No Surrender

I first watched this film about 20 years ago and remembered it as a very good piece of black comedy. having recently viewed it again I still found it very good and hilarious in parts but it is now dated and anyone who isn't familiar with the "troubles" in Ulster will probably find a lot of the plot and humour will sail straight over their heads. Considering the cast line up, the acting is pretty good and Bernard Hill is superb as always. The scene with the attempted mugging of the blind man (played by the fella who was the sergeant in Z cars) still has me in stitches. All in all a very watchable film BUT very British and a little dated.

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 wanted to see this film from the moment I read its TIMES' summation: a sheepish night-club manager shows up for work at his new Liverpool job, and discovers his predecessor, as a kiss-off gesture, has scheduled Catholic and Protestant Irish social groups for the same night (he also saved some tables for mental patients, having a night-out). The evening's entertainment features a thrash-band screaming lyrics like "YOU'RE GONNA DIE-- DIE--DIE!" at the golden agers, a catatonic magician.....The rookie sets out to get through the impossible night ahead. The accents are fuzzy, and some of the Irish jokes obscure-- but this film is so filled with talent that wonderful Bernard Hill takes a second-tier role as a dim bulb. The film's moral center is that remarkable character actor Ray McAnally, a detective trying to find a real criminal among all the low-lifes. Few people have voted on this film-- but a lot of them accorded it a 10. Scout around and discover why-- this is one singular film.

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.

As a point of note, it is not a scheduling 'mix up', the previous manager has created the 'events' to upset his boss.