No Surrender

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.

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.

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.

Just like in Josep Heller's book "Catch 22" this move, uses black humour to make some very poignant and telling observations on the ultimate futility of hatred and fighting. The underlying message shouldn't be seen as "Life is short - hat's the point?" it is more "Life is short what's the point in nursing sectarian hatred to the end of your days?". Some might see this as a film with a bleak outlook on humanity (at least the variety that hails from the northern part of my native country), however, I think that this film really has a message of hope when we see how Ray McNally's staunchly Protestan/Unionist character learns from the experiences and offers news year's greetings to his Catholic son-in-law. A New Year greeting that symbolizes a new beginning in his family and perhaps an inspirational model for us all, remember, when the grim reaper comes for us, he/she won't care whether we are Catholic/Protestant, Nationalist/Unionist.

I watched this again the other day and it's probably 20 years since I last saw it but it's still unbelievably dark & chaotically funny. Michael Angelis & Bernard Hill are just brilliant & Vince Earl shows just the right amount of menace in his role as Frank. Ray McAnally's character forms part of the central plot, being a former Unionist activist trying to get away from/live with his violent past despite the constant provocation from Paddy Burke (James Ellis). If you're British/Irish of a certain age and lived through 70's/80's or are perhaps a student of the Irish 'troubles' - and you have to have a sense of dark humour - you'll love this. Your main problem will be getting hold of a copy as it incredibly difficult to find copies of it as I believe Alan Bleasedale (the author) withdrew it.