Les Virtuoses

The Colliery Brass Band has survived two world wars, depressions and is still playing. However the threaten closure of the pit itself puts the band under threat – although many of the band fear the wider implications. Danny Ormondroyd remains focused on his music despite sickness and his son's spiral of debt. While a relationship between of the band turns sour when she is found to be working with the pit's management. The band's music becomes an allegory for the plight of the workers.

Released a year before The Full Monty made working class British comedy a Hollywood hit, this has a lot more realism and a lot more heart. The story deals mainly with the plight of the miners – betrayed and deserted by the Tory Government – and the bands corresponding struggle to survive and overcome. The metaphors are good but not heavy – basically the story can work if you don't see the parallels. The story works best due to the level of emotion the story carries. This has a lot of heart and builds to a wonderful standoff that brings a message without being preachy.

The cast are excellent. Postlethwaite is top class as Danny and delivers a metaphor for the dying mine itself – not interesting in politics, just trying to keep producing the ethics he always has but all the time knowing his time is coming. Equally as good is Tompkinson – a complex role, full of emotion and he deasl very, very well with it – to me his was the performance of the film. Fitzgerald is a little weak but a pre-Jedi McGregor is solid in support. The rest of the band is fleshed out by solid UK faces and do well.

Overall this is a great little film. It deals with heavy politics but mixes human drama effortlessly. It delivers message without preaching or shouting and it is driven by a fantastic cast.

'Brassed Off' came at just the right time for British politics, just as the death knell for the Conservative Party as the main political force sounded; the story fictionalises the troubles of the real-life Grimethorpe Colliery Band (who you hear playing the great brass band tunes throughout).

There are pit closures all over Yorkshire, and 'Grimley' Band has one last chance to triumph in the various band contests to end up playing at the Royal Albert Hall. This being drama of course the path to victory isn't a smooth one - there is bankruptcy, illness, broken marriages, and a clash with the new executive power (represented by Tara Fitzgerald, also taking a place in the band for her father). Romantic interest for Tara is present in cute Ewan McGregor - an unusually quiet role for him.

Say what you like about the way this film portrays the North of England, there is no denying the power of the final sequences as the triumph of 'William Tell' turns into Postlethwaite's power rant against the Government and into the trip home's 'Land of Hope and Bloody Glory'. It really couldn't have been done better.

Brassed off is an amazing film and all the way through, a smile was kept on my face. Although I am only fourteen, I love films which are based on reality, just like the pit closures around England.

I play in a brass band my self called Frickley South Elmsall band, and trust me, they have all the facts right; I have been to five contests in all and nearly every band member has had a drink or two before the contest it's self.

I first watched this film when i was eleven and loved it. I was inspired by this movie, to actually try and make it to a colliery band, (obviously not Grimethorpe as they don't accept girls) and I have actually met the flugal player which played concerto De aran jeux, Alan Morrison.

Overall, I loved this movie and have seen it more than twenty times; simply fantastic!

I just want to correct a couple of things that the previous reviewer makes about the film.

Firstly, from a musical point of view, Gloria does not enter the Grimley bandroom with an obligato cornet, it's a flugelhorn.

The fact that a woman has entered the band room is important. For a long time, the brass band was the domain of men. Women weren't allowed to play in the bands and indeed, this is still the case today in two of the biggest names in the banding world.

Underpinning all this is the fact that the film is (at least) semi-biographical. The events unfolding in the film mirror in no small way the same events which befell the Grimethorpe pit in 1992, and impacted on the world-famous Grimethorpe Colliery band. Thatcher's Britain did result in the pit closing down, and threatened the band's future. The band did take the stage at the National Final, and so the reason that the band don't turn professional is because there is no room in the banding movement for a professional band.

For a point of information, there are 4 basses in a Brass Band, 2 Eb and 2 Bb (not 2 or 3). Oh yes, and bandsmen most certainly do carry there instruments through the street without a case, especially bass players.

On a slightly different point, Phil does not have a gambling habit. He is still paying off the loan that he took out in 1982 to cover the loss of earnings because "suspended I were. 18 b****** months it took that lot to sort it out. 18 b***** months on strike pay. That's how big a f***** deal it is mate."

Director is Mark Herman but the movie themes remind Ken Loach and its stories about people losing jobs but keeping their dignity... Basically everything is inspired by events that really took place over Margaret Thatcher Government (when the film is set). Miners living in a Yorkshire small town (Grimley), when laid off, try to continue the activity of their band, though sadness due to economic repression is a real threat to it. But Ewan McGregor and Pete Postlewait (who on earth might forget him after "In the name of the father"?) are really powerful, two thumbs up. Altogether I really appreciated the way this film tells of fight for self-respect and courage.