever he thinks he has Stan and Jack on the ropes still cracks me up. Needless to say, as a tamely raunchy British 'sex comedy' from the early 70s, the show has something to offend everyone in our more righteous (judgemental?) era, so if you're adverse to displays of toxic (but silly) masculinity, stereotypical (but silly) femininity, and sexist (but silly) 'woman-driver' jokes, I'd suggest that you skip this relic.

Enjoyable, even if it is undeniably sexist.

I remember discovering the television series of 'On the Buses' when I was younger, via my grandparents, and loving it - admittedly at an age of not fully understanding the humour et al. I do remember watching this just about. It's amusing, nothing laugh-out-loud worthy but it's suitably entertaining.

Reg Varney, Bob Grant and Stephen Lewis are a very good trio. Lewis' Blakey is arguably the good guy, despite being portrayed as the antagonist - especially in this plot, given he's the supporter of women bus drivers. I gotta say, Grant's Jack is incredibly creepy. The things you don't notice as a kid, eh?

It does have charm, helped by it giving a nice exterior snapshot of 1960s/70s England and the buses of the time. The film, and series, is always most enjoyable - at least to me - when they are out on the road with the buses.

Obviously misogynistic and all rather dumb, but there are things it does reasonably well.