Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War

This film shows just how people are regarded over the age of 60, and unfortunately because generations are getting older, it will only get worse. Everyone in this film shows just what can be achieved if you don't have to sit & eat cabbage and be doped up to the eye balls.

Pauline Collins, plays her part so well, to be put into a home, just because her son (Peter Capaldi) and his wife want her home after his father dies, and now his mother has become "past it." The film shows just how in a position to either be putting someone in to a care home, or being made to go into a care home should be aware of, because this certainly is an eye opener. People are not "past it" just because they don't work, or have lost their partners.

The best comedy is often based on something real. This gives the audience something it can relate to and can provide a real bite to the comedy. The topic may not be funny, as is the case in this movie about how we can mistreat our elderly. But by finding the humour in the subject and poking fun at it, it makes the audience acknowledge the topic, even if only briefly.

The movie is the story of Mrs Caldicot and her fight against bullies for the right to be her own person. It is about the triumph of the 'little woman', that is in the sense of common ordinary folk, although it is also the sort of condescending description that her late unlamented husband may well have used to describe her.

The movie is, however, a caricature, with no shades of grey. The bad guys are so completely bad, the rest home is so horrible, and Mrs Caldicot wins so overwhelmingly. She even ends with a romantic interest. The film makers had evidently decided that as the movie had moved well away from reality, much like several of the inmates at the rest home, they felt no need for any restraint in devising a happy ending. The saddest thing about the film is that even though rest homes are not, I hope, as bad as portrayed, we often do not treat our elderly as well as we could, and in real life there is no happy ending.

However, the movie does not pretend to be anything but a light-hearted comedy. It was always amusing and at times extremely funny. Who would have thought that seeing one of the characters placing a newspaper over his fac e could have been so funny, and there was a delicious irony in the situation he had found himself in. Many of the people in the audience I shared the theatre with were on the mature side of life (alright, old) and they found the movie highly amusing, perhaps because it had a particular resonance for them. They also laughed at several jokes that went right over my head. Never mind, my time will come soon enough.

I viewed and taped this production when it was first shown on TV, and recently had an occasion to re-watch it. I loved it even better the second time around.

It's the tale of a woman forced, by the death of her obnoxious husband and the designs of her avaricious son and his equally greedy wife, to retire to a residential nursing home. She does not find things to her liking. It is run by a strict regime, and although not overly mistreated, the elderly inmates are not exactly handled with due reverence either. The new arrival, Mrs Thelma Caldicot is about to change all that...and how! Hopefully I trust not many (none would be better) of these types of establishments are run as depicted here. Even more so as I'm getting on a bit myself, and one can never be quite certain of the future. However, I have my fingers crossed.

Reminiscent of the American made-for-TV movie, "Amos" (1985) starring an ageing Kirk Douglas, which more poignantly explored a similar theme (as indeed to some extent did a certain two-part episode of "One Foot in the Grave"), "Cabbage War" takes a somewhat less cynical view of things. This results in a robustly delightful, slightly over-the-top comedy, with real life man & wife team John Alderton and Pauline Collins for once in opposition to each other, and playing their parts with perfection and relish. In such a distinguished and superbly chosen cast it's difficult (after Pauline Collins) to pick out the star of the piece. They are all just simply wonderful. Not wishing to spoil it for those who haven't as yet seen it, I won't delve further into the storyline. Suffice it to say that it's one not to be missed.

Cabbage War is a little British gem. Pauline Collins is perfect for her role and it's not long before you get behind her. I don't know if this movie was an examination of marriage, ageism and aged care in Britain, but certainly it has a strong feminist bent. One of the main issues is chemical restraint in aged care homes, something that is currently being examined by a Royal Commission here in Australia. Toward the end it does go a little exaggerated as certain characters become unrealistically loopy, but it charts its course well and the unlikely end comes as a pleasant surprise. Some of Britain's best actors are with this one. The soundtrack was old-fashioned, but I'll concede, given the average age was well over 70, that's to be expected. Not the funniest movie I've ever seen, but one that will certainly make you smile, and certainly one with the purest of intentions.

I thought that the film really stirred my emotions regarding the bullying that was suffered by Mrs Caldicot at different times of her life. It was wonderful how the film showed how 'the worm turned', and how Mrs Caldicot showed us how we can change things in our life that are not beneficial either to us or to other people.

I liked the way against all the odds, that the characters who suffered under the inhumane regime in the care home were able to find strength in unity and positive leadership to change things for the better.

It was well acted, and although I thought that the film music score was a little weak, it left me with a real 'feel-good' experience, so much so that I wanted to find out how to buy a copy of it, hence my stumbling across this web page. I thoroughly recommend it to everyone.