Raining Stones

This film I saw when it first came out in 1993. It made such an impression that I can still recall many scenes and the whole story. Ken Loach creates really believable characters who might live next door. He builds and presents the story so the viewer really becomes involved in the cast's problems. It remains my favourite Ken Loach film. An excellent film in its category.

I watched this on Channel 4 late one night a few years ago. I had had a bad day at work, and was dog-tired. On the verge of turning off the TV, I caught the beginning, and I was immediately hooked.

Ken Loach provides a hyper-realistic portrayal of life on the edge in the 1990`s. Bruce Jones (later to play the feckless Les Battersby on Coronation Street) displays a remarkable tenderness as the struggling father who desperately tries to obtain enough money to buy his daughter a communion dress. He, and Ken Loach,indicate that this poor man represents the best of the working class, only forced to crime,in order to feed and clothe his family.He is a true hero.

The grim setting and subject matter (a disintegrating council estate, and dingy pubs) are not allowed to swamp the deeply human nature of the tale, and there are a number of moments (especially provided by Ricky Tomlinson), where the mood is lightened, allowing gritty humour to emerge. The opening, where the two heroes are unsuccessfully trying to steal a sheep is hysterical.

I wouldn`t call myself a great Ken Loach fan, but this is his masterpiece. I would call it one on the best British films of all time.

Filmed around the low unemployment and depressed "overspill" council estate of Langley in Middleton, Manchester. This was the perfect setting for Raining Stones ( the title speaks for itself, it means, nothing is easy, everything hurts or is hard ) True local rumour has it, that the villains of the film are loosely based on a notorious underworld family of the same area.

One mans determination to have the very best for his daughters holy communion leads him into many escapades as he tries honestly and dishonestly to raise enough money for the apple of his eyes holy communion dress. From cleaning drains to sheep rustling on the local moor he eventually and without his partners knowledge borrows the money His inability to pay the lender the money back results in the local loan shark buying the debt (this is a common practice) the loan shark and his entourage then proceed to chase the unfortunate man for there money. Great stuff, realistic and treasure to watch.

Like many, I often found the accents hard to decipher. But I think it speaks to Loach's formidable talent that it's never really in question as to what's happening: we get the story in visible strokes, and we get the emotional feeling in the most minute, detailed way possible. To use a clichéd phrase, it has the drama of life, and Loach has a loving touch, even though the outer view of his work is rough and hard: he doesn't separate the funny bits from the painful bits, he lets it all run together. And despite the fact that some find him an "uncinematic" director, I think that's mostly baloney. No, he doesn't impress with his visuals, but that doesn't mean that they're uncinematic; he's working in a way that's more interested in recording emotions (and he still tells a story) and that is cinematic.

The film espouses a wonderful philosophy -- love and prayer is enough. Yet while the film is sympathetic to the emphasis the family places on communion (getting into Heaven), at times it feels like a condemnation of Catholic greed and pie-in-the-sky fantasies of those relying on God to solve their earthly troubles -- after all, He doesn't buy communion dresses. I think that's why the film works so well. It never spells out how intelligent it is, because that's not Loach's intention. Yet what he does is incredibly smart. (Likewise, you can see the politics behind the film, and that's why they work, too: they're behind it, not in your face.) The ending might seem a little too cheery (though cheery is perhaps the wrong word), but I think it works in the tradition of great humanism: things WILL be alright in the end, if you just believe. And because it's humanism, it's true: everything else might be awful, but you're alive, you have a family, you're fighting to go on: that's wonderful.

Loach makes a brilliant choice with the car crash, because it solves something and yet it makes the moral universe of the film more complex: Is he scott free now? Who is the bad guy here? And Loach of course includes the most pragmatic priest in the movies -- pray for the worthless soul as any good Christian would, but realize that he who causes fear in the hearts of good people is not a life worth wrecking yours over. Consider the car crash an act of God (which indirectly benefits God, by supporting a family of followers), rewarding he who believes yet still exists in the practical world trying to make things work (he who doesn't just lay around waiting for God to save him). THIS is Catholic cinema. I'm agnostic, and this touched my soul. It gets at the roots of what real religion does, or is supposed to do: heal, protect, love -- not preach, frighten, or intimidate. So I think even though he opts for a "faith" film (that is, he does not offer a text book on how to solve your problems), Loach's "realism" and pragmatic philosophy still suggests that the everyday is important -- keep at it. It's what leads to the faith, it's what's needed for the faith to work. 9/10

Christ this film is set in Middleton, pretty much where I live. I remember seeing this when I was about 10 years old and being taken aback at it's accuracy. Everything about it is working-class Manchester, portrayed objectively for the most part. Mancunians appreciate honesty, self mockery and self reflection. My dad and my brother both like this film and I can see why - they're part of it in a sense, as am I. It's not all about struggling to pay the rent, queueing up in the dole office and chugging through the drizzle ridden streets in a Ford Transit - it's about looking at your own life and your own culture being represented by a director who tries to keep things as organic as possible. It's about recognising your environment, where you have come from.