I profeti delle ore corte

Firstly I would say that the only entertaining part of this match is the match at Queen's Park Rangers. They are supposedly playing Brentford who normally played in red and white stripes,not the all red strip shown in this film.

Football back then was very much as shown in this film. It just seems light years away from today Well as to the film it seems like a reprise of Poor Cow,a film which Carol White didn't mention in her autobiography.

She was clearly a very vunerable person who died tragically young. Appearing in films like this was not going to get her career restarted. As for Roy Harper the less said the better.

Everything about this is 'pretty good' but director John Mackenzie was still finding his way and probably not the man to raise this to the level it might have reached. Based on Howard Barker's own play this is clearly a serious piece and that the fate of a baby overshadows the anti religious aspect is unfortunate. Ironically, although the fate of the babe, for me, gets in the way of the main thrust of the film, it is the most realistic portrayal I have ever seen. The film also takes a while to get going and this coincides with the arrival of Roy Harper. No great actor but his likeable and laid back performance knocks spots off some of the others. I enjoyed the film with its glimpses of Greenwich, Woolwich and Brighton (including the lost pier) but just feel it could have been so much better.

If you want to watch a movie before you end it all, this is the one!

A very nitty gritty, grimy drama looking at the worst side of life in the 1970's, a kind of sequel to Poor Cow (1967). It has a higher rating than it deserves, some people look deeply into it to find hidden meanings and metaphors, maybe it makes them feel intelligent ? For me it is a dreary film which just made me feel depressed, maybe it worked in its day (early 1970's) but not anymore, I lived through this period as a boy in Northern England, I had soul destroying problems at the time, it was never this bad or grimy.

Carol White plays a slightly disturbed, miserable cow, who has made all the wrong choices in life, as a single mum, living with her ailing mother (no Father or Father of her baby appear), it s all very despairing, she has a few (more) self-destroying 'relationships' her baby dies, followed by her mother. I am not sympathetic with the character because she herself creates most of the problems she has. Maybe some people suffer from lives like this in real life, but do we really need to see it all compressed into one 1hr 45 min film.

Carol White acts well, but she is the only one, everyone else seems a bit wooden, or maybe dumbfounded by the kind of role they have to play, Roy Harper was poor, he is a Musician not an actor and it shows, his music is not that good either, his biggest claim to fame being a backing voice for Pink Floyd for a very short time, if this was his shot at acting stardom, it failed miserably.

The editing was poor, also continuity, the close-up and ultra close-up shots are a put off with me, I have never liked them, as you miss so much of the real picture, it feels like it was made on the cheap, very cheap, but unlike some films which are made cheap but are successful, this is not one of them.

This film seems to mirror Carol White's real life a little, she had a number of relationships, 3 short marriages, had problems with drugs and alcohol, tried to commit suicide several times and died at 48 with liver disease.

the best film ever set in woolwich, carol white reprises her single mum role from poor cow (etc) to tragi-comic effect. the great roy harper sings some of his best songs and performs with deadpan northern charisma maybe the best grimy early seventies british film

The few (3) online critical reviews for this film suggest how "dull and dated" it is. But comments on YouTube tend toward "great little movie" "cult classic" "lost gem" .. Roy Harper fans i guess ..who also consider Mr Roy to be a bit of a lost gem

So whether, or how much, you like this film might depend on how much you are "into" Roy Harper. And also whether, or how much, you liked the early 70′s (assuming you're old enough to have memories of it)

Carol White (as Valerie) seems to be doing a reprise of her role in Cathy Come Home: working class girl pushing a pram around looking for escape – relief, pleasure, ordinary happiness – from a small bleak life; getting hit on by various blokes, who leech off her grief: Roy "makes" a song out of it; a do-gooding vicar makes a sermon; and a hapless Asian from work makes a twatty poem.

Roy Harper comes across as earnest rather than endearing – something you could say about the film in general. The nitty isn't gritty or politically engaged enough to be Ken Loach; the characterisations aren't idiosyncratic enough to be Mike Leigh. It's all a bit, well – as well-intentioned, but as dull as a Roy Harper dirge about old Englande (where old cricketers are leaving the crease or dying of boredom or something)

"Do you think a girl should go to bed with a fella if he doesn't love her?" asks Carol." "No. Unless it's me" quips Roy. Before long he's abandoned her to carry on with his free love mystical hippy beardy rock star thang (although he's written that song about her. Which she turns off. Well done Carol)

"Is it too late to create a world made of care" sings Roy at the end. Yes it is. And even though Made tries to be a film made of care – touched with caring sort of sentiments – in the end it just ends up feeling care-worn; and made (as in "manufactured") in the 1970′s film factory Social Conscience School for bleak and cheerless cliché.